Winners of Burton prize announced
Sally Burton, Executive Producer of Onward Production, announced the winners of the 2010 Richard Burton Award for New Plays at Black Swan’s 2011 season launch on Wednesday.
Sally Burton, Executive Producer of Onward Production, announced the winners of the 2010 Richard Burton Award for New Plays at Black Swan’s 2011 season launch on Wednesday.
The first prize was awarded to Caleb Lewis for his play Clinchfield, the second prize was awarded to Hellie Turner for her play The Time of Texas Wall.
As the winner of the Richard Burton Award for New Plays, Caleb Lewis receives a prize of $20,000, with Hellie Turner receiving a second prize of $10,000.
“I am extremely pleased to be able to announce Caleb Lewis as the winner and Hellie Turner as the runner-up of this inaugural Richard Burton Award for New Plays,” Sally Burton said.
“Amongst all submissions, their work truly stood out and captivated the judging panel members’ imagination. I hope they are the first in a long line of deserving winners of the Richard Burton Award for New Play.”
Kate Cherry said: “Caleb and Hellie both surprised and delighted us with unusual storylines, memorable characters (including an elephant called Mary and a goat), touching twists and their depth of language and imagination. Reading their plays was both a privilege and a pleasure, and I congratulate them wholeheartedly on being awarded the first and second prize of the Richard Burton Award for New Plays respectively.”
Caleb Lewis studied playwriting at Flinders University, later being mentored by Nick Enright. His plays include Songs for the Deaf, Nailed, Dogfall and Death in Bowengabbie. His play The Sea Bride won the 2006 Inscription Emerging Playwright Award; in 2008 he was awarded an AWGIE for Otzi – the Story of the Iceman. His play Men, Love and the Monkeyboy was shortlisted for the Griffin Award and is the winner of the 2008 Mitch Matthews Award. His winning entry for the Richard Burton Award for New Plays, Clinchfield, based on the hanging of an elephant in small town Tennessee, received a workshop in Adelaide last year. He recently returned from developing a script on Palm Island with the Australian Theatre for Young People and is now working with students from refugee backgrounds in Sydney’s west. Current projects include a play about robots, a play about sock puppets and adapting a novel, Rust and Bone, for the Adelaide Festival Centre.
Hellie Turner is an established West Australian actor, director and playwright with numerous mainhouse, independent, community and youth production credits to her name. Her work has been seen by audiences in Western Australia, Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland. Her plays include Road Train, The Gun, Fair Dinkum, Luv Struk and Bone Dry. She is a two-time winner of the WA Premier’s Book Award (Scripts) – in 2002 for Bench and in 2006 for Sardines. Hellie also was the inaugural winner of the 2006 Maj Monologues competition for Billy Windlock. Hellie is the resident playwright and Artistic Director for the professional WA theatre ensemble kompany M and is currently a nominee for the Society of Women Writers’ 2010 ‘Alice Award’.
The Richard Burton Award for New Plays was established to celebrate the illustrious career of Richard Burton, one of the great stars of the silver screen, and to encourage great storytellers from all over Australia to develop new work. The competition is open to full length, unproduced plays which have been written in the 12 months leading up to the closing date of the Award.
Black Swan State Theatre Company will stage a reading of the winning work, and Sally Burton’s company Onward Production and Black Swan State Theatre Company will have the first exclusive rights to produce the play for 12 months from the Award being announced.