Finalists Named For 2010 Blackburn Prize For Women Playwrights

The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize - the prestigious international award given each year to a woman who has written an outstanding new work for the English-speaking theatre - has announced the 10 finalists for the 32nd annual award. Chosen from a field of 90 plays nominated by a select list of professional theatres worldwide, the 2010 finalists are the following:

"The Aliens" by Annie Baker (U.S.)
"The Language Archive" by Julia Cho (U.S.)
"This" by Melissa James Gibson (U.S.)
"it felt empty when the heart went at first but it is alright now." by Lucy
Kirkwood (U.K.)
"The Shipment" by Young Jean Lee (U.S.)
"The Nature of Love" by Rebecca Lenkiewicz (U.K.)
"East of Berlin" by Hannah Moscovitch (Canada)
"The Swallowing Dark" by Lizzie Nunnery (U.K.)
"Enron" by Lucy Prebble (U.K.)
"Strandline" by Abbie Spallen (Ireland)

The 2010 Blackburn Prize will be marked with a ceremony in New York in early March, honoring all finalists. The winner will be awarded $20,000, and will also receive a signed and numbered print by renowned artist Willem De Kooning, created especially for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. A Special Commendation of $5,000 may be given at the discretion of the judges, and each of the other finalists receives $1,000.

The international panel of six judges for the 32nd annual Susan Smith Blackburn Prize includes three from the U.K. and three from the U.S.: celebrated American stage and film actress Hope Davis, Tony-award winning director Doug Hughes; Mark Lawson, BBC Radio host and critic; Todd London, artistic director of New Dramatists (New York); British stage director Indhu Rubasingham: and renowned star of British theatre, Fiona Shaw.

Established in 1978, The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize is the first international award created to recognize women playwrights, and remains the most important award of its kind. The Prize reflects the values and interests of Susan Smith Blackburn, noted American actress and writer who lived in London during the last 15 years of her life. She died in 1977 at the age of 42, and her sister, Emilie Kilgore, and husband, William Blackburn, established the award in her honor.

Over the past three decades, the Blackburn Prize has been awarded to such celebrated playwrights as Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti, Caryl Churchill, Gina Gionfriddo, Beth Henley, Wendy Kesselman, Marlene Meyer, Ellen McLaughlin, Susan Miller, Chloe Moss, Dael Orlandersmith, Sarah Ruhl, Judith Thompson, Paula Vogel, Naomi Wallace, and Timberlake Wertenbaker.

The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize has anticipated later recognition. Since the inception of the Blackburn Prize, seven women have won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and in every case they have first been honored by the Blackburn.

Over 300 plays have been selected as finalists since the prize began; over 60 of those plays are regularly produced in the U.S. alone.

Ms. Norman recently referred to the Blackburn Prize and its importance to women playwrights and the entire Theatre World in her widely-discussed feature about the paucity or productions of plays by women in the November 2009 issue of American Theatre Magazine.

Each year artistic directors and prominent professionals in the theatre throughout the English-speaking world are invited to nominate plays. In addition to the U.S., the U.K. and Ireland, new plays have been submitted from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and India. Each script is read by a minimum of three members of an international reading committee that then
selects 10 finalists. The finalists' plays are read and considered by all six judges in determining the winner.