The Meyer-Whitworth Award was a literary prize established in 1991 and awarded from 1992 until 2011 to new British playwrights to help them further their careers. The £10,000 prize, one of the largest annual prizes for play writing in the UK, was funded by the National Theatre Foundation and named in honour of Geoffrey Whitworth and Carl Meyer, both of whom were instrumental in the establishment of the

Royal National Theatre The National Theatre (NT), officially the Royal National Theatre and sometimes referred to in international contexts as the National Theatre of Great Britain, is a performing arts venue and associated theatre company located in London, England, ...

. From its inception until 2006, the award was administered by

Arts Council England Arts Council England is an arm's length non-departmental public body of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is also a registered charity. It was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council o ...

. After that, it was administered by the Playwrights' Studio, Scotland. According to the Playwrights' Studio, the award was given to the writer whose play best embodied Whitworth's view that "drama is important in so far as it reveals the truth about the relationships of human beings with each other and the world at large", showed promise of a developing new talent, and whose writing displayed an individual quality. The first recipient of the Meyer-Whitworth Award was Roy MacGregor for his play ''Our Own Kind''.

List of winners

*1992: Roy MacGregor for ''Our Own Kind'' This list is sourced from Playwrights' Studio, Scotland (October 2011). *1993: Philip Ridley for '' The Fastest Clock in the Universe'' *1994: Diane Samuels for ''

Kindertransport The ''Kindertransport'' (German for "children's transport") was an organised rescue effort of children from Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, total ...

'' *1995: Jointly to Terry Johnson for ''

Hysteria Hysteria is a term used to mean ungovernable emotional excess and can refer to a temporary state of mind or emotion. In the nineteenth century, female hysteria was considered a diagnosable physical illness in women. It is assumed that the bas ...

'' and

Billy Roche Billy Roche (born 11 January 1949) is an Irish playwright and actor. He was born and still lives in Wexford and most of his writings are based there. Originally a singer with The Roach Band, he turned to writing in the 1980s. He has written a n ...

for ''The Cavalcaders'' *1996:

Michael Wynne Michael Walter Wynne (born September 4, 1944) is an American politician and business executive and was the 21st United States Secretary of the Air Force. United States Secretary of Defense, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates asked for and receive ...

for ''The Knocky'' *1997:

Conor McPherson Conor McPherson (born 6 August 1971) is an Irish playwright, screenwriter and director of stage and film. In recognition of his contribution to world theatre, McPherson was awarded an honorary doctorate of literature in June 2013 by University C ...

for '' This Lime Tree Bower'' *1998: Jointly to

Moira Buffini Moira Buffini (born 29 May 1965) is an English dramatist, director, and actor. Early life Buffini was born in Cheshire to Irish parents, and attended St Mary's College at Rhos-on-Sea in Wales as a day girl. She studied English and Drama at Gold ...

for ''Gabriel'' and Daragh Carville for ''Language Roulette'' *1999: David Harrower for ''Kill the Old Torture their Young'' *2000: Kate Dean for ''Down Red Lane'' *2001: Ray Grewal for ''My Dad’s Corner Shop'' *2002: Jointly to Gregory Burke for '' Gagarin Way'' and Henry Adam for ''Among Broken Hearts'' *2003: Gary Owen for ''Shadow of a Boy'' *2004: Owen McCafferty for ''Scenes from the Big Picture'' *2005: Stephen Thompson for ''Damages'' *2006: Dennis Kelly for '' Osama the Hero'' *2007: Morna Pearson for ''Distracted'' *2008: Hassan Abdulrazzak for '' Baghdad Wedding'' *2009: Ali Taylor for ''Cotton Wool'' *2010: Natasha Langridge for ''Shraddha'' *2011: David Ireland for ''Everything Between Us''

References

Dramatist and playwright awards British literary awards Awards established in 1991 Awards disestablished in 2011 1991 establishments in the United Kingdom {{lit-award-stub