Lynn Nottage Awarded 2015-16 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize For SWEAT

Playwright Lynn Nottage, the 2009 Pulitzer Prize winner for RUINED, has been awarded the 2016 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for her new drama, SWEAT, which premiered last August at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

Emerging from extensive conversations the playwright and director Kate Whoriskey had with residents of Reading, Pennsylvania, which was named the nation's poorest city in 2012, SWEAT explores America's industrial decline at the turn of the millennium.

SWEAT has also been produced at Washington D.C.'s Arena Stage and there have been reports of a possible production at New York's Public Theater.

The oldest and largest prize awarded to women playwrights, this year's winner was chosen from over 150 nominated plays. The other finalists, announced in January, included:

Sarah Burgess (U.S.)- Dry Powder
Rachel Cusk (U.K.)- Medea
Sarah DeLappe (U.S.)- The Wolves
Sam Holcroft (U.K.)- Rules for Living
Anna Jordan (U.K.)- Yen
Dominique Morisseau (U.S.)- Skeleton Crew
Suzan-Lori Parks (U.S.)- Father Comes Home From the Wars (Parts 1,2 & 3)
Bea Roberts (U.K)- And Then Come The Nightjars
Noni Stapleton (Ireland)- Charolais

Nottage will be awarded a cash prize of $25,000 and will also receive a signed print by renowned artist Willem de Kooning, created especially for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Each of the additional Finalists will receive an award of $5,000.

The Houston-based Susan Smith Blackburn Prize reflects the values and interests of Susan Smith Blackburn, noted American actress and writer who grew up in Houston and lived in London during the last 15 years of her life. The Prize was founded by Susan's sister, Emilie S. Kilgore, and husband, William Blackburn. Over 350 plays have been honored as Finalists since the Prize was instituted in 1978. Many of the Winners have gone on to receive other honors, including Olivier, Lilly, Evening Standard and Tony Awards for Best Play. Eight Susan Smith Blackburn Finalist plays have subsequently won the Pulitzer Prize in Drama.

The international panel of Judges for the 2015-2016 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize included, in the U.K., critic and author, Kate Bassett; Jeremy Herrin, artistic director of Headlong Theatre, and celebrated stage and screen actress, Tanya Moodie. U.S. Judges are actress and filmmaker Greta Gerwig, Tony award-winning director Sam Gold, and Obie award-winning playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins.

Visit blackburnprize.org.