Winners announced for the inaugural Box of Tricks & Sky Studios Screen/Play Award
Box of Tricks and Sky Studios have announced the two winners of the inaugural Screen/Play Award, whittled down from almost 350 entries from underrepresented talent across the North of England.
Conway McDermott and Sarah Tarbit will each be awarded £10,250 to write a 70-minute stage play and a 20-minute screenplay inspired by a single central idea to be developed with support from the two partners throughout 2021.
Trans non-binary writer Conway McDermott [they/them] is from Liverpool. They describe their work as genre fiction, using fantasy, history, sci-fi and mysticism to “create a fuller landscape of worlds and stories for weird working-class queers to inhabit”. For Screen/Play, Conway will develop The Priestess - a trans coming of age story that crashes into a psychosexual horror full of dark humour.
McDermott said: "All you can hope for as a writer is to connect to others through your ideas, and to find a common truth in stories. It's a great feeling to know that my pitch resonated with the panel. Suddenly these new really exciting creative partnerships are rolling into my life, and I am so excited for what they're going to bring, and desperate to rise to the challenge of it! I am on the edge of my seat with excitement for what we're going to make together!"
Sarah Tarbit [she/her] is from Ashington, Northumberland, one of the most deprived areas in the country. Her work documents life in the region and often calls for social and political change. For Screen/Play, Sarah will develop You Belong Here exploring the effects suicide can have on a community and the people left behind.
Tarbit said: “I’m buzzing to have been chosen for the Screen/Play Award! What an opportunity! I can’t thank Box of Tricks, Sky Studios, and the rest of the judging panel enough for believing in me and seeing value in my story. It means validation – not just for me as a writer, but for working-class stories and stories from underrepresented groups as a whole.”
Following online interviews with six finalists, the two winning writers were selected by a panel of leading industry figures comprising of acclaimed actresses Mina Anwar (Everybody’s Talking About Jamie) and Melissa Johns (Life, I Hate Suzie, Coronation Street); writers Chris Bush (UK Theatre Award-winning playwright), David Judge (writer of Box of Tricks’ SparkPlug – finalist for Alfred Fagon Award for Best New Play of the Year 2017) and Temi Wilkey (2020 Stage Debut Award, The High Table); as well as Hannah Tyrrell-Pinder (Joint Artistic Director, Box of Tricks) and Donna Metcalfe (Script Executive, Sky Studios).
In addition to developing new scripts with the two winning writers, Box of Tricks and Sky Studios will support the 15 shortlisted writers through a tailored package of masterclasses – offering an invaluable opportunity to explore their craft and the world of screenwriting with industry experts.
