Nominees announced for the inaugural Women's Prize for Playwriting

First-ever Women's Prize for Playwriting to announce winner this autumn!

Founded by Paines Plough and Ellie Keel Productions with 45North in association with Sonia Friedman Productions, the new awards ceremony called for texts over 60 minutes in length to be submitted free of charge with a total of 1,169 playwrights reaching out.

The judging panel for selecting the winner features actress and playwright Maxine Peake (Beryl; Black Mirror episode "Metalhead"), playwright and screenwriter Tanika Gupta, LAMDA Artistic Director Sarah Frankcom, BAFTA Award-winning actress Monica Dolan (Rosemary West on Appropriate Adult, 2011; King Lear and The Seagull on stage opposite Ian McKellen), playwright Ella Hickson, theatre producer and former executive producer of the Donmar Warehouse Kate Pakenham, and Kiln Theatre's artistic director Indhu Rubasingham. The panel is chaired by literary agent Mel Kenyon.

Anyone at least 16 years of age who is a legal resident of the UK and Ireland and who identifies as female is eligible to enter in the contest. The first prize winner with the winning piece will receive a £12,000 monetary prize in respect of an exclusive option for the lead producers of the Prize to co-produce the winning play.

Ellie Keel Productions stated: "The 35 plays on our shortlist are irrefutable proof of the exceptional quality of women's writing for the stage. The authors range from first-time, unproduced playwrights to experienced writers with prestigious credits. The plays themselves are brilliantly diverse in subject matter, size and style. We will be compiling a catalogue of these plays on The Women's Prize for Playwriting website to act as a resource for directors, producers, programmers and other creatives, as each of these plays deserves to have a future life."

First Annual Women's Prize for Playwriting 2020 shortlist of nominees in full

In alphabetical order by title, the nominees are:

A Rat, A Rat by Chloe Yates
...blackbird hour by Babirye Bukilw
Colostrum by Olivia Hennessy
Contact Centre by Victoria Barclay
Core by Jennifer Lunn
Deepa the Saint by Sonali Bhattacharyya
Everything Must Go by Caitlin McEwan
EZRA by Stella Green
Fly Home Butterfly by Tife Kusoro
Full English by Silva Semerciyan
Giddyup's Way by Ciara Cassoni
happy sad virginia! by Deborah Acheampong
How the Dodo Died and Other Stories by Jenny Knotts
Leaving Eden by Sophia Chetin-Leuner
Kelp by Gaia Sorcha Fenn
My Brother's Keeper by Kim Taylor
PARADISE STREET by Chino Odimba
Reasons You Should(n't) Love Me by Amy Trigg
Red Sky at Night by Eve Leigh
Savage by Jane Bodie
Smethwick by Yolanda Mercy
Static by Saskia Livingstone
SUPER BLOOD WOLF MAN by Alice Allemano
The Credibility Assessment by Amanda Wilkin
THE ESTATE by Shaan Sahota
The Good People by Camilla Whitehill
The Sub-Let Next to Heaven by Madeleine Accalia
The Swell by Isley Lynn
The Virgins by Miriam Battye
This Might Not Be It by Sophia Leuner
We'll Be Who We Are by Naomi Obeng
WHAT YOU DO WITH THE DEAD IS YOU BURY THEM by Selma Dimitrijevic
When the Sea Swallows Us Whole by Natasha Collie
White Tuesday by Eve Leigh
YOU BURY ME by Ahlam