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Dateline: 8th May, 2009

Rachel Kavanaugh

Whiting Submissions Invited

The Whiting Award, supported by the Peter Wolff Trust, will be hosted by Birmingham Repertory Theatre this Autumn and the award is now calling for plays to be submitted for consideration.

This national playwriting award, originally established by the Arts Council in 1965 as the John Whiting Award, gives £6,000 to the writer of a new play that demonstrates an original and distinctive development in dramatic writing. Previous winners include Bryony Lavery, David Edgar, David Greig, Tanika Gupta, Terry Johnson, Joe Penhall, and Tom Stoppard for whom the award was instrumental in launching his writing career.

In 2007, the Peter Wolff Theatre Trust announced that it would be funding the Whiting Award after a consortium of theatres, headed by London’s Hampstead Theatre, claimed ownership of this prestigious award from the Arts Council. Hampstead Theatre set up a consortium of new writing companies and venues, including the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, London’s Royal Court, Soho Theatre, Paines Plough, Nottingham Playhouse, Traverse Theatre, The Bush Theatre, Nuffield Southampton, and Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse.

Commenting on the awards Rachel Kavanaugh, Artistic Director, Birmingham Repertory Theatre said, “We’re proud to be hosting this year’s award. The award has a longstanding history of promoting excellence in British theatre writing and many of the winners from previous years have been commissioned by The REP. I am delighted to have this opportunity to further our involvement with the award and to demonstrate our commitment to the development, commissioning and staging of new writing.”

Submitting

The award time period applies from 1 August 2008 and 31 July 2009.

To be eligible to enter for the award the play must be:

• An original piece of writing. Plays created through a devising process, must have a named writer to be eligible. Adaptations and verbatim theatre will not be considered.
• Produced by a company within the subsidised sector. (Subsidy being defined as funding of £1,000 or more from the Arts Council, a local government body, a trust or a foundation.)
• Produced under a professional contract to ITC, TWU, WGGB or TMA guidelines.
• Performed for the first time in the UK during the award time period.

The Judges will use the following criteria to decide the award:

• A play in which the writing is of special quality
• A play of relevance and importance to contemporary life
• A play of potential value to British Theatre

The award value is £6,000.
Closing date for submissions: 17 August 2009

The award will be announced during the ceremony at the Birmingham Rep in the autumn.

Send scripts to:

The Peter Wolff Theatre Trust supports the Whiting Award,
Birmingham Repertory Theatre,
Broad Street,
Birmingham, B1 2EP

Please send three unbound copies of your script, (double sided on A4 paper) and a filled in cover sheet.

Emailed scripts will not be accepted.

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©Peter Lathan 2009