Winner of Yale playwright competition announced

[March 23, 2011]  NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) -- A legal assistant from Australia has won the 2011 Yale Drama Series award for emerging playwrights.

Shannon Murdoch's work was selected from more than 870 submissions by Tony-winning playwright John Guare.

Her play "New Light Shine" won the $10,000 prize and will be published by Yale University Press. A staged reading will be held Sept. 12 at Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven, Conn.

According to organizers, Murdoch's play deals with "four small-town lives linked through a violent crime and their hopeless attempts to erase the past and build new lives."

The announcement was made Tuesday.

This is Guare's first year judging the competition. Other playwrights who have acted as judges include David Hare and Edward Albee.

Murdoch, who lives in Footscray, Victoria, says she feels "incredibly fortunate" to win.

[Associated Press]

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