No Richard Burton Award for New Plays to be awarded in 2011
No Richard Burton Award for New Plays to be awarded in 2011
The judging panel for the second annual Richard Burton Award for New Plays has announced that this major national award for Australian playwriting will not be awarded in 2011.
The Richard Burton Award for New Plays was established to celebrate the career of Richard Burton, one of the great actors of stage and 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.
As in 2010, over 100 submissions were received for the Award in 2011. However, the judging panel was unanimous in stating that no outstanding work could be identified this year that they felt was deserving of this major award.
Sally Burton said, “I was extremely proud of the plays that came out of the 2010 Richard Burton Award for New Plays and I am disappointed that the panel was unable to identify an outstanding entry in 2011. I am committed to the Richard Burton Award for New Plays as an annual award into the future. I am currently considering how this year’s funds might best be used towards a development program for playwrights and will also work with Black Swan to review the Award guidelines prior opening the 2012 Award for submissions.”
Kate Cherry, Black Swan State Theatre Company’s Artistic Director commented, “I am disappointed that the Richard Burton Award for New Plays will not be awarded in 2011. New Australian work is at the core of my creative agenda for Black Swan, and the establishment of the Richard Burton Award for New Plays is a wonderful initiative by Sally Burton to support playwriting in Australia. The fact that there will be no winner of the Award this year highlights the ongoing need to support emerging playwrights in Australia, and Black Swan is committed to doing so through our ongoing commissioning program and work with emerging artists.”
