Sydney playwright Mary Rachel Brown has been announced the first recipient of the Suzie Miller Award for mid-career writers.

Well-known to New South Wales audiences, Brown’s plays include Dead Cat Bounce, Permission to Spin and The Dapto Chaser and she has won several playwriting awards in her carrer including The Lysicrates Prize, the Rodney Seaborn Award, the Max Afford Award and the Griffin Award.

Mary Rachel Brown. Photo supplied

Brown will receive a full commission and residency at Griffin Theatre Company, as well as mentorship from Miller, whose drama Prima Facie, which premiered on Griffin’s stage, has gone on to play seasons on the West End and in New York, winning major international awards as it did so.

The Suzie Miller Award is open to writers with an established practice, who have both industry recognition and a body of professionally-produced work that speaks to and questions the present day.

Miller said: “Mary Rachel Brown is a brilliant writer and recipient. Her play Swap is both an Australian and universal story that is urgent and moving. I’m so thrilled to celebrate Brown as the inaugural winner and look forward to her...