Taylor Cotton Wool Wins Meyer-Whitworth Award
Playwright Ali Taylor has won the 18th Meyer-Whitworth Award, announced at a lunchtime reception at the National Theatre today. Taylor won the award for his play Cotton Wool, which premiered at Theatre 503 in April 2008.
Supported by the National Theatre Foundation through an annual prize of £10,000, the Meyer-Whitworth Award is intended to help further the careers of UK playwrights who are not yet established. The award is also intended to draw to public attention the importance of writers in contemporary theatre.
This year’s judges were Jonathan Church, Tanika Gupta, David MacLennan, Stuart Mullins and Roy Williams.
Speaking about the decision to award the prize to Taylor, who also won the Metamorphosis 08 playwrighting competition (See News, 4 Jun 2008), Roy Williams said: “I loved this play. I found it so touching and real. The themes of grief, love, teenage angst were for me, written in such an original way, with an original voice. Plenty of heart.”
Ali Taylor receiving his award from Chichester Festival Theatre artistic director Jonathan Church
Ali Taylor described it as an “incredible honour” to win the award, which has previously gone to playwrights including Philip Ridley, David Harrower, Conor McPherson, Dennis Kelly and Morna Pearson. He added: “I wanted to tell a story that was emotionally truthful and theatrically exciting. I’d love this play to get a further production and hope this award will help do that.”
In other awards news, playwright Alexi Kaye Campbell has won the 2009 Whiting Award, supported by the Peter Wolff Trust, for his debut play The Pride, which premiered at the Royal Court in December last year.
The Whiting Award, which was established in 1965 to recognise originality in dramatic writing, comes with a prize of £6000, and was presented by Peter Wolff at Birmingham Repertory Theatre last week (15 October).
It’s the third award Campbell has won for The Pride – he also picked up the Critics’ Circle Prize for Most Promising Playwright and the Olivier award for Outstanding Achievement (See News, 8 Mar 2009).
The other shortlisted plays were: Monday by Paula Stanic, Another Paradise by Sayan Kent, Cockroach by Sam Holcroft, Pornography by Simon Stephens, The Contingency Plan by Steve Waters, The Monster Under the Bed by Kevin Dyer and Apologia by Alexi Kaye Campbell.
