National Open Playwrights' Competition

After months of reading, re-reading, assessing and ranking of scripts and after much passionate discussion and debate amongst our judges, the prize winners for the 2005 Monash Student Theatre and the Monash Student Association National Playwrights Competition have at last been decided.

Results

We are very proud to announce that the winners in each category are:

Open Category First Prize

Laugh Out Loud, by Declan Greene (VIC)

Open Category Second Prize

Apple, by Elise Hearst (VIC)

Open Category Honourable Mentions

Burn, by Ian Kennedy Williams (QLD)
A Slow and Steady Darkening Towards Light, by Ricci-Jane Adams (VIC)

Monash Student Prize (equal First Place)

Stolen Footsteps, by Daniel Lammin
Merde-Mouth, by Martin Spencer and Andrew Dunstan

There will be an official Playwrights Competition Awards Ceremony, to be held in conjunction with the Monash University Student Theatre Season Launch on Thursday, March 16. All the writers are most welcome to attend, and we hope many of you will come along to help celebrate the success of the competition and to share a drink and some nibbles with the judges, all of whom will be in attendance. The Season Launch kicks off early, at 4pm at the Campus Centre Theatre, located at the western end of the Campus Centre, Building 10 Monash University, Wellington Road Clayton. The awards will be handed out around 4.30, and for more information about the event please give Yvonne Virsik a call at Student Theatre on (03) 9905 8173.

We don't underestimate the efforts of inspiration, heart, and sheer hard work it takes to write a full-length piece of theatre and we're sincerely grateful to all 97 playwrights whose 103 scripts have ensured that the competition went right down to the wire and that the winning plays, chosen from a Final Short List of 18, are of the very highest quality. The volume of scripts submitted and high standard also meant, however, that a number of excellent playwrights left the competition empty-handed.

Plays Shortlisted for the 2005 National Playwrights Competition

Monash Prize

• UNI 1011 Understanding University Life in relation to the Time/Space Continum by David Innes
• Merde-Mouth by Martin Spencer and Andrew Dunstan
• Stolen Footsteps by Daniel Lammin

Open Competition

• The Refusenik by Henry Di Suvero (NSW)
• Professor Innocence by Tee OÕNeill (VIC)
• Mary Went by Anne Harris (VIC)
• Asylum by Kit Lazaroo (VIC)
• Relationship Maintenance in a Time of Revolution by Bruce Shearer (VIC)
• Bait by Bill Fleming (ACT)
• The Rejection ... (collection of short works) by Cameron Sievers (VIC)
• Merde-Mouth by Martin Spencer and Andrew Dunstan (VIC)
• Very Skinny People by Jens Porup (VIC)
• Primal Scheme by John OÕCarroll (VIC)
• A Summer without Josephine by Emmanuel Ruggeri (NSW)
• Poisoned Fish by Carol Dance (NSW)
• A Slow & Steady Darkening Towards Light by Ricci- Jane Adams (VIC)
• Darling-It-Hurts by Jim Scott-May (VIC)
• Stolen Footsteps by Daniel Lammin (VIC)
• Laugh Out Loud by Declan Greene (VIC)
• Apple by Elise Hearst (VIC)
• Burn by Ian Kennedy Williams (QLD)

If you have any queries please contact Artistic Director Yvonne Virsik ph: (03) 9905 8173 email: yvonne.virsik@adm.monash.edu.au

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