Victoria Wood Prize Shortlist Announcement
We are incredibly excited today to share the shortlist of eight new plays in The Victoria Wood Playwriting Prize for Comedy. This first ever major playwriting prize dedicated to the art of Comedy was launched in September last year in partnership with The Victoria Wood Foundation and supported by BBC Comedy. We received over 500 entries, and following months of deliberation, the scripts have now been whittled down to eight amazing new plays.
The shortlisted plays are:
Bring me the Head of Miriam Margolyes by Andrew Pollard
Hello Charlie by Caoimhe Farren
Bum by Ed Amsden and Tom Coles
Goodbye Suzzie Jenkins by Ben Callon
Reach for the Stars by Jenny Knotts
Portugal by Eugene O’Hare
Sidekicked by Patrick Maguire
Fake Melania by Poppy Corbett
Sean Foley (Credit: Kris Askey)
Artistic Director of Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Sean Foley said:
To have a new major playwriting prize in our industry is a cause for celebration itself – never has the need for supporting new plays been greater – but to have this Prize dedicated to the art of Comedy, perhaps the most difficult genre of all, is ground-breaking. A fitting tribute to Victoria Wood’s trailblazing comic talent, this is the first major playwriting Prize for narrative stage comedy in the world. The Rep is proud that the home of the Prize is in the UK’s most diverse and youngest City. It is, of course, also the city where Victoria Wood herself went to university to study Drama.”
The final four plays will be announced on Mon 13 May. The eventual winner will be announced at a special ceremony, which will be held at The Rep on Wed 15 May and will receive £25,000 (£10,000 of which will be a play commission) and a special award designed and currently being made in our own workshops.
Meet The Judges
Sean Foley
Sean Foley is an actor, writer and director. A double Olivier Award winner and Tony nominee, his work – as lead creative on 14 West End shows: as co-writer/star; writer/director; adaptor/director; and director – has also been Olivier nominated multiple times. He has – uniquely – been personally nominated in the acting, writing and directing categories.
Sean is the Artistic Director of Birmingham Rep, and his next production at the theatre is a new stage adaptation of Withnail & I. Sean’s other directing credits for The Rep include Idiots Assemble: Spitting Image Save The World – Live On Stage and The Play What I Wrote.
Theatre credits include: the Olivier nominated The Upstart Crow, (director), starring David Mitchell and Gemma Whelan; The Play What I Wrote, (co-writer/director), first major revival guest starring Tom Hiddleston, Adrian Lester, et al; ; his Olivier Award winning production of Jeeves and Wooster in Perfect Nonsense, (Duke of Yorks), starring Stephen Mangan and Matthew MacFadyen; Olivier Award nominated The Miser, (co-writer and director, Garrick Theatre), starring Griff Rhys Jones; The Painkiller, in Kenneth Branagh’s West End season, (as adaptor/director, Garrick Theatre), starring Kenneth Branagh and Rob Brydon; the 5 times Olivier nominated The Ladykillers (as director and script associate), including Best Director, Best New Play and Whatsonstage Award for Best New Comedy, Gielgud, starring Peter Capaldi; the Olivier nominated, Arturo Brachetti: Change, (as writer/director, Garrick); the Olivier Award winning Do You Come Here Often? (as co-writer and actor, Vaudeville); the Olivier Award winning The Play What I Wrote, (as co-writer and actor – further jointly nominated as Best Actor, Wyndham’s). The play was also Tony Award nominated on its Broadway transfer); the Olivier Award nominated, Ducktastic, (as co-writer and actor, Albery). The Walworth Farce, with Brendan, Domhnall and Briain Gleeson, Olympia Theatre, Dublin.
Further directing work includes: The Man In The White Suit, (as writer/director, Wyndhams), starring Stephen Mangan; The Dresser, (Duke of York’s); his RSC debut, adapting and directing Thomas Middleton’s A Mad World My Masters, (Swan Theatre, Stratford, and Barbican); Harry Hill and Steve Brown’s, I Can’t Sing! at The London Palladium, starring Cynthia Erivo; Present Laughter, The Critic, and The Real Inspector Hound, (Chichester Festival Theatre); Joe Orton’s What The Butler Saw, (Vaudeville); Ben Hur, (Watermill); Pinter’s People, (Theatre Royal, Haymarket); as writer only, his adaptation of Eugene Ionesco’s Amedee, or How To Get Rid Of It, debuted at Birmingham Rep.
Sean has also directed the live shows of leading comedians, including: Joan Rivers: A Work In Progress, (Leicester Square); Armstrong and Miller Live (UK Tour); Catherine Tate Live (UK and Australian Tour)
As co-artistic director of the right size, he created, co-wrote and starred in ten original stage comedies 1990 to 2000. The company played in over 25 countries around the world, winning many international awards.
His feature film directing debut, Mindhorn, written by and starring Julian Barratt & Simon Farnaby, was first seen at the London Film Festival and won the London Film Comedy Award for Best First Feature. TV directing includes episodes of Sky’s anthology series, Urban Myths: Marilyn and Billy, starring Gemma Arterton; and, Diana and Freddy.
Daniel Rigby
Daniel Rigby is an accomplished and award winning actor, writer and comedian who trained at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.
He has since starred in several popular television series including Charlie Brooker’s acclaimed Black Mirror, BAFTA winning show Flowers for Channel 4, BBC’s Big School, The Witchfinder and Bafta nominated show Landscapers for HBO Max. His performance as Eric Morecambe in Eric and Ernie for the BBC led to him winning the Best Actor Award at the BAFTA Television Awards, 2011.
