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2023
Winners announced
Winner and Shortlist
2023
State Theatre Company South Australia/ Country Arts South Australia/ Currency Press
Shortlisted
About the Prize
The Nick Enright Prize ($30,000) is offered for a play, or a work of music drama given its first production in Australia between 1 October 2021 and 30 September 2022. The production may be given by a professional or amateur theatre company, but it must involve a season of several performances before a general audience. Plays written by more than four authors are not eligible for this prize.
Assessment will be made entirely on the literary merit of the written text, and not on the merits of a particular production. The text should translate to the stage and be performable.
Where a production has been delayed due to unforeseen circumstances the judges may permit the entry at their discretion.
The Judging Panel
David Berthold
Chair
David Berthold is a prominent Australian cultural leader and director of theatre, festivals and arts organisations. He has directed for most of Australia's major theatre companies, as well as internationally, and has led transformational change at several significant arts organisations as an Artistic Director and CEO. He is currently Director in Residence at NIDA, where he leads the artistic planning and programming. He was recently Artistic Director of Brisbane Festival, one of Australia's major international arts festivals, directing five record-breaking festivals, 2015-19. He has been Artistic Director of La Boite Theatre Company, Artistic Director of Griffin Theatre Company, Artistic Director of the Australian Theatre for Young People, and Associate Director of Sydney Theatre Company. He is a member of the NSW Government's Theatre and Musical Theatre Arts Advisory Board, a Board member of Australian Plays Transform (APT), a Trustee of the Rodney Seaborn Playwrights Award, and a member of the Theatre Panel of the Helpmann Awards.
Jada Alberts
Jada is a First Nations actor, writer and director from the Bardi, Wardaman, Larrakia and Yanyuwa peoples. In 2013, Jada was the recipient of the Balnaves Foundation Indigenous Playwright’s Award. Their debut work, Brothers Wreck was first produced in 2014 at Belvoir to critical acclaim. It received a nomination at the 2014 Sydney Theatre Awards for Best New Australian Work, a nomination for the Nick Enright Prize for Playwriting at the 2015 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards and a nomination for Best Stage Play at the 2015 AWGIE Awards. In 2016, Jada was awarded the inaugural Mona Brand Emerging Writer Award.
Joanne Kee
Joanne Kee is the Executive Producer of Riverside’s National Theatre of Parramatta responsible for the artistic and strategic direction of the Company. Her career includes being Artistic Director of Sydney Improvised Music Association, Sydney International Women’s Jazz Festival and Places + Spaces.
She also worked at The Song Company, Sydney Opera House, Carnivale multicultural festival and the Powershouse Museum. She has written for the Sydney Morning Herald, Women’s Money and was Editor of Jazz Australia. Joanne is committed to building capacity in an equitable and inclusive manner and is currently delivering platforms for playwrights and theatre-makers to challenge and inspire audiences with innovative and transformational work.
She is a member of the Create NSW Theatre panel and as former Chair of Ausdance NSW was instrumental in setting up Critical Path, choreographic lab.
Past winners
About Nick Enright
Nicholas Paul “Nick” Enright (1950-2003) was an Australian playwright and dramatist. After his graduation from Sydney University, he worked for Sydney’s Nimrod Theatre before being appointed as trainee director at the Melbourne Theatre Company. He won an Australia Council Fellowship to study directing at New York University where he began writing plays. After his graduation in 1977, Enright joined the State Theatre Company of South Australia as actor and director before becoming Head of Acting at NIDA in 1983 and 1984. All of his plays, including Blackrock and On the Wallaby, have been performed by the major Australian theatre companies. Enright also wrote three musicals, Variations winning the NSW Premier’s Literary Play Award in 1983. He was co-nominated for an Academy Award for his screenplay of Lorenzo’s Oil (1992).
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