| Winners Announced for Young Playwrights Award |
| Thursday, 21 June 2012 11:24 |
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Alfie Simpson, 21 (a previous winner), and Chloé Eckert, 19, have been announced winners of the 2012 Flinders University Young Playwrights Award. In Alfie's play, Neil Wurbiton Has Risen, two scientists manage to bring Neil Wurbiton back to life after he is killed in a car accident. Technically he's dead, but as far as the ethics board are concerned he is alive and the two scientists are going to prison for illegally experimenting on a live human subject. Things get even more complicated when Neil's wife shows up looking to organise the funeral. Is there life after death? Chloé's play, Sage, takes place on a cliff top where Grace, desperate and confused, is ready to jump. Interrupted by Charlie, an annoying stranger, an awkward conversation plays out as a storm brews. Not everything is as it appears as these two odd, damaged and interesting minds meet. "The panel was very impressed with the quality of the scripts received. We had a shortlist of eight plays from which to choose our winners. That being said, Alfie and Chloé's scripts were definite standouts, utilising contemporary, relevant themes and discourses. Alfie's witty play raises questions about science, ethics, relationships and mortality," judge and State Theatre Company Associate Director Catherine Fitzgerald said. "Chloé's writing is sensitive, evocative and insightful, offering an expose that shines a light onto mental illness, isolation, loneliness and despair." Commendations were awarded to Alex West, Heather Maggs and Christopher Bond. Phillip Kavanagh, one of the 2011 winners for his play Plain Jane, is now studying Playwriting at NIDA and has also won several writing awards, including the 2012 Colin Thiele Creative Writing Scholarship and the Sydney Theatre Company's Patrick White Playwrights Award. |
