AustLit logo

AustLit

Patrick White Playwrights' Award
Subcategory of Awards Australian Awards
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

History

The Patrick White Playwrights' Award was established by the Sydney Theatre Company in 2000. It is given in honour of Patrick White's contribution to Australian theatre and to foster the development of Australian playwrights. The award is designed to benefit both emerging writers and mid-career writers.

The Patrick White Playwrights' Award is given for a full-length, unproduced play of any genre written by an Australian playwright over 18 years of age. The readers and judges assessing the scripts look for original and ambitious works that have great potential for staging.

This award is a companion to the Patrick White Playwrights' Fellowship.

Source: http://www.sydneytheatre.com.au/about/information-for-artists/patrick-white-playwrights%E2%80%99-award-and-fellowship.aspx Sighted: 3/12/2013.

Notes

  • This award is a major playwriting initiative of the Sydney Theatre Company (STC) and the Sydney Morning Herald. A cash prize of $20,000 is awarded to a full length unproduced play by an Australian playwright over 19 years of age. The winning playwright(s) will also have the opportunity to work with STC directors and actors during a workshop culminating in a rehearsed reading of their play during the Sydney Writers' Festival.'

    (The award is made for the calendar year preceding the one in which it is given, i.e. the award for 2001 was given in 2002.)

    Source: http://www.sydneytheatre.com.au/content.asp?cID=36
    Sighted: 05/11/2003

Latest Winners / Recipients

Year: 2020

winner K-Box Ra Chapman , 2020 single work drama

'A 30-something Korean adoptee finds the raucous and riotous side of family in this surreal comedy.

'Lucy fled her manic Melbourne routine to find calm in the country. But the home of her adoptive white baby-boomer parents ain’t the place for peace and quiet.

'Enter Kim Han, a charismatic K-pop star making a surprise visit to rural Victoria, who tips Lucy’s crisis into a complete tailspin.

'But there’s more to this than karaoke. As the evening rockets towards a climax, Lucy will raise the roof with the ones who raised her.'

Source: Malthouse Theatre.

Year: 2019

winner Keziah Warner for 'LuNa'.

Year: 2018

winner y separately published work icon Superheroes Mark Rogers , 2020 Strawberry Hills : Currency Press , 2020 17190046 2020 single work drama

'In Thirroul, Emily sits on the beach with her sort-of-ex-sort-of-not boyfriend, trying to figure out how to deal with her unwanted pregnancy.

'In Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Jana goes out to get groceries and slams into the day-to-day reality of the European refugee crisis.

'Superheroes is a play about two women on opposite sides of the world living small lives in a time of big politics. It’s a play that parallels two very different lives to ask questions about what it means to take responsibility for your actions, and what it means to change your mind.'

Source: Griffin Theatre Company.

Year: 2017

winner Kim Ho

Year: 2014

winner Debra Thomas for The Man's Bitch

Works About this Award

2017 Patrick White Playwrights' Awards Won by Kim Ho and Sue Smith Patrick Carey , 2018 single work column
— Appears in: ABC News [Online] , May 2018;

'Twenty two-year-old Sydney-born Melbourne-based writer and performer Kim Ho has won this year's Patrick White Playwrights' Award, announced at a ceremony at Sydney's Roslyn Packer Theatre on Monday night — where his winning play, Mirror's Edge, also received a rehearsed reading.'

STC’s Patrick White Award Finalists Revealed Benjamin Neutze , 2015 single work column
— Appears in: Daily Review , 15 April 2015;
'The five shortlisted plays for Sydney Theatre Company’s $7500 Patrick White Playwrights’ Award were today revealed, having been selected from 105 submissions for the 2014 prize.'
Treading the Boards John Bailey , 2015 single work column
— Appears in: The Age , 26 May 2015;
Finalists for White Prize Announced Steve Dow , 2013 single work column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 17 April 2013; (p. 17)
Suburban Crime Pays Bridget Cormack , 2012 single work column
— Appears in: The Australian , 21 May 2012; (p. 14)
X