The prestigious Susan Smith Blackburn Prize has named joint winners for its 48th annual award, marking the first time in over 25 years that two playwrights have shared the honour.
Ro Reddick has been recognised for Cold War Choir Practice, while Hannah Doran receives the prize for The Meat Kings! (Inc.) of Brooklyn Heights. Both plays are debut works, highlighting a remarkable year for emerging women+ playwrights.
An international community of artists and industry leaders gathered at the Royal Court Theatre in London on 26 February to celebrate the writers and eight additional finalists. Each winner received a cash award of 25,000 dollars and a signed print by Willem de Kooning, with finalists receiving 5,000 dollars each.
Executive Director Leslie Swackhamer said, “These writers are on the cusp of brilliant careers, and their plays could not be more different – one is a surreal romp of political intrigue, and the other is firmly grounded in realism – and both are dealing with our current moment in theatrically thrilling ways.”
Reddick said, “I began writing Cold War Choir Practice in graduate school in the fall of 2022. Months earlier, Putin had invaded Ukraine, headlines were popping up asking if we were in a new Cold War, and childhood memories of my time in a chorus dedicated to world peace came flooding back. Writing this play became an attempt to capture a very particular kind of coming of age: the moment when you learn the world is not a safe place for you. It’s a realization you make once and then spend the rest of your life unpacking. This play is part of that unpacking.”
Doran said, “I wanted to capture the world of a butchers’ cut room and put it on stage, but the political storyline of the play proved to be quite prescient. I started writing The Meat Kings during the first Trump administration, and it premiered during the second. I think it has only become more relevant in that time, as we are all increasingly divided by damaging political rhetoric.”
Reddick’s Cold War Choir Practice premiered at Clubbed Thumb’s Summerworks 2025 and later at Trinity Repertory Company. The production is currently in previews at MCC Theatre in New York and opens on 9 March in a co-production with Clubbed Thumb and Page 73.
Doran’s The Meat Kings! (Inc.) of Brooklyn Heights won the 2024 Papatango Prize and premiered at Park Theatre in 2025. The play explores themes of labour, loyalty and the American Dream, inspired by the playwright’s real-life experience working as a butcher.
The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, founded nearly fifty years ago, remains the oldest and largest international award recognising women+ playwrights writing for English-speaking theatre. Many past winners have gone on to receive major accolades including the Pulitzer Prize, Tony Awards and Olivier Awards.
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