Women playwrights storm The Bruntwood Playwriting Competition
Released
on: January 14, 2009, 2:32 am
Press Release Author: Bruntwood
Industry: Entertainment
Press Release Summary: After a call for more female writers from competition judges
Brenda Blethyn and Richard Wilson, three women writers storm the The Bruntwood
Playwriting Competition
Press Release Body: After a call for more women entries from competition judges
Brenda Blethyn and Richard Wilson, The Bruntwood Playwriting Competition has
announced its four winners, three of whom are female.
The competition, which is committed to encouraging new writing, is a partnership
between Manchester office space provider
Bruntwood and Manchester's Royal Exchange theatre.
The four winners are all first time playwrights and will share a prize fund of £40,000.
Brenda Blethyn said: "I'm delighted we've had so many women entering the
competition. Reading the scripts has been great fun and really highlighted how many
talented writers we have in this country".
The judges were so impressed by the shortlist of 10 plays they found it hard to
separate the winners, instead deciding to increase the prize fund and award four
joint prizes.
Competition judge Richard Wilson said: "We were so impressed by the plays on the
shortlist that we found it difficult to split the winners into a clear ranking. All
of the winning plays had equal ambition, merit and style so we decided to increase
the prize fund to £40,000 and split it equally between the four".
The four winners are Naylah Ahmed for "Butcher Boys", Andy Sheridan for "Before the
Echoes Die Away", Vivienne Franzmann for "Mogadishi", and Fiona Peek for "Salt".
The Bruntwood Playwriting Competition doesn't end there. The winners will now embark
on a development with the Royal Exchange with the ambition of producing their script
in the Manchester theatre.
Greg Hersov, Royal Exchange Artistic Director and competition judge said: "As all
four winners are first time writers, we are committed to nurturing their talents
first and foremost, and we will then be intensively developing the scripts with a
view to producing them at the Royal Exchange. We will be working dramaturgically
with all four writers for a year and we're very excited to have the chance to
develop their work in the early stages of their careers".
Michael Oglesby, judge and Chairman of the Manchester-based property company
Bruntwood, said: "We launched this competition with the aim of discovering and
encouraging new writing talent and we've been overwhelmed by the quality of the work
submitted. It's really exciting that the winning scripts have the potential to be
produced and staged at the Royal Exchange and that the competition is unlocking so
much writing talent".
About Bruntwood
Bruntwood owns over 90 office buildings in Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds and
Birmingham. The company provides offices and serviced offices from one desk for one month, to entire
buildings for 25 years. Bruntwood also has retail space and commercial space within its buildings and
meeting rooms to hire.
Web Site: http://www.bruntwood.co.uk/
Contact Details: For more information please contact:
Sally Hill
Bruntwood
City Tower
Piccadilly Plaza
Manchester
M1 4BD
0161 233 7845
www.bruntwood.co.uk
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