Royal Exchange Theatre
Media Partner
After an unprecedented year of productions and our largest ever number of entries, we are delighted to introduce the ten writers shortlisted for this year’s Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting. The Bruntwood is Britain’s biggest playwriting competition, with a prize fund of £40,000 from which four awards will be made to writers on this shortlist: a first prize of £16,000 and three judges’ awards of £8,000 each. These four plays will then be developed towards production by the Royal Exchange, with leading theatre publisher Nick Hern Books offering publication should they be produced. 30,000 audience members have seen Bruntwood winning work this year, with the Exchange producing Vivienne Franzmann’s MOGADISHU and Andrew Sheridan’s WINTERLONG in Manchester and in London.We can’t wait to develop this new crop of plays and see more work from the competition on our stages. The Prize is a result of a longstanding partnership between Manchester property company Bruntwood and the Royal Exchange and has this year welcomed a media partner in The Times newspaper, who we are delighted to have involved in the competition as it grows. The Artistic Directors Royal Exchange Theatre
A message from Michael Oglesby, Chairman of Bruntwood and member of the judging panel It is with considerable excitement, and some apprehension, that I open the new shortlisted plays for each year’s Prize.This is my third time on the judging panel and I have learned over the years, as someone not regularly reading new plays, to read slowly and, at the very least, twice. Both we at Bruntwood and the Royal Exchange, are delighted with the way in which the competition has grown from relatively modest roots to now being established as the premier prize for new playwriting in the country. This is not only evidenced by the number of plays that we have received this year, well over 2000, but also by the quality of the scripts.We can also now look back at previous years and see just how successful we have been in establishing the winners as important new modern playwrights. This year we are also delighted to be welcoming our new media partner The Times.This relationship has proved to be a very real partnership with real benefits for everyone. The most exciting part of the Bruntwood, as with any worthwhile creative exercise, is the total uncertainty involved which adds hugely to the tension and the enjoyment and we look forward to sharing this with you. Michael Oglesby CBE DL Chairman, Bruntwood
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MOGADISHU by Vivienne Franzmann, a winner in 2008
Tunji Kasim and Matti Houghton in THE CRACKS IN MY SKIN by Phil Porter, a winner in 2006
“Winning the Prize has made me a writer.” Vivienne Franzmann, author of MOGADISHU
“Being one of the winners has meant that I trust myself as a writer – a playwright.” Harry McEntire and Gabrielle Reidy in WINTERLONG by Andrew Sheridan, a winner in 2008
Naylah Ahmed, author of BUTCHER BOYS, a winner in 2008
A message from the Chair of the Judges The gesture of delivering a play to be read by other people never stops terrifying me. But writers need terror. It gets us out of bed in the morning. More than 2000 people have undergone the terror of entering their play into this competition this year. 1990 of them will have been bruised by the disappointment of not making the short list.There is only one thing they must do: write another play. And then another. And then another. And not stop until they’ve proven us all wrong. The energy and urgency of the response to this year’s competition is indicative of the intellectual and imaginative vitality coursing through the country. At a time of such economic nervousness and political dislocation the confidence of that vitality is astonishing.The shortlist crystallises that vitality. Janice Galloway observed that writing is like waving.We write in the hope that somebody will wave back.The financial support and access to such a driven working theatre that the award gives the writers is exceptional. But more important than that is the consoling gesture of a wave being returned that each of these writers has been given. Simon Stephens, Playwright
A Map of the Region Tim Luscombe
They split us up. Sent us all over. Twenty-three in my group…We lived in a room together, dying, and now I’m the only one left. Then I met her. And I like her. And I’m staying. When Piret wakes one morning with a Russian stranger in her bed, her flat and family are thrown into confusion. It’s 1989 and Soviet Estonia is crumbling around her and her son Tonü.With a husband whose disappearance the authorities won’t explain, Piret embarks on a campaign to find out the truth, whilst Tonü makes friends with the stranger who’s come to stay. Tim Luscombe trained as a director at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. Directing credits include: The Merchant of Venice & Volpone (Lyric Hammersmith/World Tour); Artist Descending A Staircase (Helen Hayes New York/Duke of York’s London); When She Danced (Kings Head London/ Playwrights’ Horizons New York); Easy Virtue (Garrick); Snow Orchid and Salvation (both at the Gate London); The Browning Version & Harlequinade (Royalty), Intimate Exchanges (Scarborough/59E59, New York).Tim started writing full time six years ago. Productions of his plays include: EuroVision (Drill Hall/Vaudeville); The One You Love (Royal Court/Barracke Berlin); The Death of Gogol and the 1969 Eurovision Song Contest (Drill Hall); The Schuman Plan (Hampstead), Hungry Ghosts (Orange Tree), and adaptations of Northanger Abbey and Persuasion.
