Phil Fox Award Prize and Eligibility Criteria Announced

Outside Edge Theatre Company announces prize and eligibility criteria for the 2020 Phil Fox Award for Playwriting.

KEY POINTS

The winning script will receive a £6,000 commission and mentorship by Enda Walsh.

Original scripts about issues related to addiction will be accepted from March 16th to June 16th.

Playwrights with all levels of experience and from all backgrounds are encouraged to apply.

Denise Gough and Indhu Rubasingham join the competition’s judging panel.

Outside Edge Theatre Company (OETC), which is the UK’s only theatre company and participatory arts charity focused on addiction, is pleased to announce more details about the inaugural Phil Fox Award for Playwriting. The winner of this year’s competition for scripts about addiction will receive a £6,000 commission and mentoring from chair of the judging panel, playwright Enda Walsh. Joining him on the panel will be newly announced judges Denise Gough and Indhu Rubasingham, along with the previously announced Simon Stephens, Barbara Broccoli, Matt Applewhite, Sonya Hale and Matt Steinberg. Playwrights can submit scripts from March 16th to June 16th.

The Phil Fox Award for Playwriting, which is named after OETC’s founder, invites playwrights with any level of experience from across the UK to submit full-length scripts about issues related to addiction. The competition winner will receive a £6,000 commission from OETC to continue developing the winning script or to develop a new script about issues related to addiction. They will also receive mentoring from multi-award winning playwright Enda Walsh, who chairs the competition’s judging panel.

This year’s competition will open for entries from March 16th to June 16th with a winner announced in early November. Submitted full-length plays from UK residents must be original, unproduced and about issues related to addiction. Writers with lived experience of addiction or affected by addiction are encouraged to apply, although this is not a requirement for eligibility.

Playwrights will need to clearly articulate how their scripts relate to these issues, which is not limited to substance misuse or alcohol abuse, but also includes subject matter involving non-chemical addictions, such as social media or sex addiction. Plays may also explore the social or structural determinants that contribute to addiction, such as access to services or the supply chain of an addictive product. The characters do not need to be addicts; for example, plays about people directly affected by another person’s addiction, such as family members of addicts, will also be accepted.

Judges for this year’s award include Enda Walsh (Tony Award-winning playwright), Simon Stephens (Tony and Olivier Award-winning playwright), Barbara Broccoli OBE (James Bond films and West End & Broadway theatre producer), Indhu Rubasingham (Artistic Director of the Kiln Theatre), Denise Gough (Olivier Award-winning actress), Matt Applewhite (Nick Hern Books Managing Director & Commissioning Editor), Sonya Hale (OETC Associate Theatre Facilitator and Synergy Theatre Project & Heretic Voices award-winning playwright) and Matt Steinberg (OETC Artistic Director).

Enda Walsh says, “We’ve assembled a fantastic judging panel who share my admiration and respect for Outside Edge Theatre Company. We are all very much looking forward to receiving these plays. To those writers – get writing – be brave with your submissions – and the very best of luck with the work.”

OETC Artistic Director, Matt Steinberg, says, “The launch of the inaugural Phil Fox Award for Playwriting is an exciting change of direction for Outside Edge Theatre Company. This investment in developing new writing and finding stories not often represented on our country’s stages builds upon our reputation as an innovative theatre maker producing hard-hitting and controversial plays. To be joined on this new adventure by such an extraordinary panel of judges feels like a fitting tribute to the legacy of our founding Artistic Director, whom the award is named after. We hope this accessible commissioning opportunity encourages established and first-time playwrights to think imaginatively about issues related to addiction. I can’t wait to read what they come up with!”

More information on the 2020 Phil Fox Award for Playwriting, including how to apply and eligibility criteria can be found on OETC’s website (www.edgetc.org/phil-fox-award/).

The Phil Fox Award for Playwriting is generously supported by an Anonymous Friend of OETC and The Carne Trust.

Winner of the Hearts for the Arts Award 2020 (Best Arts Project – Arts, Health and Wellbeing), OETC has created formally innovative theatre productions that examine issues related to substance misuse, addiction and recovery for over twenty years. OETC has produced new work at the Soho Theatre, VAULT Festival, Hoxton Hall, Riverside Studios and other London venues. The company also provides free, weekly peer-lead drama activities for people affected by addiction, which were featured recently on BBC One’s Sunday Morning Live.

Outside Edge Theatre Company’s work is generously supported by The Garfield Weston Foundation, Lloyds Bank Foundation for England and Wales, The Henry Smith Charity and The Woodward Charitable Trust.

NOTES TO EDITORS

CONTACT INFORMATION FOR PRESS ENQUIRIES

Administration and Projects Coordinator: Molly Cox

Email: molly.cox@edgetc.org

Phone: 0207 371 8020

ABOUT OUTSIDE EDGE THEATRE COMPANY

Founded in 1999 by actor and recovering addict Phil Fox, Outside Edge Theatre Company (OETC) has produced almost 50 productions over the past twenty years, including shows at Soho Theatre, VAULT Festival, Bloomsbury Festival, Hoxton Hall and Tristan Bates Theatre. OETC productions have toured across the country to treatment facilities, prisons, schools, community centres and theatre festivals. Our weekly acting and writing workshops are free and open to anyone affected by addiction. OETC was awarded the Hearts for the Arts Award 2020 for Best Project – Arts, Health and Wellbeing. Our patrons include Sir Mark Rylance, Jimmy Page OBE, Simon Woodroffe OBE, Kika Markham, Pierce Brosnan OBE and Anna Chancellor.