FOUR JOINT WINNERS ANNOUNCED AT AWARDS CEREMONY

Female writers have scooped three of the four prizes in this year’s Bruntwood Playwriting Competition for the Royal Exchange.
The announcement came at a glittering awards ceremony held at
Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre onThursday 20 November 2008 and
follows a plea by judge Brenda Blethyn for more women to enter at the competition launch earlier this year.


The joint winners were unveiled as Naylah Ahmed for BUTCHER BOYS, Vivienne Franzmann for MOGADISHI, Fiona Peek for SALT and Andy Sheridan for BEFORE THE ECHOES DIE AWAY.

Staged this year for the second time, The Bruntwood
is now regarded as the country’s foremost arena for discovering and
celebrating new writing talent for the Theatre. This latest competition
attracted over a thousand entries – 60 per cent of which were from
women.


They received their awards at today’s ceremony which was hosted by actress and comedian Jan Ravens. Theatrical names also attending included actors Robert Lindsay and Maxine Peake.


The four joint winners - all first time playwrights – will share a
prize fund of £40,000 and receive a year-long programme of specialist
help from the RET to develop their scripts with a view to producing the
plays at the Exchange. In addition, leading UK independent theatre
publishers, Nick Hern Books, will publish winning plays that receive a production at the Exchange.


Backed by Manchester-based property company Bruntwood,
the competition is open to writers of all experience aged 18 and over
from throughout the UK and Ireland, providing a regular benchmark for
playwriting excellence in the country.

Brenda Blethyn said: “I’m delighted we’ve had so many
women entering the competition. Reading the scripts has been great fun
and really highlighted how many talented writers we have in this
country”.

The judges were so impressed by the shortlist of 10 plays they found it
hard to separate the winners, instead deciding to increase the prize
fund and award four joint prizes.


Chair of Judging Panel Richard Wilson
said: “We were so impressed by the plays on the shortlist that we found
it difficult to split the winners into a clear ranking. All of the
winning plays had equal ambition, merit and style so we decided to
increase the prize fund to £40,000 and split it equally between the
four”.

Greg Hersov, Royal Exchange Artistic Director and
competition judge, said: “As all four winners are first time writers,
we are committed to nurturing their talents first and foremost, and we
will then be intensively developing the scripts with a view to
producing them at the Royal Exchange. We will be working
dramaturgically with all four writers for a year and we are very
excited to have the chance to develop work with writers in the early
stages of their careers”.


Judge and Chairman of Bruntwood Michael Oglesby
said: “We launched this competition with the aim of discovering and
encouraging new writing talent and we’ve been overwhelmed by the
quality of the work submitted. It’s really exciting that the winning
scripts have the potential to be produced and staged at the Royal
Exchange and that the competition is unlocking so much writing talent”.


Originally launched in 2005, the inaugural competition saw the top
three winning entries – PRETEND YOU HAVE BIG BUILDINGS by Ben Musgrave,
MONSTER by Duncan Macmillan and THE CRACKS IN MY SKIN by Phil Porter –
all received full productions at the Royal Exchange as well as major
cash prizes.

Over the past thirty two years Manchester’s Royal Exchange has produced
over 100 new pieces of work by playwrights ranging from Ronald Harwood,
Iain Heggie and Brad Fraser to Debbie Horsfield, Chloe Moss, Simon
Stephens and Bridget O’Connor (recently appointed as the RET’s
writer-in-residence).

The prestigious judging panel was chaired by actor and director Richard
Wilson and included actress Brenda Blethyn, actor Michael Sheen, film
director Roger Michell, playwright Roy Williams, Royal Exchange
Artistic Director Greg Hersov and Chairman of Bruntwood Michael Oglesby
DL LLD DSc (see Notes for Editors for biography information on panel
members).

In 2007 Bruntwood received a Stage Award for Special Achievement in
Regional Theatre for its charitable work and financial support for the
arts. 

MORE DETAILS ON THE WINNERS AND SHORTLISTED PLAYS