BEHIND THE SCENES: Katherine Soper Wins Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting

A perfume counter retail worker has won the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting with a piece of work she created for her dissertation at the Royal Central School for Speech and Drama. Katherine Soper's play Wish List took the honour at a ceremony at Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre.

Now celebrating its 10th year, the Bruntwood Prize has become the biggest prize for new playwriting in the country. Nearly 2000 playwrights submitted their scripts anonymously for their chance to win a share of the £40,000 prize pot - and see their play developed by the Royal Exchange.

Winning the Bruntwood can really kickstart a writing career: This year's ceremony took place on the heptagonal stage of Pomona, written by 2011 winner Alistair McDowall.

Each of the ten shortlisted plays had extracts performed to the invited audience, which included a royal seal of approval from Royal Exchange Patron the Duke of Wessex.

A superb cast, including Julie Hesmondhalgh, Barbara Marten and Rhodri Meilir, gave just a taste of the great writing on display - teasing the audience and presenter Kirsty Laing spoke for everyone when she said was desperate to know what happened next.

A running theme through the judges' comments about this years shortlist was that these were political pieces - and from the short scenes we saw this was undoubtedly true - but what was striking were how intimate, how personal these were. These were plays about families, about blossoming romances, and about long hours jobs.

When benefactor Michael Oglesby, chairman of Bruntwood, announced that the judges were so torn over the final decision that he was adding an extra judges' award to go with the three usually awarded alongside the grand prize there was an audible gasp in the room. From the writing on display, you can't blame the judges for wanting to commend more of the pieces.

The first judges' award went to Kendal Feaver's The Almighty Sometimes, a look at childhood mental illness as a 21-year-old wonders if her mother was too quick to put her on medication as an eight-year-old.

Alan Harris's How My Light Is Spent was also commended, it tells a story of man who falls for the woman on the other end of the phone sex line.

A third award went to Parliament Square by James Fritz. In this look at the point of political protest, a woman plans to make a stand outside parliament and finds out whether her 15 seconds of agony can change the world.

And the unexpected fourth award went to Chloe Todd Fordham's Sound of Silence - a timely piece about extremism and fundamentalism and looks at the importance of art itself and what happens when it's silenced.

Chair of judges Nicholas Hytner, a judge on the very first panel in 2006, got to announce the winner, who received her prize from the Earl of Wessex Prince Edward. Wish List looks at a life on zero-hours contracts, caring responsibility and benefit cuts.

Bruntwood Prize winning plays have been performed in cities all across the UK, and former winners include: Chris Urch, Andrew Sheriden, Janice Okoh and Vivienne Franzmann, who was also on this year's judging panel.

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