Brilliant Adventures Alistair McDowall
A working time machine? Definitely. What have you done with it? N…Nothing. Nothing? It just…sits there. Nineteen year old science genius Luke is holed up in a dingy flat on a near-abandoned Middlesbrough housing estate. He finally has some peace to work on the extraordinary box in his living room. But when he’s introduced to a wealthy out-of-towner by his unbalanced brother Rob, tensions build and a battle is set in motion that threatens to tear the brothers apart and unleash the power inside his invention. Alistair McDowall is a writer from the North East of England. Previous plays include Plain Jane, Some Stories, 5:30 and eighteen stupid reasons why i love you lots and lots. He has been a writer-onattachment at the Royal Court Theatre and is currently on attachment with Paines Plough.
Britannia Waves the Rules Gareth Farr
I joined the army because I couldn’t get a job on civvy street, couldn’t get one, didn’t want one. I didn’t want to get stuck in a down, brown, empty old town, I didn’t want to be working for the weekend and wasting the week. I wanted more. Dirty old Blackpool is the dead end that Carl needs to escape. It’s the home of his broken father, old pubs and the boys who sell drugs from the British Legion. The army and Afghanistan offer him the chance to be anything he wants, but it’s a bargain that brings him back to Blackpool a different man. Gareth Farr has been working as a professional actor for the past eleven years, with the RSC, the Royal Court,Young Vic and in the West End. He has been part of the Royal Court Writers Programme and Super Group and had worked developed and performed at The Green Room Studio Theatre in Manchester. Gareth has also written for the Tristan Bates Ignition scheme and has since been invited to develop his work for them into a full production. Britannia Waves the Rules is his first full length play.
Climbing Snakes Curtis Cole
Things will change in Moss Side when they move Maine Road. You two want to get yourself a trade. Plumber, electrician, build web things for computers. Make some real money. It’s 1999 and the summer of the United Treble, Daryl’s come out of prison and he’s got plans for the gang who’ve been waiting for him. As Moss Side heats up and United keep winning, Daryl’s ambition hits the street corner and pulls him and everyone around him towards a danger he can’t control. Curtis Cole is an actor based in Manchester. He has numerous theatre credits performing up and down the country at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Royal Court London, Birmingham Rep, Ipswich Wolsey as well as going abroad to the Sydney Opera House. He has also been a regular feature at his local theatre Contact. It was at the Contact where his writing career began, he was young writer in residence in 2005 completing a one hour play Face Front. Since then he has been a regular winner at Contact's monthly script competition Verbally Challenged and was co-writer of Action Transport’s play Night Train which had two successful schools tours. Climbing Snakes is his first full length play.
I And The Village Silva Semerciyan
So maybe I just want to opt out, you know? Maybe I don’t want to be part of the master plan. The big assembly line in the sky…You know what? The bottom of the lake is the only place I’m entitled to be. Van Vechten is a small American town in Southwest Michigan. It’s Aimee’s home, but something has set her against the community, at odds with her mother, the church and sometimes with the world. As outsiders investigate what happened on the day she brought a gun to church, we follow Aimee around the town that she wants to escape. Silva Semerciyan is a native of Michigan; she moved to the UK in 1998.While at university, she wrote Another Man’s Son which won the 2010 William Saroyan Prize for Playwriting. Her other stage works include Full English and Reality, a satirical musical for which she wrote the book and lyrics. In spring 2012, her short play, Stalemate, will be presented at the ReOrient Festival in San Francisco. She holds a BA in English from the University of Michigan and an MPhil in Playwriting from the University of Birmingham. She currently lectures in Drama and English in Bristol.
