Royal National Theatre Foundation Playwright Award
The Royal National Theatre Playwright Award was made for the first time in 2013. This Award succeeds the Meyer Whitworth Award and is intended to help further the careers of playwrights, resident in the British Isles and Republic of Ireland, who are not yet established.
There were a total of 51 entries from across the British Isles.
The winning play selected by the judges was Foxfinder by
Dawn King, nominated by Papatango Theatre Company. In addition to
the main prize, two Awards of £1,000 were presented for the first
time in recognition of the strength of two scripts on the
shortlist. Douglas Rintoul, writer of Elegy, and Naylah
Ahmed, writer of Mustafa, won these Awards.
The Judging panel consisted of Kate Mosse, novelist and playwright
(lead judge); Stephen
Greenhorn, playwright; Topher Campbell, director, and Kath
Mattock, producer and director.
Full Shortlist 2013
Mustafa by Naylah Ahmed
Kali Theatre Company & Birmingham Rep
Mudlarks by Vickie Donoghue
Theatre503, HighTide Festival Theatre and Lucy Jackson
Productions
Educating Ronnie by Joe Douglas & Gareth
Nicholls
Macrobert Arts Centre and Utter in association with HighTide
Festival Theatre
Foxfinder by Dawn King
Papatango & Finborough Theatre
Same Same by Shireen Mula
Co-produced by Ovalhouse and fanSHEN Theatre Company
Elegy by Douglas Rintoul
Theatre503 & Transport
Held by Joe Ward Munrow
Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse Theatres
Award Criteria
The Award was made to the writer whose play, in the judges' opinion, most satisfied the following description:
- showed promise of a developing new talent, and in which
- the writing was of individual quality.
The Award was made to the writer whose career, in the judges'
opinion, would most benefit from the Award.
About the Shortlist
Mustafa by Naylah Ahmed. Photo by Robert Day
Mustafa by Naylah Ahmed
Mustafa is in prison for the death of a teenage boy during an
exorcism. Racked with guilt at the loss of an innocent life and
isolated in a world where his beliefs are constantly challenged, he
tries to avoid trouble. But when prisoners who taunt him suffer
mysterious injuries and prison officers start behaving strangely,
Mustafa starts to think the evil djinn he tried to banish from the
young victim's body is still with him and he must face it once
more…
Naylah Ahmed:
A former BBC radio drama producer and writer, Naylah has been
writing full time since 2010. Her stage plays include: Mustafa
(Birmingham Rep and Kali Theatre Co), Butcher Boys and These Four
Streets, (a Birmingham Rep commission with 5 fellow writers in
response to the 2005 Lozells troubles). Naylah is currently working
on a play called The pre-criminal Space, with two other writers,
and developing her latest play, Jack in a Box. Naylah's radio plays
include Zubeda (Saturday Play, BBC R4), The Happy Gathering,
(Afternoon Play BBC R4) and Mrs Parker (Afternoon Play BBC
R4).
Mudlarks by Vicky Donoghue. Photo by Nobby Clark.
Mudlarks by
Vickie Donoghue
On the muddy banks of the River Thames, downstream from the bright
lights of London, three boys hide from the police after a night of
thrilling recklessness. Over the course of the freezing night their
fears, secrets and dreams emerge, collide and combust revealing the
desperate frustration of lives barely led but already
ravaged.
Vickie Donoghue:
Vickie graduated from the MA in Creative Writing (Plays and
Screenplays) at City University in September 2009. A rehearsed
reading of her MA piece Talk for England took place at RADA in
March 2010. Her first short play One Last Wave was one of the three
finalists of the 2005 Windsor Fringe Marriott Award. Her debut full
length play Mudlarks premiered at The Hightide Festival in May 2012
before transferring to London's Theatre 503 and then to The Bush
Theatre in October 2012. Following this Vickie was one of 12
writers selected to take part in the inaugural The Bush
Theatre/KUDOS TV development scheme in October 2012. She was
longlisted for the Evening Standard Theatre Awards as Most
Promising New Playwright 2012.
Educating Ronnie by Joe Douglas & Gareth Nicholls.
Photo by Alan McCredie
Educating Ronnie, co-written by
Joe Douglas & Gareth Nicholls
In 2002, Joe went on a gap year trip to Uganda, to visit an aunt
who was working for a charity. Amidst the six week blur of safaris,
white-water rafting and orphanages, Joe made friends with
Ronnie....Ronnie was 16, Joe was 18. They were both the eldest sons
of large families. They both supported Manchester United. Six
months later, back in Manchester, Joe got a text: "Brother my
sponsor has pulled out on me and I want to stay in school. Can you
help? Ronnie x" That text was to change both of their lives and
inextricably link them together. An astonishing true story
performed by Joe himself, Educating Ronnie takes place over a
decade: 4000 miles apart and thousands of pounds invested, it
explores the murky processes behind bettering oneself in
Uganda.
