Philip Braithwaite has been writing plays since 1999. In 2000 he won the New Zealand Young Playwrights’ Award. Amongst his other credits are the BBC World Service/British Council International Radio Playwriting Award 2001, and the Adam NZ Play Award 2013, for his play The Mercy Clause.
Phil’s work has been produced in New Zealand, Australia and Europe, and he has collaborated with groups from the Royal Court Theatre in London, the BBC and the SEEyD theatre company. His radio plays have been produced on the BBC World Service and Radio New Zealand.
He has also worked as a scriptwriting teacher at Massey University, Victoria University of Wellington, and Whitireia Polytechnic. He has provided mentorship for young playwrights at the Fortune theatre, Dunedin, and in 2013-14 he was the William Evans Playwriting Fellow at the University of Otago.
The Mercy Clause was produced at Centrepoint Theatre, Palmerston North, in June 2014. In 2012, two plays Honest to God and White City were both shortlised in the Adam Awards. White City was runner up. His radio plays include Meeting Jeff (2010) and The Human Engine (2006), which was shortlisted for the Radio Play Awards. In 2003, he was commissioned to write Arcadian Nights for the Young and Hungry Festival, which was staged at BATS Theatre in Wellington. His work for the BBC World Service includes We Are Water (co-writer in 2002) and Blood (2001).
Braithwaite has written articles for Playmarket and was a playwright delegate to the Momentum Programme in Edinburch in 2014.
He was awarded the Summer Residency at the Michael King Writers’ Centre to work on his new play, The War Play, which explores the impact of a tragic injustice through the generations of one family. He was awarded a World War One Lotteries grant to develop his story into the play, which will be premiered at Fortune Theatre in Dunedin in March.
Photo – Otago Daily Times