Efo Kodjo Mawugbe from Ghana and Erin Browne from the USA have been awarded the two top prizes in the BBC World Service and British Council International Radio Playwriting Competition 2009.
Writers from India, Romania, Georgia and Australia were also awarded special prizes in the competition, which is only open to writers outside the UK and invites original 60-minute radio plays on any subject.
Erin Browne from the USA won the English as a First Language category with her play, Trying, described by the judges as 'exquisite', 'human' and 'spare'.
Efo Kodjo Mawugbe from Ghana won the English as a Second Language category with his play, The Prison Graduates, described by the judges as 'imaginative', 'muscular' and 'hysterically funny'.
The two winners each received £2,500 and got the opportunity to visit London to see their plays being recorded and attend a prize-giving evening. Their winning plays will be broadcast on BBC World Service in November 2009:
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The judging panel was comprised of Sally Cowling, Director of Drama and Dance, British Council; Vincent Ebrahim, actor; Kwame Kwei-Armah, actor, playwright, singer and broadcaster; Robin Lustig, host of BBC World Drama and presenter of The World Tonight; Gwyneth Williams, director World Service English; and Marion Nancarrow, Executive Producer, BBC World Service Drama.
To read more about the judges please see this information on the BBC’s comprehensive pages on the competition.
Shortlisted playwrights
Funmi Ade-Ajayi for Songs From the Wedding – Nigeria
Michael Aubertin for True Colours – St. Lucia
Erin Browne for Trying – USA
Warren Lancelot D’Sylva for Saints – India
Libby Emmons for The Little Room – USA
Diana Estigarriba for Help Wanted – USA
Meher Pestonji for Feeding Crows – India
Duval Smith for Password: Salamander – South Africa
Abdullah Alkafri for Damascus-Aleppo – Syria
Ike Aro for Money Matters – Nigeria
Karim Haidari for The Historical Summer – Afghanistan
Abiola Hameed for The Sixth Man – Nigeria
Virginia Jekanyika for Mbira – Zimbabwe
Araba Kwentsimah Season for The Prison Graduates – Ghana
Mohamed Sheriff for The Demon – Sierra Leone
Csaba Székely for Do You Like Banana, Comrades? – Romania
About the competition
Applicants were invited to write a radio play of approximately 60 minutes on a subject of their choice. The play had to be the original, unpublished work of the person or persons submitting it. The competition was open to any writer who is not normally a resident of the United Kingdom.
The last time the competition was run in 2007 more than 1,200 entries were received, coming from as far afield as Alaska and Vanuatu, and entries were as likely to come from established authors as from inexperienced writers. Former winners have gone on to gain further commissions for BBC World Service Drama, making the competition a potential launch pad to a future career.
For more information please visit the BBC World Service website at www.bbcworldservice.com/radioplay.
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