The Stage

Writer Pearson wins £10,000 Meyer-Whitworth Award

Published Tuesday 30 October 2007 at 16:35 by Alistair Smith

Morna Pearson has been presented with the Meyer-Whitworth Award for new playwriting for Distracted, which was performed at Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre in 2006.

Ashley Meyer presented the cheque for £10,000 from funds provided by the Royal National Theatre Foundation, as a result of a past donation from the Meyer and Whitworth families.

Pearson said: “I am thrilled and honoured to receive the Meyer-Whitworth Award. Being a new playwright involves a constant struggle to balance work and writing and, in this respect, winning the award couldn’t have happened at a better time. I am now very excited about the future.”

The prize is intended to help further the careers of UK playwrights who are not yet established, and to draw to public attention to the importance of writers in contemporary theatre.

The judges for the award this year were arts journalist Mary Brennan and Stuart Mullins, creative director of Theatre Is. Julie Ellen, creative director of Playwrights’ Studio, Scotland chaired the judging meeting.

Stuart Mullins added: “The standard of the six shortlisted plays was very high. We were looking for a play and a writer that would challenge us to look at the world in a very different way. One play did this, without doubt an exciting and original voice that British theatre must nurture and cherish.”

The application process for the 17th Meyer-Whitworth Award will commence in December for plays produced between November 1, 2006 and November 30, 2007.