Matt Grinter Wins 2016 Papatango New Writing Prize; ORCA Set for Southwark Playhouse Tonight

Papatango previously announced Matt Grinter as winner of the 8th annual New Writing Prize for his play Orca which will receive its world premiere at the Southwark Playhouse in November 2016 and be published by Nick Hern Books.

Orca was chosen at the final round ahead of four other shortlisted plays: Tarn by Chris Salt, Alkaline by Gareth Jandrell, Gnaw by Dean Poulter and Full Tilt by Sarah Pitard. All 1053 entrants will receive individual feedback on their scripts in the coming weeks, and the shortlisted writers will have further developmental support from Papatango.

Matt Grinter said today, "I am absolutely thrilled to be working with Papatango and to have won such an incredible accolade from a company that are at the forefront of new writing. When it comes to creating engaging and exciting theatre they are bullet proof. I am honoured that I get to continue my development as a writer under their expert guidance."

Papatango Artistic Director George Turvey said, "It's enormously exciting to announce Matt Grinter as the winner of the 2016 Papatango New Writing Prize with his hugely imaginative, absorbing and provocative play Orca, which was chosen anonymously and unanimously by our group of thirteen readers. It felt particularly rewarding when we discovered Matt was our winner because we had encouraged his writing in our own early days in 2008, when we developed and produced his first short play Angel for Lost Theatre's One Act Play Festival. In a way, it feels like we are completing a journey started eight years ago, and it's wonderful to be able to have another chance to support his talent."

The Papatango New Writing Prize is the UK's only annual award guaranteeing an emerging playwright a full production, publication, 10 percent of the gross box office and an unprecedented £6000 commission for a second play. Previous writers produced under the Prize include Dawn King, Dominic Mitchell, Tom Morton-Smith, Fiona Doyle, Luke Owen, Louise Monaghan and last year's winner James Rushbrooke.

Matt Grinter lives in Bristol. He worked as a director prior to beginning a career as a writer. His very first play, Angel, was produced by Papatango in 2008 and won the Lost Theatre's One Act Play Festival; this inspired Grinter to focus on his writing. His second play, The Dog and the Elephant, had short runs at the Vault Festival and the Bristol Old Vic Studio, where he is currently one of the Open Session Writers on attachment. Orca will be his first full production.

Papatango is a charity which discovers and champions new playwrights by running open application schemes and opportunities, all free to enter and assessed anonymously. As well as the Prize, Papatango offers an annual Resident Playwright scheme, taking an emerging playwright through commissioning and development of a new play, and runs an extensive programme of free playwriting workshops in London, Bristol, Bedford and Liverpool. This trained 721 budding writers in 2015. All writers submitting scripts to Papatango receive full feedback for free: over 1000 individuals benefitted from this in the last year.

About ORCA:

Orca runs at Southwark Playhouse from tonight 2 through 26 November, with the press night on 4 November.

"One girl, against the happiness of the whole village. Can you not see it has to be done?"

Midsummer. The village must choose a new Daughter to sail with the fishing boats and bless the waters, keeping the threat of the Orcas that roam the sea at bay for another year.

Fan hopes with all her heart to be the one chosen, but her older sister Maggie is adamant she must never, never, go with the boats. Because something happened to Maggie out there. Because no one will admit it. Because sometimes the most beautiful places harbour the darkest secrets.

Orca is an incisive, unflinching insight into what makes a community tolerate the unthinkable.

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