Sydney news

The Philip Parsons Award is given each year to a playwright whose work demonstrates an original and compelling theatrical voice, and the competition attracts the highest calibre of artists each year.  Previous Philip Parsons Young Playwright’s Award winners include Holding the Man and Saturn’s Return writer Tommy Murphy (2007) and Kate Mulvany (2006), whose commissioned work, The Seed, sold out its B Sharp season, before moving upstairs in Belvoir St Theatre’s main stage season this year. In 2009 Company B will stage Brendan Cowell’s 2005 Philip Parson commission Ruben Guthrie after a sold-out season in the Downstairs Theatre in early 2008.

Of winning the award, Khoa said, “I am honoured to receive this significant award. I believe we need to tell bold, powerful and engaging stories in this country. We need to tell stories that reflect the experiences and lives of all Australians. I look forward to working with Company B in 2009 to create such a story,” he said.

Khoa co-wrote, produced and directed the film The Finished People (2003) for which he was nominated for an AFI for Best Direction – the youngest to be nominated in this category – and received both a Centenary Medal and the IF Independent Spirit Award. In 2006 he directed Footy Legends, a film that starred his brother Anh Do, Claudia Karvan and Angus Sampson. Khoa was also awarded Young Australian of the Year in 2005 for his work with the community in film. His first play Mother Fish premiered in 2007 at Parramatta Riverside Theatres.

The Philip Parsons Young Playwright’s Award is part of the annual Philip Parsons Memorial Lecture, which was this year given by Artistic Director 2005 – 2008 of the Melbourne International Arts Festival, and Head of VCA Performing Arts Kristy Edmunds. A leading advocate for the development of contemporary art and performance, both in Australia and internationally, Kristy’s lecture looked at why contemporary performance matters, what keeps it vital and what threatens its role in the current climate.

The Award and Lecture commemorate the life’s work of Dr Philip Parsons AM (1926-1993). Dr Parsons was co-founder of the performing arts publishers Currency Press, and an influential teacher and mentor to many of the students, scholars, actors, directors and playwrights who created the new wave of Australian theatre in the 1970s.