• Review For Us
    • In London or across the UK
    • at Edinburgh Fringe
  • List Your Show
  • Advertising
  • Musicals
  • Plays
  • Ballet & Dance
  • Previews
  • First Look
Theatre Weekly
  • Home
  • News
    • West End
    • Off-West End
    • Regional & Tours
  • Reviews
  • Interviews
  • Digital Theatre
  • Tickets
    • Discounts
    • Musicals
    • Plays
    • Opera
    • Dance
    • Concerts
  • Contact Us
    • Join us as a Reviewer
No Result
View All Result
Theatre Weekly
  • Home
  • News
    • West End
    • Off-West End
    • Regional & Tours
  • Reviews
  • Interviews
  • Digital Theatre
  • Tickets
    • Discounts
    • Musicals
    • Plays
    • Opera
    • Dance
    • Concerts
  • Contact Us
    • Join us as a Reviewer
No Result
View All Result
Theatre Weekly
No Result
View All Result
Home News

Laura Waldren Wins 15th Annual Papatango New Writing prize with Some Demon

The winning play will be performed at the Arcola Theatre

by Staff Writer
October 5, 2023
Reading Time: 4 mins read
Laura Waldren

Laura Waldren

Papatango today announces that Laura Waldren has won the 15th annual Papatango New Writing Prize for her first full-length play Some Demon, from 1,468 entries.

Also announced today were the other shortlisted writers: Piers Black for My Dad Hunts Bears; Georgia Green for Private Adult Things; Yolanda Mercy for Handsworth Boys; and Hannah Shury -Smith for Go Back Home!.

The winning play Some Demon explores life inside an eating disorder unit. It will have its world première at the Arcola Theatre in summer 2024 – with full information to be announced at a later date – and will be published by Nick Hern Books. The four shortlisted writers will each receive £500 and their plays will be filmed as staged readings, digitally broadcast for a global network on The Playwright’s Laboratory.

       

In addition, to celebrate the 15th year of the Prize, Papatango have partnered with Phil Temple at Birdie Pictures to launch an extra commission for one promising entrant, whose script missed out on the shortlist but whose talent and voice demand recognition.  This commission has been awarded to Josh Barrow, whose entry Sweet Heathens impressed the entire reading team. He will now receive £2,500 to write a 10 minute short film, which the company will co-produce with Birdie Pictures and release in 2024. The short film commission was made possible with support from the Genesis Foundation Prize.

Judged anonymously, the Papatango New Writing Prize was the UK’s first – and remains the only annual – opportunity guaranteeing a new writer a full production, publication by Nick Hern Books, a royalty of 8% of the box office, and a £7,000 commission with full developmental support. This Prize has recently expanded to support the shortlisted writers with a £500 fee and a streamed reading to promote their play worldwide, with the aim of securing full productions and new opportunities.

You mightalso like

Papatango Playwright Studio Image supplied by publicist

Papatango announce the launch of Papatango Playwrights’ Studio

Hannah Doran Image supplied by the venue

Hannah Doran Wins 16th Annual Papatango New Writing Prize

In addition, every entrant receives feedback on their script – a commitment made by no other company, especially significant as the Prize averages more submissions on a yearly basis than any other playwriting award.

Laura Waldren said today, “It’s a huge privilege — and a massive shock! — to have won. I entered the Prize hoping to get some feedback, and never expected in a million years this would happen. Eating disorders are still deeply misunderstood illnesses, and this has been a very difficult, personal but important play to write — I’m so honoured that Papatango have chosen to share it, especially given how hard it is right now for debut writers to get their work read, let alone produced.”

Papatango’s George Turvey and Chris Foxon added, “We are thrilled and privileged to realise the work of six such brilliant and distinctive writers, in stage, screen and digital forms – as well as to nurture the talent of 1,468 entrants, the quality of whose plays was unquestionably higher than ever. That the Prize has found a way to expand and showcase more new voices, despite being denied Arts Council England project funding after more than a decade of extraordinary subsidised success, is testament to its pivotal role opening pathways into theatre. It is more essential than ever in a context of massive cuts to programming and development.”

LAURA WALDREN is a writer and actor from Hull, and a current writer in residence for Pentabus Theatre. Some Demon is her first full-length play. Her debut screen work, This Is Hell, which she co-wrote and starred in, won the Pilot Light TV Festival and screened at the BAFTA and BIFA-qualifying Bolton International Film Festival. As an actor she recently appeared in the critically acclaimed second series of I Hate Suzie.

       

Other writers produced under the Prize include Dawn King, Dominic Mitchell, Iman Qureshi, Samuel Bailey, Tom Morton-Smith, Fiona Doyle, Matt Grinter, Luke Owen, Louise Monaghan, James Rushbrooke, Tajinder Singh Hayer, Tom Powell, Jaki McCarrick, Clive Judd, Igor Memic and Nkenna Akunna. Collectively, writers launched through the Prize have won Olivier, BAFTA, Critics’ Circle, The Times Breakthrough, OffWestEnd and RNT Foundation Awards, been nominated for the James Tait Black Drama Prize and the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, premièred in over thirty countries worldwide, and gone on to work with many leading companies as well as in the West End.

Staff Writer

Staff Writer

At Theatre Weekly we are dedicated to giving theatre a new audience. Our News, Reviews and Interviews are all written with the audience in mind, helping you decide what to see next. And when you have decided, our great ticket deals will help save you money too.

Related Articles

Papatango Playwright Studio Image supplied by publicist
News

Papatango announce the launch of Papatango Playwrights’ Studio

Hannah Doran Image supplied by the venue
News

Hannah Doran Wins 16th Annual Papatango New Writing Prize

Papatango 2024 New Writing Prize Shortlist
News

Shortlist Announced For The 16th Annual Papatango New Writing Prize

Cast of The Watch House
News

Papatango Announces Cast For Chris Foxon’s Adaptation Of Robert Westall’s The Watch House

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Twitter Facebook Youtube Instagram

At Theatre Weekly we give theatre a new audience. You'll find our theatre news, theatre reviews and theatre interviews are written from an audience point of view. Our great value London theatre tickets will get you the best deal for your theatre tickets.
Theatre Weekly, 124 City Road, London EC1V 2NX
  • Join Our Community
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Contact Us
  • Advertising

Recent News

Martin Freeman and Jack Lowden in The Fifth Step photo by Johan Persson

Review: The Fifth Step at @SohoPlace

Dream Ballets A Triple Bill. Credit FEAST Creative

Full Cast Announced for Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Dream Ballets: A Triple Bill at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre

© 2022 Theatre Weekly

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Tickets
  • Digital Theatre
  • News
    • News
    • West End
    • Off West End
    • Regional & Tours
    • Digital
  • Interviews
  • Reviews
  • Contact Us
    • Join us as a Reviewer

© 2022 Theatre Weekly