Papatango Announces 10th Anniversary Programme

Papatango today announces a series of awards and projects to mark its 10th anniversary, including the winner of the 2017 Papatango New Writing Prize, the 2017 Papatango Resident Playwright, its first UK tour, the launch of a participation and engagement sub-company delivering free playwriting opportunities nationwide, and a book empowering writers to break into professional playwriting.

Stewart Pringle's play Trestle is the winner of the ninth annual Papatango New Writing Prize, receiving its world première at Southwark Playhouse in November. The play was chosen anonymously from over 1000 entries. The four other shortlisted plays were Bush Meat by Jon Barton, Pill Hill by Liam Clarke, Plow by ShaRon Clark, and Torvill and Dean and Eddie by Lee Coan.

Dare Aiyegbayo is named the 2017 Papatango Resident Playwright. She receives a £2000 seed commission and extensive mentoring and R&D resources to complete a new play. Aiyegbayo follows in the footsteps of former Resident Playwright Sam Potter, whose one-woman play Hanna will become Papatango's first ever tour when it travels around the UK from January 2018. It opens at the Arcola Theatre before moving to Cheltenham, Oxford, Canterbury, Bedford and Cardiff.

There is further expansion with the launch of GoWrite, a new arm to the company which will reach over 4000 individuals with a range of participation and engagement activities, all completely free. These include state school playwriting workshops in London and Liverpool modelled on the Papatango New Writing Prize that will enable students to write their own plays and see these professionally performed and published. There will also be playwriting programmes for adults in London, Luton, and Bedford. A bursary pot of over £5000 will enable writers without any professional training or experience from across the country to participate.

Also announced today is a new book, co-written by Papatango Artistic Director George Turvey and Producer Chris Foxon, entitled Being a Playwright: A Career Guide for Writers, which will be published in autumn 2018 by Nick Hern Books. It explores the business of playwriting, specifically all the factors besides writing that playwrights need to know about, enabling anyone regardless of connections or background to make the most of their talent.

Artistic Director George Turvey and Producer Chris Foxon said today, "We are delighted to launch Papatango's tenth anniversary with an exciting and in some cases unprecedented array of projects championing original playwriting. These range from state schools to community centres to award-winning stages, from London to Liverpool to Luton. It is truly our biggest and most ambitious programme yet, with playwriting at its heart. Over the last ten years the company has been built from nothing by supporting unknown writers; what has sustained Papatango throughout is the belief that brilliant new playwrights are out there, waiting for opportunities. In our tenth year, we hope to deliver more such opportunities than ever before, true to our motto that All You Need Is A Story."

Stewart Pringle also said, "I'm over the bloody moon to have won the 2017 Papatango New Writing Prize. It's an award with a tremendous heritage in the UK new writing scene, and the chance to have this play staged by such a fantastic team is beyond brilliant. It's given me the confidence to take my writing off the back-burner, where it's been for pretty much ever, and I'm stoked to see what the future might hold. Thank you Papatango, you're lovely!"

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