Verity Bargate Award

I am in a state of suspension. The silence between each blog is filled with research. I am trying to understand something about the economic foundations of theatre. I have sixteen tabs open. Fifteen of them have some form of financial theory on them. The other one is a page full of that Drunk Baby Meme.

The relentless energy of my ignorance is pushing me onwards. I rolled onto a page about the 2013 Verity Bargate Award. It's a national competition for new and emerging writers. There's a cash prize. 

I don't know how I feel about competitions for playwrights. Although the organisers are quick to stress that they do more than just pick one play - "the majority of the last shortlist have seen further development or professional productions," the idea of pitting scripts against each other feels gladiatorial. 

Then again, something like this might encourage new writers. Steve Marmion, Artistic Director of Soho Theatre, who are behind the competition, says “We want to hear a story we've never heard before, from a voice we weren't expecting."

And theatre needs new voices like death needs time and a junkie needs junkie. Marmion continues to explain what he seeks, in words that evoke a passionate future for the script. "Something that is brave with what it is trying to say, and how it is trying to say it.  Something that pushes our limits emotionally, morally and theatrically. Something that is the shout from the crowd that we have to listen to. It might just be the challenge that makes you start writing for the first time. "

I am going to go back to the solitude of my pondering, and assess whether this award is a further manifestation of the underlying capitalist structure of society (if it is, I hope the award doesn't go to a play about the socialist utopia, because I can only take so much irony). On the other hand, I don't know if I have decided that I hate capitalist per se, or just have a problem with the rather unpleasant version that is currently throwing down with democracy.

In the meantime, I might have blog readers who could use the information. If anyone does win this prize after having read about it here, I expect a name check in the programme notes at the premiere.

 Submissions are open from 1 – 30 June 2013.