Pittsburgh Public Theater Crowns Winner Of Inaugural New Play Contest

Pittsburgh Public Theater has announced the winner of the organization's first New Play Contest, Emma Gibson, for her play When We Fall. As the winning playwright, Ms. Gibson received a $500 honorarium and a Public PlayTime premiere of When We Fall June 17-20, 2021.

The Public kicked off the New Play Contest this past November, welcoming writers from Pennsylvania, Ohio, or West Virginia to submit their work for consideration. A cohort of local readers adjudicated submissions over the course of three rounds on the following criteria: use of theme, effectiveness of plot structure, clarity of playwright's perspective and character development, as well as overall impact of the work. In Round 1, ten-page samples of each play were read and evaluated by the cohort. Those plays that advanced to Round 2 were submitted in full for further evaluation. The Round 3 finalists were offered feedback by the Pittsburgh Public Theater Writer's Group, who then selected the Contest winner.

Emma Gibson is a British theater-maker, now living in Philadelphia. She has an MA in Creative and Critical Writing from the University of Southampton. In the UK, she worked as an actress and a freelance journalist for The Guardian. She moved to Philadelphia in 2006 and has worked with many local companies, most recently performing in the Barrymore-nominated production of Perfect Blue. She teaches theater at The Shipley School in Bryn Mawr, PA and was the founding producing artistic director of Tiny Dynamite (www.tinydynamite.org).

Her first play, Water In My Hands, was selected for The Philadelphia Women's Theatre Festival, Spooky Action Theatre (DC) New Works In Action and The Liz Smith Reading Series at The Cherry Lane in NYC. Her second play When We Fall was selected for the 2020 PlayPenn Conference and was a finalist for Premiere Stages at Keane 2020, a finalist for Kitchen Dog's New Works Festival 2020, and a semi-finalist for the O'Neill New Play Conference 2020. It was also in the top 100 for the Verity Bargate Award at The Soho Theatre, UK and on the long list for The International Playwriting Award with Theatre 503, UK. She is currently developing a new play, If nobody does remarkable things. Her poetry has been published by Willowdown Books (Poems from the Lockdown) and Indolent Books (What Rough Beast). More at www.britishemma.com

7.7 billion people on earth and everyone is lonely. Perhaps. Trina definitely is, even though tonight is her birthday and she's going to party like it's 1982. But when Andrew and Clare turn up as Superman and Little Bo Peep, the ache of loneliness fills the night. Even Dalir senses it from the rooftop, somewhere between London and Pakistan, and now he has to do something about it. When We Fall is a new play about learning to fly, telling stories, and finding friendship in unexpected places.

For further inquiries about the New Play Contest, please send a message to PlayTime@PPT.org.

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