Joe Douglas:
Joe trained in Directing at Rose Bruford College and was Trainee
Director in residence with the National Theatre of Scotland in
2007-8. His directing credits include The BFG (Dundee Rep), The
Last Polar Bears, Our Teacher's A Troll, Allotment and re-directing
the 2013 world tour of Black Watch (National Theatre of Scotland),
The Reprobates (HighTide), The Drowning Pond, Jabberwocky (YMT),
Thank You, Videotape and The Sunday Lesson (Oran Mor, Glasgow), Eat
Theatre (Farnham Maltings), One For The Road and Fantasy Football
(BAC), 5+1 (24:7 Theatre Festival). He has worked extensively as an
Assistant and Staff Director on Number 1 tours, West End, World
Tours and Off-Broadway. He makes work with and for young people
across a wide variety of contexts, especially in Youth Theatres and
Drama Schools.
In 2012, he wrote and performed Educating Ronnie
(Macrobert/Utter/HighTide) at the Edinburgh Festival as part of the
Made in Scotland Showcase, where the production was awarded a
Fringe First. Educating Ronnie toured Scotland in Autumn 2013. He
is the Co-Artistic Director with Gareth Nicholls of the new work
company, Utter.
Gareth Nicholls:
Gareth is theatre director based in Glasgow but working throughout
the UK. Over the last few years he has directed and worked with
National Theatre of Scotland, Tron Theatre, Arches (Glasgow)
Macrobert (Stirling), High Tide Festival Theatre (London),
Traverse, Royal Lyceum (Edinburgh), Kopergietery and Campo
(Belgium). Before this he trained in Contemporary Theatre Practice
at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
Although primarily a director, Gareth also works as a dramaturge
and writer collaborating on a range of projects. Previously he has
been an Imaginate Artist In Residence and a National Theatre of
Scotland Emerging Artist, while currently he is an associate artist
with Company of Angels. Gareth Is also Co-Artistic director of
Utter - a Scottish based Theatre Company specialising in New Work -
along with Joe Douglas. Last year Utter won a Scotsman Fringe First
with their first production Educating Ronnie (co-produced with
macrobert).
Foxfinder by Dawn King. Photo by Garry Lake.
Foxfinder by Dawn
King
William Bloor, a Foxfinder, arrives at Sam and Judith Covey's farm
to investigate a suspected contamination. What follows will change
the course of all their lives, forever. Foxfinder is a
gripping, unsettling and darkly comic exploration of belief, desire
and responsibility
Dawn King:
Dawn's play Foxfinder won the Papatango Theatre Company
writing competition in 2011 and was produced at the Finborough
Theatre, London, where it was critically acclaimed and sold out.
Foxfinder won Dawn 'Most Promising Playwright' at the Off West End
Awards 2012 and was shortlisted for the Susan Smith Blackburn prize
2012 and the James Tait Black drama prize 2011/2012.
Foxfinder has had productions in Sweden (Gothenburg
English Speaking Theatre) and Australia (Red Stitch.)
Dawn was Pearson writer in residence at the Finborough for 2012.
She was one of ten writers chosen for the BBC Writersroom 10 scheme
in 2012 and through this received a seed commission and residency
at West Yorkshire Playhouse where she wrote Ciphers. Ciphers is
being produced by Out of Joint, Exeter Northcott and The Bush and
will tour the UK in 2013/2014. In 2013, Dawn participated in
the prestigious Channel Four television writing scheme, 4
Screenwriting 2013. She has an original drama series in development
with Touchpaper Television. Her feature film script The Squatter's
Handbook won the UK Film Council's 25 Words or Less pitching
competition in 2005 and her short film The Karman Line is in post
production.
Dawn writes regularly for Radio and has had radio plays broadcast
on BBC Radio 4, 4 Extra and BBC Radio 3. Previous theatre work
includes: Water Sculptures/ZOO double bill - The Union
Theatre.
Dawn was a member of both the Soho Theatre and Royal Court Theatre
Young Writers' Programmes and has an MA distinction in Writing for
Performance from Goldsmiths University, London.
Same Same by Shireen Mula. Photo by Conrad
Blakemore.
