Angus Cerini wins $60,000 Award for Excellence in Writing for Australian Theatre at the 49th Annual AWGIE Awards for The Bleeding Tree

17 October, 2016

The Bleeding Tree, a play by Angus Cerini, has won the $60,000 David Williamson Prize for excellence in writing for Australian theatre at this year’s Australian Writers’ Guild 49th Annual AWGIE Awards.The Bleeding Tree, which was first produced by Griffin Theatre in 2015, has also just been announced as part of Sydney Theatre Company’s 2017 program.Reviewed by SMH as ‘a powerful look at domestic violence’ and by the Guardian as ‘powerful, visceral and deeply exhilarating’, the play has already won the Helpmann Award for Best Play.David Williamson, who awarded the prize at this year’s AWGIE Awards ceremony, said it is vital that young scriptwriters receive all the help they can get.‘I am so pleased to be able to present this Prize to a writer who is patently one of our most talented and exciting playwrights,’ he said.‘Angus Cerini blends powerful themes, words and movement to create theatre with impact and relevance,’ Williamson said of the winning script.‘Due to the incredible generosity of Shane and Cathryn Brennan, this prize offers a very real incentive for a theatre company to stage the work. As distinct from so many commissions, this work will end up on stage. And that’s what playwrights crave. Prizes are fine but productions turn a script on the page into living theatre by adding that vital element, the audience.’This year, the David Williamson Prize was increased by $20,000 to $60,000 following additional funding from Shane Brennan – the man behind the recently launched Scripted Ink. initiative – his wife Cathryn Brennan, David Williamson and his wife Kristin Williamson.The prize is broken into three parts:

• $20,000 to the writer of the winning script as a commission for a new work,
• $35,000 goes to the professional production company that picks up that new work for production, and
• an additional $5000 set aside for dramaturgical support in the form of rehearsed readings.

The David Williamson Prize is awarded for excellence in writing for Australian theatre to the most outstanding winning script from the AWGIE Award theatre categories.Past recipients of the prize include Alana Valentine for Grounded (2013), Andrew Bovell for The Secret River (2014) and Finegan Kruckemeyer for The Boy at the Edge of Everything (2015).For all media enquiries and interview requests with Angus Cerini, please contact:Michael Salmon on 0417 495 018 For all media enquiries and interview requests with any AWGIE Award winners, please contact:NIX Co | Nicholas Cheetham | Communications Manager + 61 2 8399 0626