I Started A Fire Miriam Battye
Today’s gone a bit different, hasn’t it? When we were waking up this morning didn’t think for two secs everything would blow up like this. Ka-boom. Bloody brill. Stop looking at me like I’m crackers. Jamie is Alice’s first boyfriend and she couldn’t be happier.Their dates in the park are everything that she’s dreamed of, but no one’s sure how Jamie feels. It’s up to jealous Fi and his sister Liv to stop him from making a fool of himself, because everyone knows that Alice is crazy. Miriam Battye grew up in Manchester and has been a theatre lover her whole life. She started writing bad poetry during her teenage years before trying her hand at writing for stage. At the age of seventeen she was accepted onto The Twelve playwriting programme at the Royal Exchange and since then has written avidly. Currently studying at Bristol University she has been lucky enough to have her work staged in productions and rehearsed readings at her university union in Bristol and the Bristol Old Vic Basement. She is also a stage technician and aspiring director.
One Look Cornell S John
Arms pumping, legs working, body-swerving, zigzagging across the corridor. Stay focused, the race is not won…If it's gonna happen, let it happen behind me. I don’t wanna see it coming. Tjay and George are growing up in a hectic world, making plans for the future and chatting up girls, until one moment on the street after school everything suddenly stops. As Tjay replays things in his head and works out what to do next, the gun that killed George bursts into life and his grandma sits at home waiting for him to come back from school. Cornell S John’s film credits as an actor include: Curtis in the hit urban youth dramas, Kidulthood and Adulthood. Glenstorm in The Chronicles of Narnia – Prince Caspian and Lawrence in the soon to be released Dreams of a life. Some of his West End theatre credits include: Javert in Les Miserable, Crown in Porgy and Bess, Horse in The full Monty, and he originated the role of King Mufasa in The Lion King. He played Satan in Steven Berkoff's Messiah, Malcolm X in The Meeting and Clay in Dutchman. Born in Handsworth, Birmingham, One Look is Cornell’s first stage play and was written in response to the challenges facing young people today.
Shadow Play Louise Monaghan
I have to explain it to you. That’s me in the middle. Then there’s me Nanna and me Grandad, yeah… Then there’s me mam up there. And you. Katie is eleven, watching films after tea and learning shadow puppets from her grandad. But something happened in the past and it’s not gone away. Katie’s mother is dead and her father’s in prison and she’s starting to act up. It’s for her grandparents to decide whether she should meet the man who changed her life forever. Louise Monaghan has just received her first commission for BBC Radio 4’s Afternoon Play. Directed and produced by Jessica Dromgoole, Alone in the Garden with You will be broadcast next summer. In 2006, Louise was nominated by The Bush Theatre for The Fifty, a new writing initiative run by the Royal Court in conjunction with the BBC. Her play Beautiful, was nominated by Out of Joint for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize 2009. She was a finalist for both The London Fringe Festival’s Theatre Writing Award 2010 and Little Brother Productions Big Opportunity 2011 with her play Aurora. She lives on the South Coast with her husband Mike.They have two sons, James and William, and a Lakeland terrier called Bruce.
Three Birds Janice Okoh
At first, I wouldn’t have thought anyone was in. Your curtains. The way you have them drawn. You always keep them like that? Tiana’s in charge at home. She’s got to look after brother Tionne and little sister Tanika. As they negotiate school and cooking at home, something strange is going on. Their mother has gone and Tionne’s experiments are getting stranger and stranger. As the outside world starts to ask what’s happened, Tiana tries to keep the siblings together, even when a teacher comes to call. Janice Okoh was born, raised and lives in South East London. She has a background in law and worked in the city for 7 years. She has been writing in one form or another since she was 14 years old when she used to dream of becoming a romantic fiction writer. Her first play was written in 2008 as part of an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia and has yet to be produced. Three Birds is her second full-length theatre play. Janice has had work produced for radio and currently teaches English as a Foreign Language.
White Kenneth Emson
We used to make things here. Be proud of things‌ No one repairs things anymore. No one keeps things. Everything has to be shiny and new. Don’t matter about quality or whether it will last. Derek and Molly have done alright, they have a business, a son in the army and their youngest, Danny, is just about to start work with his old man on an apprenticeship. But Derek's been hiding letters by the hundred, Danny has a new girlfriend he won't bring home and a Canadian businessman has put in an offer on the business that Derek isn't telling the lads about. As the fractures in the family start to appear Derek is forced to decide whether the past is more important than the future. Kenneth Emson was born in Essex in 1983. He has written many plays for fringe venues in London as well as having work premiered at the High Tide, Hot Ink, Hotbed, Latitude and Pulse theatre Festivals. In 2008 he took part in the Old Vic 24 Hour Play event and has continued to work with them through their US/UK Exchange and Ignite programmes. He is currently one of the BBC Writersroom 10 (with the Old Vic as his partner theatre) and the 2011 BBC Writers Academy.
