Outside Edge Theatre Company Announces Shortlist For The Inaugural 2020 Phil Fox Playwriting Award

Outside Edge Theatre Company (OETC), the UK's only theatre company and participatory arts charity focused on addiction, has announced the shortlist for the inaugural Phil Fox Award for Playwriting. Selected from 350 entries, the award is named after OETC's founder who passed away in 2014. In its inaugural year, the prize has been created to recognise original scripts by playwrights from all backgrounds and experience levels, tackling issues around addiction. The winning script will be announced on 4 November and the chosen playwright will receive a £6,000 commission and mentorship from chair of the judging panel, Tony Award-winning playwright Enda Walsh.

Artistic Director of Outside Edge Theatre Company Matt Steinberg today said, "We have been overwhelmed with the enthusiastic response to Outside Edge's inaugural script competition. Playwrights with a range of experience from across the country have sent us extraordinary plays about the varied aspects of addiction, with stories ranging from substance misuse to social media addiction. The creativity of the writers and ingenuity of these plays are a fitting tribute to the legacy of our founding Artistic Director, Phil Fox, whose lived experience of moving from addiction to recovery remains at the heart Outside Edge Theatre Company's unique programme of work."

"The exceptional quality of the plays selected for this year's shortlist is an indication of the overall calibre of scripts submitted for the competition. I only wish that we could programme all of these incredible new plays! But with last week's news that drug deaths in England and Wales have hit a record high, my sincere hope is that the Phil Fox Award will enable other theatres to see the urgent importance of programming stories that explore the complicated experience of addiction."

Also on the 2020 judging panel are leading industry figures Matt Applewhite (Nick Hern Books Managing Director and Commissioning Editor), Barbara Broccoli OBE (Film Producer), Sonya Hale (OETC Associate Theatre Facilitator and Heretic Voices award-winning playwright), Indhu Rubasingham (Artistic Director of the Kiln Theatre), Matt Steinberg (OETC Artistic Director) and Simon Stephens (Tony and Olivier Award-winning playwright of The Curious Incident of the Dog In The Night-Time).

The Longlist for the Phil Fox Playwriting Prize:

• A is for Appy by Dominic McHale
• A short guide to staying alive by Olga Nikora
• Bitter by Louise Coulthard
• Boomerang by Jack Stanley
• Circle Game by Sophie Swithinbank
• Daisies and iPhones by Daphne Di Cinto
• Drift by Kristian Phillips
• Empty Orchestra by Mark Fenton
• Entropy by Kate Reid
• Grotesque, Stupid and Ungrateful by Natalie Jones
• Jerk by Nick Edgeworth
• Lessons for Diving by Silas Parry
• Necropolis by John Straiton
• Nibble Nibble Gnaw by Isla Cowan
• Parlour Games by Simon Glass
• Pushing on Open Doors by Sarah Connors
• Skinhead Moonstomp by Karen Brown
• Squirrels by Ayse Evans
• The Goodest Boys by Vikki Stone
• Well Wishes by Matthew McGuigan
• What's Lost in the Gaps by Jack Robson

While the competition is open to anyone, writers with lived experience of addiction were encouraged to apply, and submitted scripts could explore any type of addiction from substance misuse to social media and sex addiction.

The Phil Fox Award for Playwriting is generously supported by An Anonymous Friend of OETC, The Carne Trust and Unity Theatre Trust.

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