The London-based Australian playwright Melissa Bubnic topped the voting in the third annual Lysicrates Prize with an excerpt from a new play, Ghosting the Party.
Bubnic won the audience-voted competition staged in the Sydney Conservatorium's Verbruggen Hall ahead of writers Nick Coyle and Jennifer Compton.
Audience members registered their approval by dropping tokens into one of three ceramic urns. The prize of $12,500 to the writer also includes a commission from Griffin Theatre Company to see the play through to completion.
"Above and beyond the cash award, which is very appreciated, it's affirmation that the play resonates with people, that I'm not completely barking up the wrong tree," said Bubnic from her London home. "I find that really heartening."