Finborough Playwrights Festival Set for 5 July - 30 July

The multi-award-winning Finborough Theatre presents Vibrant 2011 - A Festival of Finborough Playwrights, its annual festival of Finborough Playwrights, running from 5-30 July 2011. The festival features - and is centred around - a month long run of Nick Gill's Mirror Teeth (originally seen as a staged reading in the very first Vibrant - A Festival of Finborough in 2009), accompanied by a six performance Sunday/Monday run of Nell Dunn's Home Death, together with a late night season of ten staged readings of ten new works for the stage by ten UK and international playwrights, discovered, developed or championed by the Finborough Theatre.

Following the hugely successful Vibrant - A Festival of Finborough Playwrights in October 2009 and Vibrant - An Anniversary Festival of Finborough Playwrights in 2010 which saw 30 Finborough playwrights present 30 new works in 30 days, we return to introduce you to some of the fascinating diverse vibrant voices we have nurtured, and we are particularly delighted to present some of the first plays of brand new older writers who continue to be neglected by other new writing organisations.

Artistic Director Neil McPherson says: "As in previous years, we hope that our annual festival will be a fascinating and idiosyncratic selection of new plays, with a bias towards startlingly contemporary political work, ranging from the intimate to the epic. The writers' ages range from their early 20s to their 70s (building on our commitment to nurture writers over 30 who continue to be neglected by other new writing organisations) and they come from a wide variety of backgrounds including playwrights from England (including a new British Asian playwright, a British-Palestinian writer and a new dramatist from the East Midlands), Scotland (with a new play partially in the Scots language) as well as playwrights from Canada and the United States. Vibrant - A Festival of Finborough 2011 is another great opportunity to see the fruits of the work that happens behind the scenes at the Finborough Theatre as we continue to discover and develop a new generation of theatre makers through our acclaimed Literary Department, our internship programme, our Resident Assistant Director Programme, and our partnership with The National Theatre Studio - the Leverhulme Bursary for Emerging Directors."

Despite remaining completely unfunded, the Finborough Theatre has an unparalleled track record of discovering new playwrights who go on to become leading voices in British theatre. Under Artistic Director Neil McPherson, it has discovered some of the UK's most exciting new playwrights including Laura Wade, James Graham, Mike Bartlett, Sarah Grochala, Jack Thorne, Joy Wilkinson, Simon Vinnicombe, Alexandra Wood, Al Smith, Nicholas de Jongh and Anders Lustgarten. It is the only theatre without public funding to be awarded the prestigious Pearson Playwriting Award bursary for writers Chris Lee in 2000, Laura Wade in 2005 (who also went on to win the Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Most Promising Playwright, the George Devine Award and an Olivier Award nomination), for James Graham in 2006, for Al Smith in 2007, for Anders Lustgarten in 2009 and Simon Vinnicombe in 2010. Three bursary holders (Laura Wade, James Graham and Anders Lustgarten) have also won the Catherine Johnson Award for Best Play written by a bursary holder. Artistic Director Neil McPherson won The Writers' Guild Award for the Encouragement of New Writing in 2010. It has also recently won London Theatre Reviews' Empty Space Peter Brook Award 2010, been named The Stage's Fringe Theatre of the Year and won four awards in this year's inaugural Off West End Awards including Best Artistic Director.