Same Same by Shireen
Mula
Same Same is the story of Asha, five minutes away from
her twenty-first birthday. Twenty-one means grown-up and ready for
the world but Asha, adopted and unsure of her past, feels she
doesn't know who she is yet. At five to midnight another woman,
Nid, remembers the decision she made at 21, a decision that
continues to echo in both women's minds. Each constructs the
mothers/ daughters that they hope for, and the mothers/ daughters
that they fear. They imagine meeting, both reluctant to discover
the reality which lies behind the layers of fantasy that they've
created. Nid finds herself at Kings Cross Station, the place where
she said goodbye to the baby who would become Asha; a reminder of
her family in the present finally enables her to stop re-living the
decision she took 21 years ago. Asha manages to let her boyfriend
know that she cares about him, and admits her fear of needing him.
The two women, who have never met but have been such an enormous
part of each others' lives for so long, let each other go and begin
to live. Same Same is an exquisitely fractured jigsaw of regret,
longing and mixed-race identity set in a dark recess of
contemporary London.
Shireen Mula:
Shireen is a playwright and theatre-maker. She has worked in
London, regionally and internationally, creating work for audiences
of all ages. Shireen's plays include: Soon Until Forever
(Theatre503, 2013), Same Same (fanSHEN & Ovalhouse, 2011), He
Said, She Said (Soho Theatre, 2011), Nameless (Arnolfini Theatre,
2010). Same Same was translated into Italian by the British Council
and presented in Puglia, Italy during their Short Latitudes
Festival (2012).
Shireen is an Associate Artist at Ovalhouse and a Hub Writer at
Soho Theatre. She was playwright-on-attachment at the Royal Court
(2010), Firehouse Creative Productions, USA (2011) and Nottle
Theatre, South Korea (2011). Shireen founded and co-facilitated
20/20 - an introduction to playwriting course for writers with
disabilities. She has facilitated playwriting workshops for Soho
Theatre and Ovalhouse. She is presently under commission by Company
of Angels.
Held by Joe Ward Munrow. Photo by Christian Smith
Held by Joe Ward
Munrow
Somewhere between the past and the present there is a truth. But
who remembers best? And who is right? Held is a captivating,
poignant and at times touchingly funny story of a mother and two
sons and the weave and weft of family life when a member of the
family becomes ill. Pauline Daniels is Mary the mother remembering
the loves, joy and pain of her life, while Alan Stocks and Ged
McKenna are her mismatched sons.
Joe Ward Munrow:
Joe grew up in Deptford, south-east London and studied Drama at
John Moores University, Liverpool. He is a graduate of the
Liverpool Everyman Young Writers' Programme. His first play The
Laundry won the Brockley Jack's Write Now Award 2011 and was
subsequently performed at the Brockley Jack Theatre. The Laundry
also won the Commended Prize in the BBC's Alfred Bradley Bursary
Award and was short-listed for Little Brother's Big Opportunity
2013. Joe's second play Held, was commissioned by the Liverpool
Everyman and Playhouse and directed by Lorne Campbell. Held
received its world premiere at the Playhouse Studio in November
2012 and was critically well-received.
Elegy by Douglas Rintoul. Photo by A Zbigniew
Kotkiewicz.
Elegy by Douglas
Rintoul
A young Caucasian man, with a British accent, sits alone on stage
and asks an audience to imagine a journey into his recent past.
Elegy at first appears to be an intimate account of one man's
impossible love for his best friend but gradually reveals itself to
be something more - a poetic love letter to the victims of
homophobic murders that regularly take place in liberated
Iraq.
Told from the viewpoint of one who got away, his is a moving
plight; an excavation of memory. Once, he sat on a river in his
native city experiencing the first pains of love. Now he is in a
detention centre in a country he doesn't know and no one believes
that he is telling the truth. The search between is fragmented and
non-linear and is a story of love, loss and exile: a journey
through a no-man's land of empty train stations, border crossings,
bomb-blasted towns and detention cells.
Douglas Rintoul:
Douglas read drama at the University of Birmingham. He is
primarily a theatre director/devisor and Elegy is his first written
text and was produced by Douglas' company Transport with a
summerday. Devised with the actor Jamie Bradley, Elegy premiered at
the Edinburgh Festival Fringe where it was nominated for a Fringe
First and went on to play Theatre503, London where it was nominated
for two Off West End Awards. As a director/devisor for Transport:
1001 Nights (nominated for the Off West End Award for Best
Production for Young People), As You Like It, Invisible, Elegy and
Europe. Other directing credits include productions for the
Watermill Theatre, Trafalgar Studios, Unicorn Theatre, Salisbury
Playhouse, Dundee Rep, National Theatre Studio, New Wolsey Theatre,
and Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg. He is an associate
director to Complicite.
Follow Playwrights’ Studio, Scotland on:
