FEMALE WRITERS STORM THE BRUNTWOOD PLAYWRITING COMPETITION FOR THE ROYAL EXCHANGE

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