26th Patrick White Playwrights Award

About STC

Sydney Theatre Company is Australias largest theatre company and the state theatre company of NSW. STC is a place where artists staff and audiences come together to explore and share ideas through the power of live storytelling.

About the Patrick White Playwrights Award

The Patrick White Playwrights Award has been an annual initiative of Sydney Theatre Company since 2000. It is held in honour of Patrick Whites contribution to Australian theatre and to foster the development of Australian playwrights. The Award exists to showcase an unproduced script.

Every year the Company invites playwrights to submit their unproduced full-length plays for consideration by the New Work team as part of the Award. Following a rigorous reading and assessment process a cash prize of $7500 is given to one play that is original artistically ambitious and has a distinctive theatrical voice.

The closing date for entries to the Award is 9am AEDT Monday 08 December 2025.

The winner of the Award will be announced at a ceremony in May 2026.

NOTE: As of 2025 the Award is the primary channel for unsolicited submissions to be read and considered by STC. Unsolicited submissions submitted outside of the Award will not be read and responded to. This includes hardcopy scripts sent by post. Scripts sent by post will be recycled not returned.

ALSO NOTE: As we are centralising submissions for the Award to the STC HR recruitment platform in 2025 all submissions will now require a resume or CV to be submitted alongside the play. These documents will not be provided to readers/judges and the rigorous assessment process will remain blind.

Enquiries: (02)or

For full terms and conditions please click on the position description included below.