Exciting new plays battle it out

The shortlist for the 2010 Richard Burton Award for New Plays has been announced.

The shortlist for the 2010 Richard Burton Award for New Plays has been announced.

The shortlist includes six plays, three of which were written by West Australian playwrights.

The winners will be announced by Sally Burton at Black Swan’s 2011 season launch and share a prize pool of $30,000, making the Richard Burton Award for New Plays one of the richest in Australia.

The shortlist includes the following playwrights and works:

Noelle Janaczewska                   The Story of the Moment

Tom Jeffcote                            Picasso’s Goldfinch

Caleb Lewis                              Clinchfield

Kate Mulvany                            Masquerade

David Sharpe                            The Empire of Soap

Hellie Turner                              The Time of Texas Wall

The winner of the Richard Burton Award for New Plays will receive $20,000, with the runner-up receiving a second prize of $10,000.

“Arriving at the shortlist has been a fascinating process for the judging panel, and it was a very rewarding moment when it was revealed th

“at many of the shortlisted plays were written by younger playwrights, and three of the plays were by West Australian playwrights,” said Black Swan boss Kate Cherry. These up-and coming playwrights are starting to follow in the footsteps of a generation of Australian playwrights who were at the height of their success several decades ago. It is exciting to see that the Richard Burton Award is contributing to bridging this generational gap and providing a missing link in the development of new Australian work.”

The Richard Burton Award for New Plays was established to celebrate the illustrious career Richard Burton, one of the great stars of the silver screen, and encourage great storytellers from all over Australia to develop new work. The competition is open to full length, unproduced plays which have been written in the 12 months leading up to the closing date of the Award.

Black Swan State Theatre Company will stage a reading of the successful work, and Sally Burton’s company Onward Production and Black Swan State Theatre Company will have the first exclusive rights to produce the play for 12 months from the Award being announced.

For more information, visit http://www.bsstc.com.au/the-richard-burton-award-for-new-plays/.