Ballkids by Melbourne playwright Olivia Satchell and Into The Light by Ian Roberts and Alex Broun have been announced as the joint winners of the 2024 Rodney Seaborn Playwrights Award.
“Every year we’re thrilled at the variety and standard of submissions, and past winners prove the talent we’ve discovered and supported,” said Chair of Trustees, theatre critic and commentator, Diana Simmonds. “This year we had a situation that’s happened only once before – two plays just couldn’t be separated. So I’m happy to say we’ve been able to make equal awards – $20,000 to each.”
Trustees who judged this year’s Award were Diana Simmonds (Chair), NIDA Artistic Director in Residence David Berthold, dramaturg and theatre legend Terry Clark AM, leading theatre director Lee Lewis OAM, Co-Artistic Director of bAKEHOUSE Theatre and Creative Director at KXT on Broadway Suzanne Millar, and theatre director Darren Yap.
“Ballkids is a play that signals Olivia Satchell as a significant voice in the future of Australian theatre. Sophisticated, nuanced, accessible and optimistic, Ballkids is a joyous portrait of friendship that reveals Satchell’s gift for understanding humans and transporting them into theatrical shape. This award recognises the achievement hived in Ballkids but also revels in the anticipation of all her plays to come,” said Lee Lewis.
“Into The Light is based on the true story of the (platonic) relationship between Ian Roberts, the renowned rugby league forward and NIDA graduate, and Arron, a youth he had compassionately befriended. Arron was murdered the day before he was to be Crown witness against a paedophile ring,” said Terry Clarke.
“The presentation is semi-documentary, so avoiding the temptation to sensationalise. While understandably presenting things from Roberts’ point of view, it does not whitewash him; on the contrary: the play, born of righteous anger, is both authentic and scarifyingly honest. The story itself is both horrible and moving, even heartwarming; the telling of it is well crafted, both dramatic and cleverly theatrical.”
The Rodney Seaborn Playwrights Award, worth $20,000 to the winner, has been an annual award since 2000. Past winners have included Alana Valentine (2002), Katherine Thomson (2003), Debra Oswald (2005), Reg Cribb (2008 & 2013), Mary Rachel Brown (2009), Finegan Kruckemeyer (2010), Campion Decent (2012), Katie Pollock (2018), Kirsty Mariller (2019), Dylan Van Den Berg (2020 & 2022), Steve Rodgers (2021) and Maxine Mellor (2023).
In addition to the announcement of the Rodney Seaborn Playwrights Award, the Seaborn, Broughton and Walford Foundation has announced over $200,000 in grants to the performing arts including $40,000 to NORPA – Northern Rivers Performing Arts, $20,000 to Genesian Theatre, $20,000 to Luminescence Chamber Singers, and $20,000 to Pinchgut Opera.
Two other discretionary grants and scholarships were also awarded, $10,000 to Les Tod for a book to accompany a film on the history of local Australian theatre, and $14,000 to the Sydney Theatre Awards to hold the 2024 Awards ceremony.
Established by Dr Rodney Seaborn AO OBE, the Foundation has donated well over $2 million in support to assist groups and individuals develop and produce worthwhile projects within the performing arts. Its Performing Arts Library and Archive is a valuable resource in its preservation of the wide-ranging and significant stories of Australia’s theatrical past – it has been listed in the UNESCO Memory of the World Australian Register.
For more information about the Seaborn, Broughton and Walford Foundation and the Rodney Seaborn Playwrights Award, visit: www.sbwfoundation.com for details.
Image: Olivia Satchell and Ian Roberts (supplied)