09 Apr 2011
PLAYMARKET is pleased to announce the Adam NZ Play Award winner for 2011:
ARUN SUBRAMANIAM for his play HERO
Hero recounts the glory and anguish surrounding a Malaysian politician's assassination as told through the eyes of his wife and thirteen-year-old son.
Arun’s writing has also sparked international attention in the last few years as Arun continued work on this, his second play. Ten minutes of Hero was staged when he attended a four-week summer residency at the Royal Court in London and FIRSTWoRKS, a Malaysian programme aimed at developing and nurturing new theatre writing talent, presented a reading in Kuala Lumpur. The play has not, however, received a full production yet. Arun has been a resident in New Zealand for the last four years and divides his time between writing and his psychiatry practice.
The win was announced at Circa Theatre on 9 April 2011 alongside six other special award winners. The announcement was followed by a rehearsed reading of Hero directed by Murray Lynch with Nathaniel Lees taking the role of the politician, Rashmi Pilapitiya his wife, Rina Patel their son and Ahilan Kurunaharan as a police officer involved in the case. Thanks to the generosity of the Adam Foundation, Arun received a cash prize of $5000.
The Adam New Zealand Play Award recognises and celebrates the best in new writing for the theatre. The annual award, now in its fourth year, is the only one of its kind for new writing and encourages writers to banish all self censoring, all worries about what theatres want, what is affordable and what they think audiences want to see.
PLAYMARKET director Murray Lynch says “the judges were pleased to find plays by women and Pasifika women in particular featuring so strongly among the winning plays this year. Five of the six winners in the categories were plays written by women and two of these were Pasifika women. This is a great turnaround in terms of the number of entries from female playwrights. Let us hope this leads to us seeing more of their works onstage.”
AWARD WINNER: Arun Subramaniam for Hero
PLAYMARKET also announced the following category winners:
RUNNERS-UP:
Courtney Meredith for Rushing Dolls
Georgina Titheridge for Sliderhands
BEST PLAY BY A PASIFIKA PLAYWRIGHT ($1000 CASH PRIZE):
Maureen Fepulea’i for E Ono Tama’i Pato
BEST PLAY BY A MAORI PLAYWRIGHT ($1000 CASH PRIZE):
Whiti Hereaka for Rona and Rabbit on the Moon
BEST PLAY BY A WOMAN PLAYWRIGHT ($1000 CASH PRIZE):
Georgina Titheridge for Sliderhands
Courtney Meredith for Rushing Dolls
PLAY PRESS SUBMISSION TO SUSAN BLACKBURN PRIZE:
Georgina Titheridge for Sliderhands
SPECIAL MENTION (PLAYMARKET & CIRCA SPONSORED READING):
Joe Musaphia for Problems
PUMPHOUSE THEATRE PRIZE FOR AN AUCKLAND PLAYWRIGHT (DEVELOPMENT SEASON):
Margot McRae for Fool’s Paradise
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