THE CATHERINE JOHNSON AWARD FOR BEST PLAY 2007

The Pearson Playwrights’ Scheme is delighted to announce the winner of the first Catherine Johnson Award for Best Play 2007. He is James Graham whose play Eden’s Empire was written whilst attached to the Finborough Theatre.

The Pearson Playwrights’ Scheme, formerly known as the Thames Television Theatre Writers’ Scheme, is one of the most prestigious awards for new writing in British theatre. It awards up to five bursaries a year, each worth £7,000, to writers of outstanding promise and allows the playwright a twelve-month attachment to a theatre and commissions the writers for a new play. Recipients of the bursaries for 2008 will be announced later this month.

The Scheme also offers an award for the Best Play written by the five bursary winners from the previous year. This new award, worth £10,000, has been generously donated by Catherine Johnson, a graduate of the Scheme and herself the winner of the Best Play written in 1991. Catherine, who is a member of the judging panel for new bursaries and author of Mamma Mia, has been looking for a way to give something back to the Scheme which helped and encouraged her in the early days of her career.

Judges of the Pearson Award include Sir John Mortimer CBE QC, Dame Beryl Bainbridge, Catherine Johnson, Sue Summers, Thelma Holt CBE, Michael Billington, John Tydeman OBE and Jack Andrews MBE.

Previous recipients of the Pearson bursary over the last thirty years include Richard Bean, Alan Bleasdale, Gregory Burke, David Edgar, David Eldridge, Lee Hall, Jacqueline Holborough, Catherine Johnson, Charlotte Jones, Fin Kennedy, Hanif Kureshi, Nick Leather, Martin McDonagh, Gary Mitchell, Chloe Moss, Gary Owen, Joe Penhall, Winsome Pinnock, Billy Roche, Simon Stephens, Sue Townsend and Timberlake Wertenbaker.

Previous winners for the Pearson Award for the Finborough Theatre include Chris Lee in 2000, Laura Wade in 2005 for Colder Than Here which also won the Pearson Award for the Best Play, James Graham in 2006 and Al Smith in 2007. For three years running, the Finborough Theatre has been the only unfunded theatre to win a Pearson Bursary.

James Graham is Playwright-in-Residence at the Finborough Theatre. He has written three plays – commissioned by Artistic Director Neil McPherson for the Finborough Theatre – Albert’s Boy (2005), starring Victor Spinetti, which earned James a prestigious Pearson Award bursary, Eden’s Empire (2006) and Little Madam (2007). James was the Finborough Theatre’s nomination to the BBC and Royal Court’s programme for young writers, ‘The 50’, celebrating the Royal Court’s 50th anniversary. His original television comedy-drama, Caught in a Trap has been commissioned by producers Greenlit.

and…
Winner – The George Devine Award for Playwright-in-Residence and former Literary Manager Alexandra Wood 2007
Winner – The Pearson Award bursary for Playwright-in-Residence Al Smith 2007
Shortlisted for The Empty Space Peter Brook Award for Studio Theatres, and The Empty Space Peter Brook Mark Marvin Award.