Ralph McCubbin Howell is a playwright from Wellington, New Zealand. At Victoria University, he received First Class B.A. Hons in Theatre and English Literature, and was awarded the Dronke Prize for Drama, before going on to train at Britain’s prestigious Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. His credits include collaborating on A Most Outrageous Humbug (Pick of the Fringe, NZ Fringe 2009), and Who’s Neat? You! (Best of Theatre, NZ Fringe 2010).
He is co-director of Trick of the Light Theatre Company, for which he has written his most recent scripts – The Engine Room (Outstanding New Playwright – Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards 2011), The Road That Wasn’t There (Outstanding New New Zealand Play, and Production of the Year – Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards 2013, Auckland Arts Festival Award – Auckland Fringe Awards 2013), and The Bookbinder (Best Theatre, Best in the Fringe – NZ Fringe Awards 2014). In 2013 he wrote Broken River the BATS Theatre STAB commission, and in 2014 his play Second Afterlife premiered as part of the Young and Hungry Festival of New Theatre at BATS Theatre in Wellington.
Ralph was the 2014 recipient of the Bruce Mason Playwriting Award.