The Rodney Seaborn Playwrights Award, instituted by the Late Dr. Rodney Seaborn in 1995, is offered annually for the development of a play or other approved performing arts project emphasizing positive values.

The Award is intended for a playwright needing financial support for the development of a play or performance project, rather than as a prize for a finished, previously performed work. Development may include for example, workshops, dramaturgy, re-writing and costs leading to production.

A recipient may be working alone or jointly with others and might include writers, composers, designers, directors, producers, formally constituted performing arts organisations or ad hoc groups of performing arts professionals. Only applications from individual playwrights will be considered by the Fund, not performing arts companies.

The Award is advertised nationally.

Applicants for the Award should note the following:

1. 1. Preference for the Award will be given to persons who have resided in Australia for a period or periods totalling one year or more.
   2. The Rodney Seaborn Playwrights Trust will appoint a panel of judges for the Award, whose decisions will be final.
   3. The judges may determine that the Award be shared by the initiators of more than one play or project, and, if a script or project is the work of two or more, the judges may apportion the Award money between them as see fit.
   4. The winning script or project treatment will be promoted and commended to professional performing arts organisations with a view to production and performance.
   5. Any material in the play subject to copyright would need to be identified.
   6. Winners of the Award and organisations promoting or producing their work will be expected to give suitable acknowledgment in advertising, media releases, programmes and other written material of the support provided by the Rodney Seaborn Playwrights Trust and to use the logo of the Seaborn, Broughton and Walford Foundation.
   7. If, in the opinion of the judges, the work submitted in any year does not reach a sufficiently high standard, no award for that year will be made.
   8. The $20,000 Playwrights Award will be made in two stages : $15,000 in the first instance and the remaining $5000 upon receipt of satisfactory progress reports.
   9. Applications for the 2026 Award are to be made online and required to be submitted by Thursday, 19 August 2026.
   10. The first payment of the 2026 award money will be paid by 31 December 2026 by the Rodney Seaborn Playwrights Trust, or its successors, from funds made available by the Trustees of the Estate of Rodney Seaborn.

Unfortunately, we are not able to discuss the selection process or offer individual feedback to unsuccessful applicants. The Rodney Seaborn Playwrights Award receives a high number of applications and we do not have personnel available to provide individual feedback.

Ms Carol Martin
The Seaborn Broughton & Walford Foundation
Phone: 0434 433 225 | 02 9955 5444
Email: office@sbwfoundation.com

The Trustees Panel

The Trustees Panel of the Rodney Seaborn Playwrights Award:
Diana Simmonds - Chair
Ken Healey AM
Lee Lewis OAM
Suzanne Millar
Aarne Neeme AM
Terence Clarke AM
Camilla Rountree
Deborah Jones

Donations

The Rodney Seaborn Playwrights Trust receives funding from the Rodney Seaborn Estate. Although it is closely associated with the S,B&W Foundation, the Trust is a separate legal entity. The Trust welcomes contributions from companies and individual donors. Contributions of $2 and over are tax-deductible.

• Rodney Seaborn Playwrights Award Donation Form (PDF)

The joint winners for 2024 were Ballkids by Melbourne playwright Olivia Satchell and Into The Light by Ian Roberts and Alex Broun.

Chair of the Trustees Panel, theatre critic and commentator Diana Simmonds: Every year we’re thrilled at the variety and standard of submissions, and past winners prove the talent we’ve discovered and supported. This year we had a situation that’s happened only once before – two plays just couldn’t be separated. So I’m happy to say we’ve been able to make equal awards – $20,000 to each.

The Trustees Panel who judged this year’s Award were: Diana Simmonds (Chair), NIDA Artistic Director in Residence David Berthold, dramaturg and theatre legend Terry Clark AM, leading theatre director Lee Lewis OAM, Co-Artistic Director of bAKEHOUSE Theatre and Creative Director at KXT on Broadway Suzanne Millar, and theatre director Darren Yap.

Maxine Mellor wins the 2023 Rodney Seaborn Playwrights Award