Amstel Playwright of the Year Award
The Amstel Playwright of the Year Award was an independent non-governmental competition for new South African play texts.
Also referred to as Amstel Playwright of the Year or Amstel Playwright's Award
An annual competition for new theatre scripts instituted at the behest and under the management of Nicholas Ellenbogen and sponsored by Amstel Breweries, the competition was launched in South Africa in 1978 and eventually discontinued in 1994.
Besides the award(s) for the overall Winner (in some years there would be more than one), there was also a category Special Merit Award. In 1979 they also introduced a children’s play section as well.
The award was first awarded to John Pank for Windmills of the Mind and James Ambrose Brown for Time and the Wood in 1978, with Merit Awards going to Zakes Mda for We Shall Sing for the Fatherland and and Michael Drin for Inquest on Gordon.
and it was first won by Pieter Scholtz (1979 for The Amazing Adventures of Tambootie the Puppet and in 1980 for Mister Big Strikes Again ).
In 1979 it was won by Zakes Mda for The Hill. Other winners have been Shirley Johnston?*, Paul Slabolepszy for Saturday Night at the Palace (1981), Charles Fourie, Geraldine Aron (Commended for Brenda, 1983), John Hunt for Vid Alex.
(For a full list of all the winnners, see the entry on the Award in Wikipedia[1])
An annual competition for new theatre scripts instituted in 1977/8?* at the behest and under the management of Nicholas Ellenbogen. First awarded to John Pank for Windmills of the Mind and James Ambrose Brown for Time and the Wood in 1978, with Zakes Mda receiving a Merit Award for We Shall Sing for the Fatherland. In 1979 it was won by Zakes Mda for The Hill. Other winners have been Shirley Johnston?*, Paul Slabolepszy for Saturday Night at the Palace (1981), Charles Fourie, Geraldine Aron (Commended for Brenda, 1983), John Hunt for Vid Alex.
See also: Awards, Competitions, Honours, Prizes
[JH, FdV, TH]
Sources
Wikipedia [2].
Amstel Playwright of the Year Award. In: Wikipedia[3]
Gosher, 1988.
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