BWW Exclusive: Meet the 2021 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize Finalists- Beth Steel

As BroadwayWorld previously reported, The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize has announced 10 Finalists for 2021 for its prestigious playwriting award, the oldest and largest prize awarded to women+ playwrights. The Winner, to be announced on April 7, will be awarded a cash prize of $25,000 USD, and will receive a signed print by renowned artist Willem De Kooning, created especially for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.

Ahead of the announcement, BroadwayWorld is excited to spotlight each of this year's finalists. Below, learn more about Beth Steel and read an excerpt form her play, The House of Shades.​​

What does it mean to you personally to be recognized by such a reputable and respected organization?

When the theatres closed in the UK, my play was due to start rehearsals the following week. It's a play I'd spent three years solidly writing, and many months finding a home for. That home was the Almeida, the sexiest theatre in London, with a fantastic creative team and cast. It sounds ridiculous to talk about your own loss when so many people have endured such terrible losses, but I was gutted. The prize has meant so much to me because it has meant the play exists again in the world. It has given me hope and joy.

What has happened since you were announced as a finalist?

One of the fantastic, and rare, things about this prize is that its international. This is the second time I have been a finalist and, on both occasions, it has generated interest from the US; from theatres wanting to read my work to agents inquiring about representation. That's pretty amazing!

What's next? Do you have any new projects on the horizon, ideas that you'd love to put on paper, etc.?

I am writing a play for the National Theatre. It's a theatre I love and it's been a dream of mine to one day have my work on one of their stages. It's been a difficult year to focus, to spark creatively, but I am now in a place where I feel I have my mind back.

Read an excerpt from Beth Steel's play,The House of Shades:

PART ONE

"You don't have to believe in the supernatural to recognise
that the family is a haunted structure." Mark Fisher

1965

The Webster House.

A soft light picks out the naked corpse of an old man on a table.

A neighbour, cloth and basin to hand, washes Harry Webster. Eventually...

Neighbour (to us.) Here at the beginning. Here at the end. Births, deaths...it's all the same to me. Mrs Taylor, four streets away, prides herself on not laying out men. Mrs Ainsley will - but only those she'd tackle alive. Me? I'll lay out anyone for half a crown. Though I do draw a line at orifices. The plugging of arse, ear, nostril, mouth; the fixing of jaw, finger, neck...I leave to the undertakers. I'm here before the rigor mortis kicks in.

It's slower work than you think, death. The blood drains, the temperature sinks, but the changes occur slowly. As if the body itself don't know yet what's happened to it. But once the bacteria gets-going it attacks everywhere and meeting no resistance the rot sets in. After that you're left with a corpse. Not much different to a deserted factory. Or boarded up street. Hard to imagine anyone ever lived in it.

The Webster family are now visible, seated and stood, silent as a photo.

That it was once alive.

*

Rain. Constance steps forwards and sings 'April Showers,' brightly.

Constance Though April showers may come your way
They bring the flowers that bloom in May
So, if it's raining, have no regrets
Because it isn't raining rain, you know, it's raining violets...

She sparks up a ciggie - she often has one on the go, precariously dangling from her mouth. Alistair, her husband, is reading the paper.

Constance Anyone interesting die?

Click here to learn more about The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.