Bess Wohl, Jen Silverman and More Named as Finalists for The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize

The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize has revealed this year's finalists for the prestigious international playwriting award - the largest and oldest award recognising women+ writers for plays of outstanding quality written for the English-speaking theatre.  For nearly fifty years, the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize has recognized the most visionary women+ writing for the stage—artists whose voices have defined and redefined contemporary theatre.  Past Winners of the Prize include Annie Baker, Alice Birch, Benedict Lombe, Julia Cho, Caryl Churchill, Jackie Sibblies Drury, Katori Hall, Lucy Kirkwood, Marsha Norman, Lynn Nottage, Dael Orlandersmith, Lucy Prebble, Sarah Ruhl, Paula Vogel, Wendy Wasserstein and Timberlake Wertenbaker.

Since 1978, over 500 plays have been honored as Finalists of the Prize and many have gone on to receive top honors, including Olivier, Lilly, Evening Standard and Tony Awards for Best Play. Eleven Susan Smith Blackburn Finalist playwrights have subsequently won the Pulitzer Prize in Drama. The Prize results in more productions of plays by women+ writers and fosters the interchange of plays between the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and other English-speaking countries.

The Finalists for the 48th Annual Susan Smith Blackburn Prize are:

Barbara Bergin (Ireland) Dublin Gothic

Hannah Doran (UK/Ireland) Meat Kings! (Inc.) of Brooklyn Heights

Amy Jephta  (South Africa) A Good House

Frances Poet  (UK) Small Acts of Love

Ro Reddick  (US) Cold War Choir Practice

Jasmine Sharma (US) Pigeonhole

Jen Silverman  (US) Regressions

DeLanna Studi  (Cherokee Nation) “I” is for Invisible

Else Went  (US) Initiative

Bess Wohl  (US) Liberation

This February 26th, The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize will announce the Winner of the 48th Annual Prize at The Royal Court Theatre in London with a special presentation and celebration attended by writers, actors, supporters, artistic directors and theatre artists.  The Winner will be awarded $25,000 and will also receive a signed print by renowned artist Willem De Kooning, created especially for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. A Special Commendation of $10,000 may be given at the discretion of the judges, and each Finalist will receive $5,000.

ABOUT THE FINALIST PLAYS:

A Good House by Amy Jephta (South Africa) submitted by The Royal Court Theatre (London)

In the quaint suburban community of Stillwater, a mysterious shack springs up from the dust with the inhabitants nowhere to be seen. As speculation abounds, new residents Sihle and Bonolo are recruited by their neighborhood to be the face of a campaign to demolish the shack.  A biting satire and explosive exploration of race, resentment and community politics, about a couple who discover the limits of good neighborliness and what is required to fit in.  A Good House was co-commissioned by The Royal Court Theatre with the Fugard Theatre (South Africa) and premiered in January 2025 at the Royal Court in a co-production with the Bristol Old Vic in association with the Market Theatre (Johannesburg).

Upcoming Productions: Playhouse Teater (Stockholm); The Market Theatre (Johannesburg); Ensemble Theatre (Sydney); Burgteater (Austria).

Cold War Choir Practice by Ro Reddick (US) submitted by Clubbed Thumb (New York City)

A young girl is embroiled in intrigue when her estranged uncle, a prominent Black conservative, brings his mysteriously ill wife home for the holidays.  Cold War Practice is a fugue of Reaganomics, espionage, roller disco, cults... and choir practice. Cold War Choir Practice (NYT Critic's Pick, dir. Knud Adams), premiered in Clubbed Thumb's Summerworks 2025, co-produced by Page 73.

This production will be remounted at MCC Theater in a co-production with Clubbed Thumb and Page 73 in March  2026.  Cold War Choir Practice was also produced in September 2025 at Trinity Repertory Company (dir. Aileen Wen McGroddy).

