Finborough Theatre Wins Pearson Award Bursary

The Finborough Theatre is pleased to announce that Dawn King has just been awarded a Pearson Playwrights' Bursary for New Writing as Playwright-in-Residence at the Finborough Theatre. This is the seventh year that the Finborough Theatre has won this prestigious new writing award and – once again - the Finborough Theatre is the only unsubsidised theatre to win a Pearson bursary.

The Pearson Playwrights' Scheme, supported by The Peggy Ramsay Foundation, awards five bursaries a year to writers of outstanding promise. Each award allows the playwright a twelve-month attachment to a theatre during which time one of the writer's principal tasks is the writing of a full-length play. Judges of the Pearson Award include Sir Richard Eyre, Catherine Johnson (previous bursary winner and writer of Mamma Mia), Sue Summers, Indhu Rubasingham, Michael Billington and John Tydeman OBE.

Previous recipients of the Pearson bursary over the last thirty years include Mike Bartlett, Richard Bean, Alan Bleasdale, Gregory Burke, David Edgar, David Eldridge, Lee Hall, Jacqueline Holborough, Catherine Johnson, Charlotte Jones, Fin Kennedy, Hanif Kureshi, Nick Leather, Martin McDonagh, Gary Mitchell, Chloe Moss, Gary Owen, Joe Penhall, Winsome Pinnock, Billy Roche, Simon Stephens, Sue Townsend and Timberlake Wertenbaker.

Previous winners for the Finborough Theatre include Chris Lee in 2000, Laura Wade in 2005 (who also won the award for the Best Play written that year by a bursary winner), James Graham in 2006 (who also won the Catherine Johnson Award for the Best Play written that year by a bursary winner), Al Smith in 2007, Anders Lustgarten in 2009 (who also won the Catherine Johnson Award for the Best Play written that year by a bursary winner) and Simon Vinnicombe in 2010.

Playwright Dawn King was one of ten writers from across the UK chosen for the BBC Writersroom 10 scheme, a prestigious mentoring and support programme. Through this she is developing a new play with West Yorkshire Playhouse. She is also currently writing My One and Only, an afternoon play for BBC radio 4. Her episode of horror series The Man in Black will broadcast on BBC radio 4 Extra later this year. Previous radio work includes afternoon play 28 and episodes for the first and second series of science fiction drama Planet B for BBC radio 7. She was made co-series leader for the third series. Her recent theatre work includes Water Sculptures and Zoo double bill (Union Theatre), Face Value (Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough), The Bitches' Ball (Hoxton Hall), National Tour and Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh) and Doghead Boy and Sharkmouth Go To Ikea (The Junction, Cambridge). Previous work has received performances, workshops and readings at; Royal Court Theatre, Soho Theatre, Hampstead Theatre, Theatre503, Arcola, Old Red Lion, Etcetera Theatre, The Latitude Festival, Resonance FM and The Union Theatre. Dawn was a member of both the Soho Theatre and Royal Court Theatre Young Writers' Programmes and holds an MA distinction in Writing for Performance from Goldsmiths University, London. www.dawn-king.com

Her play, Foxfinder, which won her the bursary, was also the winner of the 2011 Papatango Playwriting Competition and will be presented at the Finborough Theatre in December 2012, running 29 November –23 December 2011 (PRESS NIGHT: THURSDAY, 1 DECEMBER 2011 AT 8.30PM) , as part of the New Writing at the Finborough Theatre Season.

FOXFINDER

by Dawn King.
Directed by Blanche McIntyre. Designed by James Perkins. Lighting by Gary Bowman. Sound by George Dennis.
Cast: Kirsty Besterman. Tom Byam Shaw. Becci Gemmell. Gyuri Sarossy.

"You, Foxfinder, must be clean in body and mind. Always remember that the smallest fault in your character could become a crack into which the beast may insinuate himself, like water awaiting the freeze that will smash the stone apart."

William Bloor, a Foxfinder, arrives at Sam and Judith Covey's farm to investigate a suspected contamination. What follows will change the course of all their lives, forever. Foxfinder is a gripping, unsettling and darkly comic exploration of belief, desire and responsibility.

For more information on the Finborough Theatre, please click here.

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