Media Release
"Noisy Shadows" Wins International Award
Wellingtonian Branwen Millar (Evening Post Wellingtonian of the Year 2001) has recently received a prestigious American
award for playwriting.
In 2005 Millar undertook an exchange to the University of Santa Barbara where she composed her first play Noisy Shadows.
The play, which deals with the subjects of media influence and American naivety, was performed in California to sell out
seasons and critical acclaim. It caused controversy by beating out 90 scripts from the Californian region to be awarded
the Dorothy E Corwin Award for Best New Play, the first time this award had been presented to a non-American.
Millar had never considered playwriting as a career until American award-winning playwright and scholar, Naomi Iizuke
singled her out, as someone with a unique talent and voice.
Subsequent to winning the award Millar has been invited to return to America to attend the Californian Summer Theatre
Lab, three weeks of workshops run by the America's most important theatre practitioners. She has also changed her career
path and is now undertaking the MA in Creative Writing (Scriptwriting) at VUW International Institute of Modern Letters.
Noisy Shadows makes its New Zealand debut at Bats Theatre from 21-26 of March 2006. It is being directed by Theatre
Militia's Rachel Lenart with sound design by Emile de la Rey.
"Amazing! Vibrant, original, and theatrically inventive. This is the voice of a new generation of playwrights." Santa
Barbara News-Press, California.
What: Noisy Shadows by Branwen Millar
When: 21-26 March 2006, 8pm
Where: BATS Theatre
1 Kent Terrace
Cost: $16/ $12
Phone: (04) 8024175 to book.
ENDS