WHAT’S IN GRACE’S SATCHEL?
A Royal Court Delivery and Two Very Important Debuts
You can always tell when something big has happened in theatre because the envelopes go posh.
Not just your standard press emails and polite PDFs. No, these ones arrive with the sort of importance that makes a postwoman stand up straighter, brush biscuit crumbs off her uniform and pretend she understands modern art.
Yesterday’s delivery? The 2026 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.
And not just a winner. Two winners.
The prestigious international award, now in its 48th year and the largest and oldest prize recognising women+ playwrights writing for the English-speaking stage, has named joint winners for the first time in over 25 years. The winning plays are Cold War Choir Practice by Ro Reddick (U.S.) and The Meat Kings! (Inc.) of Brooklyn Heights by Hannah Doran (Ireland-UK).
On 26 February, theatre artists and leaders gathered at the Royal Court Theatre in London to celebrate the winners alongside eight finalists. Both writers received $25,000 and a signed print by renowned artist Willem de Kooning created especially for the Prize. Each finalist received $5,000.
Executive Director Leslie Swackhamer said she was delighted to see two debut plays take the award, noting the writers are “on the cusp of brilliant careers” and that the plays, while completely different in style, both respond powerfully to the present moment.
Ro Reddick explained that Cold War Choir Practice grew from memories and world events. She began writing it in 2022 after the invasion of Ukraine and reflections on a childhood spent in a choir dedicated to world peace. The play explores the moment you realise the world is not safe and the lifelong process of understanding that truth.
Hannah Doran described her play as rooted in the world of a butcher’s cut room, though its political themes became increasingly relevant over time. She began writing during the first Trump administration, and it premiered during the second, examining division, rhetoric and the cost of ambition.
And honestly, you can feel that in the writing. Some scripts arrive smelling faintly of ambition. These arrived smelling of ink, effort, and slightly panicked genius.
Cold War Choir Practice – Ro Reddick
Set in a Syracuse roller rink in 1987, the play blends Reagan-era politics, espionage, roller disco, cults and choir rehearsals into a darkly comic coming-of-age story. A young girl’s family becomes entangled in intrigue when her estranged uncle, a prominent Black conservative, brings his mysteriously ill wife home for the holidays.
Judge Benedict Lombe praised the play’s originality, calling it “alive and audacious” and celebrating its playful form and bold vision.
The debut premiered at Clubbed Thumb’s Summerworks 2025, co-produced by Page 73, followed by a production at Trinity Repertory Company. It opens 9 March at MCC Theatre in New York, directed by Tony Award nominee Knud Adams. The play was a New York Times Critic’s Pick in 2025 and listed by Vulture as one of the most anticipated shows of 2026.
The Meat Kings! (Inc.) of Brooklyn Heights – Hannah Doran
Fresh out of prison, T takes a summer job at Cafarelli & Sons butchers in Brooklyn, where apprentices compete for a single job while the fifth-generation business struggles to survive. The play examines loyalty, ambition and immigration politics, inspired by Doran’s own time as a vegetarian working as a butcher in New York City.
Judge Julie Hesmondhalgh compared the writing to Arthur Miller, describing it as a play about the present told through powerful dialogue and characterisation.
The play won the 2024 Papatango New Writing Prize and received its world premiere at London’s Park Theatre in Autumn 2025. Doran is also nominated for the 2026 Critics’ Circle Most Promising Playwright Award.
★★★★ “A compelling blue-collar American nightmare.” – The Standard
For nearly fifty years, the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize has championed visionary women+ playwrights and helped bring their plays to production. Over 500 plays have been recognised as finalists, with many going on to win Olivier, Evening Standard, Lilly and Tony Awards. Eleven finalists later won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Past winners include Lynn Nottage’s Sweat, Annie Baker’s The Flick, Caryl Churchill’s Fen, Paula Vogel’s How I Learned to Drive, Sarah Ruhl’s The Clean House, Jackie Sibblies Drury’s Fairview and Moira Buffini’s Silence. The 2024 winner 1536 by Ava Pickett transfers to the West End this May following a sold-out run at the Almeida.
The Prize encourages productions of plays by women+ writers and promotes exchange between the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and other English-speaking countries.
Judges for 2026 included Julie Hesmondhalgh, Mara Isaacs, Mimi Lien, Benedict Lombe, Audra McDonald and Ian Rickson.
Finalists were Barbara Bergin (Dublin Gothic), Amy Jephta (A Good House), Frances Poet (Small Acts of Love), Jasmine Sharma (Pigeonhole), Jen Silverman (Regressions), DeLanna Studi (“I” is for Invisible), Else Went (Initiative) and Bess Wohl (Liberation).
And I’ll be honest with you, reader. Awards don’t just crown plays. They give them passports. Suddenly producers read them, actors whisper about them in rehearsal rooms, and theatre programmers quietly slide them into meetings like they’ve discovered treasure.
So if these titles start appearing on stages near you in the next year or two, you heard it here first.
Signed, stamped, and slightly star-struck,
Grace Hatchell
2nd Act Couriers
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