2008 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize Awarded to Judith Thompson for "Palace of the End"

The 2008 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize has been awarded to Judith Thompson for her critically acclaimed play Palace of the End, marking the first time a Canadian writer has received the prestigious playwriting award's highest honor. Thompson received $20,000 and a signed and numbered print by artist Willem De Kooning at a special 30th Anniversary ceremony on Monday, March 10th at the Alley Theatre in Houston, Texas where Ms. Blackburn first became involved in theatre.

Special Commendations of $2,500 each were also presented to playwrights from Northern Ireland -Lisa McGee for Girls and Dolls, submitted by the Tinderbox Theatre, Belfast; the United States - Jenny Schwartz for God's Ear, submitted by New Georges, NY; and England - Polly Stenham for That Face, submitted by the Royal Court.

Alley Theatre Artistic Director Gregory Boyd, a previous judge for the prize, presented the award to Thompson, followed by comments from former Susan Smith Blackburn Prize winner and judge, Marsha Norman. In memory and honor of Wendy Wasserstein, who was intimately connected to the Prize as a former winner, judge and director, Alley Resident Company member Annalee Jeffries performed a monologue from The Heidi Chronicles in addition to reading an excerpt from Palace of the End. 

Judith Thompson's critically hailed new play Palace of the End recently concluded a limited engagement production at Canadian Stage Company in Toronto. It will transfer Off-Broadway when the Epic Theatre Ensemble's New York premiere production begins performances at the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre at Playwrights Horizons in June.

The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize is given annually to recognize women from around the world who have written works of outstanding quality for the English-speaking theatre.  

Palace of the End is a triptych of monologues from real-life characters who have all been gravely impacted by the War in Iraq. This is a theatrical Guernica, with each monologue taking the audience on a harrowing but somehow illuminating journey into the heart of this conflict.

Girls and Dolls is a striking play from Northern Ireland about two women and the childhood tragedy they'll never be allowed to forget. For Emma and Clare, 1980 was the summer they met at the swings, the summer they built a tree house and stole from Dennis O'Donnell's shop. The summer a young mother and her infant daughter moved into number 14...Now in their thirties, Emma and Clare struggle to come to terms with the chain of devastating events that began that summer, to understand what they did, what they became and how they were judged.

God's Ear is an original, deeply moving, and wildly eccentric new play about a young couple who struggles with the loss of their child.

That Face is a compelling portrayal of an affluent family in freefall. Mia is at boarding school. She has access to drugs. They are Martha's. Henry has dropped out of school.  He has access to alcohol.  From Martha.  Martha controls their lives.  Martha is their mother. That Face is a powerful and darkly comic exploration of children who become parents to their parents.

The international panel of judges for the 30th Annual Susan Smith Blackburn Prize Awards included Long Wharf Theatre artistic director Gordon Edelstein, Golden Globe® and Emmy Award® winning actress Edie Falco, Tony Award® winning producer Thelma Holt (A Doll's House), British stage director and television producer Francis Matthews, Olivier® and Tony Award® winning actress Janet McTeer (A Doll's House) and playwright Sarah Ruhl (Pulitzer prize finalist The Clean House, 2004 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize winner).

2008 finalists for The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize also included Linda Brogan - Black Crows (England), Lydia Diamond - Stick Fly (U.S.),  Bryony Lavery - Stockholm (England), Linda McLean - strangers, babies (Scotland), Julie Marie Myatt - Boats on a River (U.S.) and Victoria Stewart – Hardball (U.S.) Each of the additional finalists received $1,000.

The Susan Smith Blackburn 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. Over 300 plays have been chosen as finalists since the prize was instituted in 1977. Over 60 of them are frequently produced in the United States today. Six Blackburn finalist plays have gone on to win the Pulitzer Prize in Drama. The authors of those plays, Margaret Edson, Beth Henley, Marsha Norman, Suzan-Lori Parks, Paula Vogel and Wendy Wasserstein are the only women to have done so since the Blackburn Prize was first established.

BIOGRAPHIES

WINNER

Judith Thompson's critically acclaimed Palace of the End recently concluded a limited engagement production at Canadian Stage Company in Toronto. It will transfer Off-Broadway when the Epic Theatre Ensemble's New York premiere production begins performances at the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre at Playwrights Horizons in June. Also for Canadian Stage: Habitat (Susan Smith Blackburn Prize finalist). She was most recently awarded the 2007 Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts, Officer of the Order of Canada. Other plays include: Enoch Arden at the Hope Shelter; Capture Me; Perfect Pie; Sled; Lion in the Streets; I Am Yours; White Biting Dog; The Crackwalker. Film and television Perfect Pie (Rhombus Media); Lost and Delirious (Cite-Amerique); Life With Billy (co-writer) (Salter Street Films for CBC).A full professor at the University of Guelph since 1993, Judith lives in Toronto with her husband, five children, a dog and two cats. She directs Shakespeare with kids grades 4-6 every spring.

