Between 1965 and 2010, the John Whiting Award (from 2007 renamed the Peter Wolff Trust Supports the John Whiting Award) was awarded annually to a British or Commonwealth playwright who, in the opinion of a consortium of UK theatres, showed a new and distinctive development in dramatic writing with particular relevance to contemporary society. The award was established in 1965 to commemorate John Whiting and his distinctive contribution to post-war British theatre.[1] Until 2006, the selection was made by the drama panel of Arts Council England, and the play did not need to have been staged, which allowed plays produced on radio to be considered.
From 2007, only plays which had been performed in the subsidised sector were eligible. The award was initially worth £1000, but grew to £6000 per year. From 2007, the award was supplied by the Peter Wolff Theatre Trust and was administered by a consortium of UK theatres which specialise in new writing.
The theatres involved were:
| Year | Playwright | Play |
|---|---|---|
| 1967 | Tom Stoppard | Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead |
| Wole Soyinka | The Interpreters | |
| 1967 | Peter Nichols | A Day in the Death of Joe Egg |
| 1968 | Peter Barnes | The Ruling Class |
| Edward Bond | Narrow Road to the Deep North | |
| 1969 | Howard Brenton | Christie in Love |
| 1970 | Freehold Company and Peter Hulton (joint) | Freehold on Antigone |
| 1971 | Mustapha Matura | As Time Goes By |
| 1972 | Heathcote Williams | AC/DC |
| 1973 | John Arden | |
| 1974 | David Rudkin | |
| 1975 | ||
| 1976 | David Edgar | Destiny |
| 1977 | David Lan | The Winter Dancers |
| 1978 | David Halliwell | Prejudice[2] [3] |
| Snoo Wilson | The Glad Hand | |
| 1979 | Stephen Bill | The Old Order |
| 1980 | Vince Foxall | Gestures |
| 1981 | David Pownall | Beef |
| 1982 | Karim Alrawi | Migrations |
| 1983 | Peter Flannery | Our Friends in the North |
| 1984 | Ron Hutchinson | The Rat in the Skull |
| 1985 | Guy Hibbert | On the Edge |
| Heidi Thomas | Shamrocks & Crocodiles | |
| 1986 | Nick Dear | The Art of Success |
| 1987 | ||
| 1988 | Iain Heggie | American Bagpipes |
| 1989 | Billy Roche | A Handful of Stars |
| 1990 | ||
| Lucy Gannon | Keeping Tom Nice | |
| 1991 | Terry Johnson | Imagine Drowning |
| 1992 | Rod Wooden | Your Home in the West |
| 1993 | Martin Crimp | The Treatment |
| Helen Edmundson | The Clearing | |
| 1994 | Jonathan Harvey | Beautiful Thing |
| 1995 | Joe Penhall | Some Voices |
| 1996 | Ayub Khan-Din | East is East |
| 1997 | Ann Coburn | Get Up and Tie Your Fingers |
| 1998/9 | Roy Williams | Starstruck |
| 1999 | ||
| 2000 | David Greig | The Cosmonaut's Last Message to the Woman He Once Loved in the Former Soviet Union |
| Tanika Gupta | The Waiting Room | |
| 2001 | Zinnie Harris | Further than the Furthest Thing |
| 2002 | Peter Rumney | Jumping on my Shadow |
| 2003 | Rona Munro | Iron |
| 2004 | Owen McCafferty | Scenes from the Big Picture |
| 2005 | Fin Kennedy | How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found |
| 2006 | James Phillips | The Rubenstein Kiss |
| Fraser Grace | Breakfast with Mugabe | |
| 2007 | Dennis Kelly | Taking Care of Baby |
| 2008 | Bryony Lavery | Stockholm |
| 2009 | Alexi Kaye Campbell | The Pride |
| 2010 | Tim Crouch | The Author |
| Lucy Kirkwood | it felt empty when the heart went at first but it is alright now | |