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Griffin Award for New Australian Playwriting
Subcategory of Awards Australian Awards
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History

The Griffin Award is a national prize recognising an outstanding play that displays an authentic, inventive and contemporary Australian voice. Established by the Griffin Theatre Company in 1985, the award is supported by Copyright Agency Limited.

Shortlists for the following years are currently incomplete and in progress: 1998-2005 inclusive, 2009, 2010.

Notes

  • The Griffin Award is an annual prize offered for the most outstanding new work read by Griffin during the year.

Latest Winners / Recipients

Year: 2023

winner Wendy Mocke for 'I Am Kegu'.

Year: 2022

winner Grace Chow for 'The Promise Land'.

Year: 2021

winner Megan Wilding for 'Game, Set, Match'.

Year: 2020

winner Way Back When Dylan Van Den Berg , 2019 single work drama

'way back when, set in a fictional post-colonial Tasmania, sees Ghost, a take-no-nonsense apparition, set the scene for the meeting of an unlikely trio of three women. To pass the time (and forget the cold), they re-imagine the colonisation of Tasmania as a Gothic revenge drama. There’s comedy, a play-within-a-play and, as their connection to each other strengthens, revelations of personal traumas which steadily undermine the fervour of their collective revisionism.'

Source: Griffin Theatre.

Year: 2019

winner y separately published work icon Superheroes Mark Rogers , 2020 Strawberry Hills : Currency Press , 2020 17190046 2020 single work drama

'In Thirroul, Emily sits on the beach with her sort-of-ex-sort-of-not boyfriend, trying to figure out how to deal with her unwanted pregnancy.

'In Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Jana goes out to get groceries and slams into the day-to-day reality of the European refugee crisis.

'Superheroes is a play about two women on opposite sides of the world living small lives in a time of big politics. It’s a play that parallels two very different lives to ask questions about what it means to take responsibility for your actions, and what it means to change your mind.'

Source: Griffin Theatre Company.

Works About this Award

Wilding Aces the Griffin 2021 single work column
— Appears in: Koori Mail , 11 August no. 757 2021; (p. 35)
'GAMILAROI woman Megan Wilding has been awarded the 2021 Griffin Award for new Australian playwriting for her play GAME. SET. MATCH. ' 
 
Taking Time to Make it Good Bridget Cormack , 2012 single work column
— Appears in: The Australian , 13 June 2012; (p. 16)
Win Brings New Dawn after Night-Time Epiphany Adam Fulton , 2012 single work column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 13 June 2012; (p. 13)
Playwriting Award 2012 single work column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 30 May 2012; (p. 10)
Brutopia Wins Griffin Award Bridget Cormack , 2010 single work column
— Appears in: The Australian , 18 August 2010; (p. 14)
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