Judging Panel Sarah Frankcom is a theatre director and joint Artistic Director of the Royal Exchange Theatre. Her productions for this Theatre include BEAUTIFUL THING, A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE, WINTERLONG and PUNK ROCK.
Sue Johnston is one of the country’s most widely acclaimed actresses. Her work includes numerous film, television and theatre credits including THE ROYLE FAMILY, WAKING THE DEAD, JAM & JERUSALEM and THE STREET. She was made an OBE in 2009.
Jackie Kay is an award-winning poet, novelist and playwright. Her books include THE ADOPTION PAPERS, TRUMPET and her memoir RED DUST ROAD, which has just won the Scottish Book of the Year award. She was made an MBE in 2006.
Michael Oglesby is Chairman of Bruntwood, one of the leading commercial property companies in the North of England. He currently splits his time between his role of Chairman and his extensive involvement in civic and charitable interests. Michael was made a CBE in 2011.
Maxine Peake is one of the most respected actresses in the UK. Her work on stage includes THE DEEP BLUE SEA and THE CHILDREN’S HOUR and on television includes SILK, CRIMINAL JUSTICE and SHAMELESS.
Simon Stephens (Chair) is an Olivier Award-winning playwright. His plays include WASTWATER, PUNK ROCK, HARPER REGAN, ON THE SHORE OF THE WIDE WORLD and MOTORTOWN. He is Artistic Associate at the Lyric Hammersmith.
Partners
The Times is absolutely delighted to be supporting the Bruntwood.We are committed to covering the theatrical waterfront in our arts pages and website, giving the talented up-and-comings a leg up as well as applauding and critiquing the established names.This award gives us an opportunity to get involved in the theatrical process from the get go.We’re very excited about what and who we might find.
Nick Hern Books is one of the UK’s leading independent theatre publishers and performing rights licensors. Founded in 1988, NHB now has over one thousand plays and theatre books in print, with authors including Caryl Churchill, Declan Donnellan, David Edgar, Tony Kushner, Conor McPherson,Terence Rattigan, Stephen Sondheim, Enda Walsh and Harriet Walter. NHB is proud to support work by new and upcoming playwrights including debbie tucker green, Steve Waters, Fin Kennedy, ChloÍ Moss, Jack Thorne, Lucy Kirkwood and Sam Holcroft, and has published four winners of the Bruntwood Prize (Vivienne Franzmann, Ben Musgrave, Fiona Peek and Andrew Sheridan).
“I don’t think there is another company that equals Bruntwood in their support of the arts...� Andy Sheridan Joint winner of the 2009 Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting
A rich and vibrant cultural life doesn’t just come about by accident. It needs planning for and nurturing. It also needs investment. Bruntwood is a Manchester-based, family-owned property company of over 35 years’ standing. We into our communities every year, by supporting arts and charities in the cities where we operate.
We have always tried to use our cultural investment to help push artistic boundaries, allowing new their creativity – The Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting is one such endeavour. We are delighted to have played our part in giving artists of ladder of creative success and send our warmest congratulations to all the short-listed participants.
For the Ceremony: Host: Dave Haslam Filmmaker: Misfit Films misfitfilms.co.uk Trophy Design: Nicola Dale Actors: Annie Fitzmaurice,Tony Hirst, Reuben Johnson, Gerard Kearns, Craig Morris, Joe Ransom, Katie West, Susan Wokoma For the Royal Exchange: Production Manager: Helen Gorton New Writing Associate: Sam Pritchard For Bruntwood: Marketing Manager: Sally Hill For Press Enquiries: Jane Acton or Amy Barder at Colman Getty on 020 7631 2666 jane@colmangetty.co.uk / amybarder@colmangetty.co.uk
writeaplay.co.uk With thanks to: Michelle Hickman, Dawn Walton, Max Webster, Joel Fildes Photography, Jonathan Keenan Photography, OH Digital,Toasted Productions,We Are Young, the Production and Marketing Departments at the Royal Exchange and all our nineteen readers for the competition.
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