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The Shane & Cathryn Brennan Prize for Playwriting has been developed to discover and celebrate the best new scripts among Australian playwrights. With $60,000 in prize money on offer, the Prize invites playwrights to submit unproduced plays across two categories: Stage and Theatre for Young Audiences.

Download the full 2021 Shane & Cathryn Brennan Prize for playwriting entry guidelines here.

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THE PRIZE

Stage Category

The winner of the Prize for Stage will:

• Receive $10,000 in prize money.
• Have their winning project inducted onto the new Pathways for Playwrights as part of AWG’s prestigious Pathways Showcase.
• Have the opportunity to publish their winning script online with Australian Plays Transform’s Feature AWG Collection, allowing the public to read the scripts in full for one month. Participating playwrights will be paid a $100 fee.  
• Have the opportunity to create a ‘Playwright Profile’ with APT, featuring a headshot and bio. 

Theatre for Young Audiences Category

The winner of the Prize for Theatre For Young Audiences will:

• Receive $10,000 in prize money.
• Have their winning project inducted onto the new Pathways for Playwrights as part of AWG’s prestigious Pathways Showcase.
• Have the opportunity to publish their winning script online with Australian Plays Transform’s Feature AWG Collection, allowing the public to read the scripts in full for one month. Participating playwrights will be paid a $100 fee. 
• Have the opportunity to create a ‘Playwright Profile’ with APT, featuring a headshot and bio.

Shortlisted works in both categories will be inducted onto Pathways for Playwrights. Shortlisted and longlisted writers in both categories will share in $40,000 of prize money.

Additionally, APT may be in a position to offer full digital publication for two scripts from the shortlisted plays. This will be at APT’s discretion. They may look to enter a formal digital publishing agreement with the playwrights (as per APT standard publishing agreement with royalties of 30% of the sale price paid to the playwright). APT’s mission statement and values prioritise the promotion of First Nations, Culturally and Linguistically Diverse, Regional and LGBTQIA+ artists, as well as Artists living with a disability. 

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ENTRANT GUIDELINES

• Open to current financial AWG Full and Associate Members. Membership must be valid at the time of entry and for the duration of the competition.
• AWG offers to waive the joining fee for new members joining to enter the Shane & Cathryn Brennan Prize for Playwriting. To take advantage of this special offer, please email [email protected] by MONDAY 24 JANUARY 2022.  
• New members will need to join for a minimum of 12 months.

ENTRY GUIDELINES

• Entries close 5pm Monday 31 January 2022 (AEDT).
• Scripts must not have had their first professional production at the time of entry or be programmed for professional production. If the work was commissioned but cancelled or not programmed due to COVID-19, the entrant may include a short note stating when the play was intended to be programmed, by what company, and when it was cancelled.
• Entrants must own all the rights to the script being entered. If the work is an adaptation, you must have the right or be able to secure the right to adapt the underlying material on which the play is based, or the underlying material must be in the public domain.
• All entries for the Shane & Cathryn Brennan Prize for Playwriting are to be completed online, including uploading synopsis and script documents.
• Your synopsis and script should not include personal details, or any indication of funding or support previously received for script development.
• Scripts should be presented and formatted to industry standards. You can find Australian Plays’ suggested script layout here. Please N.B. that entrants should not publish their name or any identifying details on their work.
• All instances of collaborations and authorship must be declared in the entry form.
• Co-writers are not required to be AWG Members.

IMPORTANT NOTE: To ensure a fair judging process, the writer’s name and personal details should not appear on any part of the synopsis/script or as a header or footer within the script. Entries should also not include any reference to previous funding or support received for the development of the script, including logos. Entries that include any of the above details will not be eligible to enter.

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CATEGORY REQUIREMENTS

Stage Category

• Each entry must include a one-page synopsis and the full script, uploaded as PDF documents.

Theatre for Young Audiences Category

• Each entry must include a one-page synopsis and the full script, uploaded as PDF documents.
• Theatre for Young Audiences is written for a target audience of children or young people of any age up to and including 18 years. It includes ‘Children’s Theatre’ and ‘Theatre in Education’ and is usually performed by a professional cast.

NUMBER OF ENTRIES

• Entrants may enter only one individually written script in each category. However, if a script is co-written, it may be entered by any AWG Member co-writer who has not already submitted an entry in that category.
• An entrant may thus have two scripts entered in a category: one written solely by them and another co-written script entered by their AWG Member co-writer (provided that co-writer has not already entered a script in that same category).
• In all cases, no individually – or collaboratively – written script can be entered more than once in any category.

The Australian Writers’ Guild expects that the winners of the Shane & Cathryn Brennan Prize for Playwriting in either category will assist in publicly promoting Australian theatre and these Awards. For this reason, recipients should be prepared to participate in a small number of media opportunities at the time of receiving their Award.

Entrants agree that their work may be assessed at the discretion of the Australian Writers’ Guild by the Pathways Showcase judging panel for entry onto Pathways for Playwrights. 

Entrants agree that their work may be assessed at the discretion of Australian Plays Transform for an online publication of their script for one month as part of APT’s Feature AWG Collection or for a full digital publication. Entrants will be notified of this opportunity ahead of time to determine their participation. For the avoidance of doubt, selected entrants are not obliged to accept this publication opportunity.

The Shane & Cathryn Brennan Prize for Playwriting is presented in partnership with Australian Plays Transform.