SPECIAL COMMENDATIONS

LISA McGEE studied Drama at Queens University Belfast. Writing credits for theatre include, Girls and Dolls (Irish Tour, winner of the Stewart Parker Award, Irish Times award nomination for best new play, Irish theatre rep reading, New York) and JUMP! which was performed this spring at The Exchange Theatre in New York. Other productions of JUMP! include the Cathedral Quarter Festival, Belfast,  and a rehearsed reading at the Royal National Theatre in London. Other plays include Seven Years and Seven Hours, commissioned by Rough Magic Theatre Company, Dublin. Lisa was writer on attachment with The Royal National Theatre London in 2006 and a member of "The 50"with The Royal Court Theatre London (Nominated by the RNT). Television credits include "Totally Frank" for Channel 4. The pilot of her TV show "The Things I Haven't Told You" will be aired on the BBC in March 2008.She is also developing JUMP! into a  feature film  with the Northern Ireland Film Commission. Lisa is co creator of a new drama series "Raw" for Eccosse Films UK.  RAW will air on RTE 2 (Ireland) in September 2008.

Jenny Schwartz's play God's Ear was produced by New Georges in May 2007 and will be produced Off-Broadway at the Vineyard Theatre in April 2008.  God's Ear is being published by Faber and Faber, and translated into German by the publisher Fischer Verlag.  Jenny's play-in-progress Somewhere Fun was first developed at Soho Rep's Writer / Director Lab and is now under co-commission between Soho Rep and Soho Theatre, London, where Jenny spent a month as playwright-in-residence. Jenny is also under commission from South Coast Rep.  Two of Jenny's plays Intervals and Cause for Alarm were part of the New York International Fringe Festival.  Jenny is the recipient of a grant from the Lincoln Center Lecomte du Nuoy Foundation, is the 2007-2008 recipient of the Dorothy Strelsin Foundation Fellowship at Soho Rep., and is a 2008 fellow Sundance Playwrights Retreat at Ucross.  An associate artist with The Civilians and a board member of New Georges, Jenny completed two years of fellowship in the Playwriting Program at Juilliard and holds an MFA in Theatre Directing from Columbia.

Polly Stenham. That Face is Polly Stenham's first play. Written when she was nineteen, it premiered at The Royal Court Theatre London in May 2007. She is currently writing her second play under commission from the Royal Court. She has been awarded a grant from the UK Film Council to adapt the play into a film. The Royal Court Production is being revived at the Duke of York's Theatre in London's West End in May 2008. Lindsay Duncan will be reviving her role as Martha the alcoholic mother.

In 2007, in an unprecedented decision by the judges, four playwrights won Susan Smith Blackburn Special Commendations rather than one primary prize: Lucy Caldwell for Leaves, Sheila Callaghan for Dead City, Stella Feehily for O Go My Man and Abbie Spallen for Pumpgirl. Playwrights Amelia Bullmore and Elizabeth Kuti split the 2006 award for Mammals and The Sugar Wife, respectively.

Other recipients of the honor include Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti's Behzti (Dishonour), Sarah Ruhl's The Clean House, Dael Orlandersmith's Yellowman, Susan Miller's A Map of Doubt and Rescue, Gina Gionfriddo's U.S. Drag, Bridget Carpenter's Fall, Charlotte Jones' Humble Boy, Naomi Wallace's One Flea Spare, Jessica Goldberg's Refuge, Paula Vogel's How I Learned to Drive, Moira Buffini's Silence and Caryl Churchill's Serious Money.

Former judges of The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize over the past thirty years are a Who's Who of the English-speaking theatre and include Edward Albee, Eileen Atkins, Blair Brown, Zoe Caldwell, Jill Clayburgh, Glenn Close, Harold Clurman, Colleen Dewhurst, John Guare, A.R. Gurney, Tony Kushner, John Lahr, Marsha Norman, Joan Plowright, Marian Seldes, Fiona Shaw, Tom Stoppard, Meryl Streep, Jessica Tandy, Paula Vogel, Wendy Wasserstein, August Wilson and JoAnne Woodward among nearly 200 artists in the United States, England and Ireland.

Each year artistic directors and prominent professionals in the theatre throughout the English-speaking world are asked to submit 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.  Plays are eligible whether or not they have been produced, but any premiere production must have occurred within the preceding year.  Each script is read by a minimum of three members of an international reading committee that then selects ten to twelve finalists. Finalist's plays are read by all six judges.

www.blackburnprize.org