Playwright Finalist for Prestigious International Prize

MEDIA RELEASE
From The Play Press
15h March 2013

NZ Playwright Finalist again for Prestigious International Prize

Wellington playwright Jean Betts is a finalist in The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for the second time, with her new play Genesis Falls (nominated by Fortune Theatre). She was first a finalist with her play The Collective in 2004. It is one of the few international prizes for which New Zealand playwrights are eligible. (www.blackburnprize.org)

Now in its thirty-fifth year this prestigious international prize, given annually to a woman who deserves recognition for having written a work of outstanding quality for the English-speaking theatre, has 10 finalists who are all awarded US$2500. The winner who will be announced at a ceremony in New York later this month, receives US$25,000.

Past finalists have included Caryl Churchill (Top Girls), Marie Jones (Stones in His Pockets), Paula Vogel (How I Learned to Drive), Sarah Ruhl (The Clean House) and Lucy Prebble (Enron). The judges are well known playwrights, critics and theatre practitioners, including in the past such luminaries such as Tom Stoppard, Frances McDormand, Michael Billington and Edward Albee.

An established New Zealand playwright, Betts is also known for her popular plays Ophelia Thinks Harder and Revenge of the Amazons. She is currently working towards a production of her latest play, The Man from Tamil Nadu.

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