Neil Levi wins the Original Playwright Award while Tommy Murphy is name Patrick White Fellow.

The Patrick White Playwrights’ Awards, Sydney Theatre Company’s annual prize recognising exceptional Australian theatre writers, has announced its 2016 recipients, awarding Tommy Murphy the coveted Fellowship, and Neil Levi the Original Playwright Award. The Awards are held in honour of the celebrated Australian playwright Patrick White, whose work in the theatre, and focus on fostering the development of young Australian writers has been essential to the vibrancy of the industry. The Awards, first instituted in 2000, has been supplemented over the last six years with the offering of a Fellowship to help support the work of a more established, mid-career playwright.

The Fellowship, given this year to Tommy Murphy, offers the recipient $12,500, and a commission for a new play to be premiered by the STC. Already established as one of the most exciting writers working today in Australian theatre, Murphy’s screenplay for the feature film Holding the Man has won a string of awards, as has his TV drama, Devil’s Playground. On receiving the award, Murphy says: “The Patrick White Fellowship grants everything a playwright ought to need: a desk, a commission, and the encouragement...