The Nick Enright Prize for Playwriting

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 2015 and 30 September 2016. 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 the Play Award. Assessment will be made entirely on the literary merit of the written text, and not on the merits of a particular production. The prize money will be paid to the playwright/s. In the case of a work of music drama, the judges may decide that the award should be shared by the writer and the composer. In this instance, the composer must be a living Australian citizen or hold permanent resident status.

Unpublished plays must be submitted in a bound form, NOT loose-leafed.

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).