The Peggy Ramsay Foundation and Film4 Announce The 2022 Playwrights' Scheme Bursary Winners

The Peggy Ramsay Foundation with Film4 and the Maria Bjornson Memorial Fund are delighted to announce the six winners of the Peggy Ramsay/Film4 Awards which celebrate and support emerging British writing talent.

The initiative awards six bursaries a year to new theatre writers. Four bursaries are supported by The Peggy Ramsay Foundation (one is dedicated to the memory of literary agent Tom Erhardt) and two by Film4. Each bursary is worth £10,000.

The recipients of the bursaries for 2022 are:

Karis Kelly for Consumed
Lyric Theatre Belfast

Amy Trigg for Reasons You Should(n't) Love Me
Kiln Theatre

Natasha Brown for I Am (Not) Kanye West
Boundless Theatre

Hannah Lavery for Lament for Shiku Bayo
Traverse Theatre

Yolanda Mercy for Quarter Life Crisis
High Tide Theatre

Nina Segal for O, Island! (The Tom Erhardt Bursary)
Royal Shakespeare Company

In 2022 the successful writers will embark upon one-year attachments with the theatres outlined above, giving them the opportunity to meet a variety of theatre practitioners and to have first- hand experience of a Working Theatre. Their principal task during the 12 months of the bursary is to write at least one new full-length play.

This year's Panel, chaired by Sir Richard Eyre CH CBE, included: Jack Bradley (Sonia Friedman Productions); Ben Coren (Film 4); Dinah Wood (Faber & Faber); Will Mortimer (Bridge Theatre); Georgia Gatti (Jonathan Church Productions); Indhu Rubasingham (Kiln Theatre); Nicholas Wright (Playwright). The scheme is administered by Sue Higginson OBE.

The writers will also have the opportunity to submit their play for The Sonia Friedman Productions Award in the year following their bursary. This Award is also judged by the same selection panel chaired by Sir Richard Eyre.

Sir Richard Eyre (Chairman of the Panel) said: "We had a very good year for entries - very inventive and very diverse. It was so satisfying to see that people are so hopeful about the future of theatre after the misery of lockdown."

Neil Adleman (Chairman of The Peggy Ramsay Foundation) said: "We are delighted that our support has enabled the continuation of the Playwrights' Scheme, which is unique in its wide-ranging support of emerging British playwrights. It forms part of our wider mission of providing direct support to writers for theatre."

Ben Coren (Head of Development for Film4) said: "It was a real pleasure to be introduced to so many exciting new writers, especially after not being able to attend shows in person for so much of the pandemic. So many of our best writers come from theatre and Film4 are proud to continue to support the scheme."

To post a comment, you must register and login.