This year Ellie Keel Productions, Paines Plough, 45 North in association with Sonia Friedman Productions founded the Women’s Prize for Playwriting.
Applications for the prize are open to all writers who identify as female in the UK and Ireland and invited playwrights to create vivid, exciting, and brave new work for the stage. They recieved1169 submissions, with the 70 plays on the longlist announced last week, and the 35 plays on the shortlist announced this week.
Those who made the shortlist include 7 plays by Black female writers.
- …blackbird hour by Babirye Bukilwa
- Fly Home Butterfly by Tife Kusoro
- happy sad virginia! by Deborah Acheampong
- PARADISE STREET by Chino Odimba
- Smethwick by Yolanda Mercy
- The Credibility Assessment by Amanda Wilkin
- We’ll Be Who We Are by Naomi Obeng
The 8 finalists for the prize will be announced no later than early September.
Find out more here.