By Anne Lim
12 February 2002
Toby Schmitz wrote Lucky, a comic play about love and the city, as an antidote to feeling overwhelmed by big city life.
"Some of it sparked out of pretty standard heartbreak stuff, and som eof it sparked out of me battling against a big city depression," says the 24 year old actor from Perth, who took top honors in the second annual Patrick White Playwrights Award, announced in Sydney last night.
The good news is there is a happy ending: "I learnt that it's possible -big city love is possible."
As in last year's inaugural award, Australia's richest playwriting award has been split three ways. Schmitz received $10,000 and Brendan Cowell, 25, and Jackie Smith, 38, each won $5000.
Love and its relationship to success is the thread running through Cowell's play, Bed.
Writing the play was an amazing experience, Cowell said: "I found very dark little corners in myself there, which was a bit scary, but I found some lovely places as well, so I found hope for myself in it."
By contrast, Smith's play, The Aliens, is a tragedy exploring fear and violence.
According to Robyn Nevin, artistic director of the Sydney Theatre Company, the judging panel was unanimous in their choice of the three plays and in believing none stood out sufficiently to exclude the others.
"It would be wonderful to give it to one because $20,000 would be an extraordinary amount to give to one person."
Nevin said it was amazing to discover, after the "blind" judging process, that all three winners were also performers.
Although Smith no longer performs, Schmitz and Cowell have recently appeared under Nevin's direction in STC productions.
Schmitz and Cowell are collaborating on writing a sitcom based on Cowell's first play, Men, which was produced at the Old Fitzroy in 2000. Cowell's third play, ATM, was recently seen as part of the 2002 Sydney Festival.
Nevin also last night announced details of a new Blueprints Literary Program, in which a stable of young writers will write a play over 15 months, working with a mentor and a dramaturge. They will also write and stage a play based on a current issue.
Cowell had already been chosen to join the program, before winning last night's award, as had Ben Ellis, a winner of last year's award whose play is being produced this year by Playbox Theatre under the title Post Felicity.