Dublin Gothic by Barbara Bergin (Ireland) submitted  by The Abbey Theatre (Dublin)

Dublin Gothic is an epic and myth-busting tragicomedy set in one Dublin house over a century of social upheaval. Generations of losers tumble through time, struggling against the villain of circumstance to create a shadow history of a city both strange and familiar. An ensemble of 17 actors creates more than a hundred unforgettable characters  that will dance through time as  they celebrate the glory and grime of Dublin.

Workshopped at Abbey Theatre May 2022.  World Premiere November 27th, 2025- January 31st, 2026, Abbey Theatre.

“I” is for Invisible by DeLanna Studi (Cherokee Nation) submitted by the New Harmony Project (Indiana) I” is for Invisible follows one family's urgent search for their missing loved one amid the crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, confronting apathetic law enforcement and a system built to overlook them. Interwoven with Cherokee cosmology, this mysterious thriller explores grief, hope, and the fight for visibility, justice, and healing. 

Workshops and readings are scheduled for April 2026 as part of PlayFest Indy (the New Harmony Project). The Native Theatre Project will have a workshop and  reading on May 5, the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women/ Relatives.

Initiative by Else Went (US) submitted by The Public Theater (New York City)

A bittersweet reflection on adolescence at the dawn of the new millennium, Initiative charts the intertwined lives of seven teens from 2000-2004, as they become friends and more than friends, wrestle with their potential, face incalculable loss, and struggle to find their way in (and get out of) “Coastal Podunk, California”.

Initiative's premiere production is currently running at The Public Theater.

Liberation by Bess Wohl (US) submitted by Roundabout Theatre Company (New York City)

1970s, Ohio. Lizzie gathers a group of women to talk about changing their lives, and the world. What follows is a necessary, messy, and bitingly funny exploration of what it means to be free, and to be a woman. In Liberation, Lizzie's daughter steps into her mother's memory—into the unfinished revolution she once helped ignite—and searches the past to find the answer for herself.  

Premiered in winter of 2025 at the Roundabout Theatre Company in the Laura Pels Theatre. Currently on Broadway at the James Earl Jones Theatre.

Meat Kings! (Inc.) of Brooklyn Heights by Hannah Doran (UK-Ireland) submitted by Papatango Theatre Company (London)

T is the new summer hire at Cafarelli & Sons, an iconic New York butcher, but life in a freezing cut room is far from glamorous. No-nonsense boss Paula is fighting to keep her business alive. Apprentices JD and Billy find themselves pitted against each other as her number two David watches on. How far will they go to survive? The Meat Kings! (Inc.) carves into the dark underbelly of America's anti-immigration policies and the brutal sacrifices people make in the pursuit of prosperity.  This searing debut play won the 2024 Papatango Prize.  

Premiere production currently running at the Park Theatre (London) through November 29.

Pigeonhole by Jasmine Sharma (US) submitted by Center Theatre Group (Los Angeles)

Pigeonhole follows Kaaya and Dev, who have little in common except their childhood home in New Jersey.. Over fifty years, on the holiday of Raksha Bandhan (Rakhi), two siblings—portrayed by six actors—grapple with their shared past, unfolding alongside them in real time. Ultimately, this sonic play is about a family trying to repaint their haunted house as a home.

Commissioned by Center Theatre Group in their 2023-2024 L.A. Writers' Workshop.

Regressions by Jen Silverman (US) submitted by Playful Productions (London)

David can't figure out why his life is falling apart… so he goes to see Nora, who gives past life regressions. When David discovers Nora in all his past lives - in increasingly dangerous ways - both must ask themselves whether they're on a collision course to either escape the past, or re-live it. A play about belief, epigenetics, how we try to know ourselves, and what happens when our histories collide.

Small Acts of Love by Frances Poet (UK) submitted by Citizens Theatre (Glasgow)

Small Acts of Love is a compelling, true story, based on meticulous research, about the acts of kindness carried out by the people of Lockerbie in the wake of the Pan Am 103 atrocity in December 1988. Brought together in extreme adversity, two distant communities from Scotland and America forged bonds of friendship that endure thirty years on. The play, with original songs written by

Ricky Ross of Deacon Blue, memorializes those who were lost and celebrates the friendship, compassion and humanity that rose from the ashes.