Leki Jackson-Bourke Takes Out Top Playwriting Award

The Bruce Mason Playwriting Award was presented to Leki Jackson-Bourke at the Playmarket Accolades in Wellington on 24 November 2024.

The $10,000 cash prize recognises professional success in the career of a writer and is designed to encourage their continued exploration of the theatre medium.

Leki Jackson-Bourke is a multidisciplinary creative, teacher and playwright, of Niuean, Tongan and Samoan descent.

Playmarket Director Murray Lynch said, “Leki’s writing places the Pasifika experience stage centre. He does this with a profound sense of joy, celebration and gentle provocation.” Leki responded, saying “I want my entire generation to rise and take ownership of our stories and our experiences. We have to tell our stories before others do it for us.”

Victor Rodger ONZM celebrates this win, saying, “Leki is right at the forefront of the niu generation of Pasifika playwrights. He is driven by a desire to serve his community, but his works have huge crossover appeal as evidenced by the success of the groundbreaking Inky Pinky Ponky and his acclaimed adaptation of the film Red, White and Brass.”

Leki graduated from the Pacific Institute of Performing Arts and has toured Aotearoa, Australia, USA, UAE, Europe and the Pacific with multiple companies, including Black Grace, Kila Kokonut Krew, FCC and Massive Theatre Company.

His first play, Inky Pinky Ponky, co-written with ‘Amanaki Prescott-Faletau, premiered as part of Auckland Theatre Company’s Next Big Thing Festival in 2019. In that same year, it won the teenage category of Playmarket’s Plays for the Young competition. It was published in Talanoa: Four Pacific Plays by Little Island Press in 2017 and later made into a film, which was released online in 2023.

In 2018 Leki became the first Pasifika playwright to receive the Creative New Zealand Todd New Writer’s Bursary grant and won the Creative New Zealand Arts Pasifika Award for Emerging Pacific Artist.

In 2019 Leki was the inaugural Emerging Pasifika Writer in Residence at the International Institute of Modern Letters, Te Herenga Waka–Victoria University of Wellington. The Gangster’s Paradise premiered as part of Auckland Theatre Company’s Here and Now Festival that year and went on to win the teenage category of Playmarket’s Plays for the Young competition. In this hip-hop rom-com musical mash up, Leki reframes a redemption story with savage smack, rap and krumping. Theatrescenes celebrated how it championed and centred the youth experience, saying “it is their stories on stage and their stories that matter”. The Gangster’s Paradise was published by Playmarket in 2023 under the Tala imprint.

In 2023 Leki was commissioned by Auckland Theatre Company to adapt the film Red, White and Brass for the stage. Anapela Polata’ivao and Vela Manusaute’s premiere production this July played to over 12,000 people, 51% of which were first time audiences. The play was hailed by Theatreview as “irreverent, heartfelt, moving and hilarious … a play that generally defies gravity”.

Pring It On! premiered at the Māngere Arts Centre in February 2024. Parodying the American cheerleading film genre, Pring It On! is set against the backdrop of Polyfest. It riffs on tradition, authentic self-expression and the turbulence of youth. After a sellout season in Māngere, a new production opened at the ASB Waterfront Theatre in August. Theatreview acknowledged the significance of the play’s message, stating that it “shows why embracing your culture while also being conscientious of modernity will allow generational Samoan knowledge to be passed down to new generations.”

A gifted curator, Leki was the Pasifika Curator for the 2022 Auckland Writer’s Festival, and Lead Programmer for the festival A Niu Dawn, presented by The Guerrilla Collection just one day before the announcement of the Bruce Mason Playwriting Award.

Leki also won the 2015 Auckland Is My Playground Award for Youth Leadership in Performed Arts, awarded by Auckland Council; Best Newcomer at the 2017 Auckland Theatre Awards; and the Pacific Cooperation Foundation Young Pasifika Male of Influence Award in 2020.

Leki now works as a freelance artist under the newly formed theatre company Strictly Brown alongside Saale Ilaua. He is also a core creative in the South Auckland collective Sau E Siva Creatives.

Since 1983 The Bruce Mason Playwriting Award has recognised the work of an outstanding New Zealand playwright. The recipient is decided through voting by a panel of leading Artistic Directors, Producers, Theatre Programmers and Script Advisors throughout Aotearoa. Previous winners include many of this country’s most celebrated writers including Hone Kouka, Briar Grace-Smith, Jo Randerson, Victor Rodger, Ralph McCubbin Howell, Tawhi Thomas, Sam Brooks, Mīria George, Nathan Joe, Nancy Brunning, Eleanor Bishop and Karin McCracken.

The Award is named after Bruce Mason, considered to be New Zealand’s first most significant playwright. His plays continue to be produced and many, such as The Pohutukawa Tree and The End of the Golden Weather, have come to be considered New Zealand classics. The award is funded by The FAME Trust and Rachel Underwood.

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