2014 recipients: The RE Ross Trust Playwrights' Script Development Awards

Colour photo of Patricia Cornelius, Eda Ritchie, Alexandra Macalister Bills, Dan Lee, Dan Giovannoni and Eda Ritchie, Chair of the RE Ross Trust — Patricia Cornelius, far left, with fellow recipients Dan Giovannoni, Alexandra Macalister Bills and Dan Lee, and Eda Ritchie, Chair of the RE Ross Trust

Exploring themes of madness, redemption and a grand adventure to find a pet snake, the 2014 winners of the RE Ross Trust Playwrights’ Script Development Awards were Dan William Lee, Alexandra Macalister-Bills and Dan Giovannoni & Amelia Evans. Patricia Cornelius received a commendation.

A total of 47 plays were submitted for consideration for the 2014 awards. A new judging panel of five industry experts read and shortlisted the scripts for further discussion, based on the selection criteria of artistic merit, rationale for development and planning.

Three winning scripts and one highly commended script were chosen. In addition to receiving prize money, the winners had the opportunity to stage rehearsed readings in front of a live audience in the Flashpoint series at the State Library Victoria and fortyfivedownstairs.

Dan Giovannoni & Amelia Evans

Mad as a cute snake follows the journey of Cardigan Coriander-Turner on her epic ride from suburban Melbourne to the Daintree and beyond in order to save Trix, the family’s pet snake.

Dan William Lee

In Bottomless, Dan Lee tells the tale of Will, a once-desperate alcoholic who returns to Broome with a radical plan to break the cycle of booze, madness, crime and incarceration.

Alexandra Macalister-Bills

Peripheral Damage looks beyond the epicentre of mental illness among the young and questions who hurts most when sanity falls away.

Patricia Cornelius

Patricia Cornelius received a commendation for her script SHIT, a ferocious portrayal of utterly damaged women without hope.