Papatango announces three winners of the thirteenth Papatango New Writing Prize in a reimagined iteration of the annual awards, in a new partnership with ETT (English Touring Theatre).
Selected from 1,410 entries, the winners are Nkenna Akunna for Some Of Us Exist In The Future; Tom Powell for The Silence and The Noise; and Tajinder Singh Hayer for Ghost Stories From An Old Country – each receiving £2000, an audio production, and digital publication with Nick Hern Books.
Also announced today are the shortlisted writers: Billie Collins with But The Heart Stayed Behind; Rebecca Jade Hammond with Hot Chicks; Emma Hemingford with Foreverland; Joe Ward Munrow with Home; and Rían Smith with Endless.
Judged anonymously, with this year’s winners selected by Papatango and ETT, each audio play will be recorded and tour to 12 venues spanning the UK, including Bristol Old Vic, Chichester Festival Theatre, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Theatre Royal Plymouth, Leeds Playhouse, Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse, Laurels Whitley Bay, Theatr Clwyd, Lyric Theatre Belfast, Southwark Playhouse and Bush Theatre. The recordings will be played from free listening stations, with copies of the scripts including braille translations available. Tour dates to be announced.
Three casts and creative teams will be assembled to record the winning plays – with the company hosting open-entry applications for selected roles including actors, directors and sound designers. Applications are open now, until 27 July. For further details and to apply visit: www.papatango.co.uk/open-hire
George Turvey, Artistic Director of Papatango, today said, “There was a point when it looked like the Papatango Prize might have to fall silent in 2021, with so many projects postponed and stages booked up with deferred shows. That instead we’ve been able, together with ETT, to rally and present the Prize in a completely new format, supporting more artists than ever before on a completely free and accessible national tour, is a joy. This year saw our highest ever standard of entries, and the three winning writers whose work we’re privileged to share are proof that when times are hardest, story-tellers emerge to reinvent and renew. We hope everyone will listen in their local theatre, because they’ve got brilliant things to say at a time when new voices matter more than ever.”
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.