Daniel’s theatre credits include: One Man, Two Guvnors (National Theatre), Twelfth Night (National Theatre), Frost/Nixon (Sheffield Crucible), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Sheffield Crucible), Noises Off (Lyric Hammersmith and the West End’s Garrick Theatre) and Accidental Death of an Anarchist (Theatre Royal Haymarket)
Most recently Daniel starred in the smash hit National Theatre production of The Witches.
Siobhán McSweeney
Siobhán McSweeney is known primarily for playing Sister Michael in Derry Girls and for hosting The Great Pottery Throwdown.
Her recent theatre work includes Happy Days for Birmingham Rep and Dancing at Lughnasa at National Theatre. She has also worked at Royal Court, Royal Exchange, Donmar Warehouse, Leicester Curve and The Abbey Theatre, Dublin.
Tegan Summer
Tegan Summer is a West End and Broadway producer, a member of the Broadway League and Society of London Theatre (SOLT), CEO of Tegan Summer Theatricals & Timeless Stage & Screen, and an NAACP and Ovation award-recipient. He is a 2024 recipient of the Arts & Culture Award at the Political and Public Life ceremony presented to him at the House of Commons by Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London, and the Rt. Hon Valerie Vaz.
Summer is also on the selection committee for the National Alliance For Musical Theatre (NAMT), the worldwide stage theatrical rights owner for the properties of James Dean, Bettie Page, The Nicholas Brothers, and Amelia Earhart, and holds the life rights for stage musicals for Malcolm X and Harvey Milk. He is a Producer on Eddie Redmayne’s Cabaret set for the August Wilson Theatre on Broadway in April 2024, GP and Co-Lead Producer on Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty’s new musical, Little Dancer, directed by Susan Stroman, set for the West End’s Garrick Theatre in 2024, and was a Producer on Andrew Lloyd Webber and Nimax Theatre’s 2023 revival of Aspects of Love at the Lyric Theatre, also in London’s West End. Summer is also a Producer on For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy for Nimax Theatres and The Royal Court in London.
Current and Credited: Producer, Librettist, and Lyricist of the following: Lucky Numbers: The Story of the Peerless Nicholas Brothers with Kenny Leon’s True Colors Theatre Company (Jamil Jude Artistic Director) set for December 2024; Mozart: Her Story – The New Musical (Carnegie Hall); Rebel – The James Dean Musical; Bettie Page, Queen of Pin-Ups – The Icon ★ The Musical; Amelia – A Musical Tale of Bravery & Mystery; and the golden era musical, The Dolly Sisters: Icons of the Jazz Age, based on the biography by Gary Chapman. He is Lead Producer on the Broadway-bound Stormy Weather – The Lena Horne Musical. Summer also produced the world premiere of Marilyn! – The New Musical (Ogunquit Playhouse | Caesars Entertainment).
Summer is the former Board President of Amas Musical Theatre, former President and current Board member of the Foundation for New American Musicals, and a member of the National Alliance for Musical Theatre and the Dramatists Guild. He remains a proud member of the Screen Actors Guild and Equity.
Tanika Gupta
Theatre credits include: The Empress (RSC/Lyric Hammersmith);Out West and A Doll’s House (Lyric Hammersmith); Lions And Tigers (Wanamaker Theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe); Hobson’s Choice (Manchester Royal Exchange), Red Dust Road (National Theatre Scotland, Edinburgh International Festival); A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian (Hull Truck Theatre); Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare’s Globe –Dramaturg); Anita and Me (Birmingham Rep); Love N Stuff (Theatre Royal Stratford East); The Empress (Royal Shakespeare Company); Wah! Wah! Girls – A British Bollywood Musical (Sadler’s Wells); Mindwalking (Bandbazi Theatre); Great Expectations (Watford Palace Theatre/English Touring Theatre); Meet The Mukherjees (Bolton Octagon Theatre); White Boy (National Youth Theatre/Soho Theatre); Sugar Mummies (Royal Court Theatre); Gladiator Games (Sheffield Crucible Theatre); Hobson’s Choice (Young Vic); Fragile Land (Hampstead Theatre); Inside Out (Clean Break); Sanctuary, Brecht’s The Good Woman Of Setzuan and The Waiting Room (National Theatre); Skeleton (Soho Theatre); A River Sutra (Indoza).
Headshot by Oscar May
Piers Wenger
Piers Wenger is Head of International TV at A24.
He was appointed BBC Director of Drama in September 2020 and was Controller of BBC Drama from late 2016. Prior to this he was Head of Drama at Channel 4, and Head of Drama at BBC Wales.
As Director of Drama at the BBC he oversaw series including BAFTA and Emmy award winning I May Destroy You written by and starring Michaela Coel, Normal People, Bodyguard, A Very English Scandal, His Dark Materials, and Small Axe.
Previously as a producer, Piers collaborated closely with Victoria Wood for over a decade on her dramatic projects. He produced her Bafta and RTS award-winning dramatisation of Nella Last’s diary Housewife, 49; collaborated with her on Loving Miss Hatto, Wood’s dramatisation of the life of classical pianist Joyce Hatto; and executive produced Eric and Ernie, Peter Bowker’s biopic of the young Morecambe and Wise, in which Wood also starred.
Joining Sean Foley on the judging panel is BAFTA winning actor, comedian and friend of Victoria Wood, Daniel Rigby, BAFTA winning actor and broadcaster Siobhán McSweeney, West End and Broadway producer Tegan Summer, renowned playwright Tanika Gupta MBE and FRSL, and television producer and representative of the Victoria Wood Foundation, Piers Wenger. The project is led by the multiple award-winning live comedy director, dramaturg and comedy teacher, Dec Munro.
The Rep has been a pioneering force in UK theatre for over 100 years, and with the creation of this Prize it is once again opening up new possibilities for aspiring writers.