Two Main Stage Playwrights Announced as Susan Smith Blackburn Prize Finalists

The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize has announced the 10 Finalists for its prestigious play writing award and among them are our next two Main Stage writers: Martyna Majok and Ella Road. 

The oldest and largest prize awarded to women playwrights has just released its list of finalists for 2019 and we are thrilled to see some familiar and very deserving names...

Martyna Majok, who's Pulitzer Prize winning play Cost of Living plays on the Main Stage until 9 March, has been nominated for her play Sanctuary City. 

'Martyna Majok was born in Bytom, Poland and raised in NJ and Chicago. She was awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Cost of Living (Williamstown Theatre Festival, Manhattan Theatre Club). Cost of Living will open at the Hampstead Theatre in London on January 25.  Sanctuary City will premiere at New York Theatre Workshop in 2019. Other plays include Queens (LCT3/Lincoln Center Theater, La Jolla Playhouse), and Ironbound (Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Round House Theatre, WP Theater/Rattlestick Playwright Theater, Geffen Playhouse, National Theatre of Warsaw, among others). Awards include The Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding New Play, The Greenfield Prize (first female recipient in drama), Champions of Change Award from the NYC Mayor’s Office, Francesca Primus Prize, two Jane Chambers Playwriting Awards, The Lanford Wilson Prize, The Lilly Award's Stacey Mindich Prize, Helen Merrill Emerging Playwright Award, Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding Original New Play from The Helen Hayes Awards, Jean Kennedy Smith Playwriting Award, ANPF Women's Invitational Prize, David Calicchio Prize, Global Age Project Prize, NYTW 2050 Fellowship, NNPN Smith Prize for Political Playwriting, and Merage Foundation Fellowship for The American Dream. Alumna of Ensemble Studio Theatre's Youngblood and WP Lab. Core Writer at Playwrights' Center, NYTW Usual Suspect, and member of The Dramatists Guild and The Writers Guild of America East. Current theatre commissions include The Public Theater, Geffen Playhouse, La Jolla Playhouse, Manhattan Theatre Club, South Coast Rep, and The Bush Theatre in London. TV/film projects include HBO, Focus Features/Maven Pictures, and Apple TV. Martyna was the 2015-2016 PoNY Fellow at the Lark Play Development Center and is a 2018-2019 Hodder Fellow at Princeton University. MFA: Yale School of Drama, Juilliard; BA: University of Chicago.'

Ella Road's debut play The Phlebotomist, which premiered at Hampstead Downstairs and transfers to the Main Stage from 19 March - 20 April has also earned it's playwright a nomination and position on this prestigious list. 

'Ella Road is a writer and actor from London. The Phlebotomist is her first play. It premiered at the Hampstead Theatre Downstairs in Spring 2018 and will transfer to the Main House in Spring 2019. Ella is currently writing new commissions for the Almeida Theatre, Hampstead Theatre and Theatre Royal Plymouth, and is one of the Bush Theatre’s 'Emerging Writers’ 2018/19. She is also in development on a number of projects for TV and Film, including a television adaption of The Phlebotomist. Film credits include The Wyrd, and the latest Stand Up to Cancer video campaign for RSA Films. For radio: 'Road to Oxford' for BBC Radio 4, and the upcoming adaptation of The Phlebotomist for BBC Radio 3. She also acts for theatre, screen and radio. Ella is co-founder of the new writing company Flux Theatre, which aims to champion new voices in the arts. She also teaches English, facilitates creative writing workshops, and writes the occasional poem.'

To read more about The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and for the full list of finalists please visit the official website here. 

BOOK TICKETS FOR COST OF LIVING

BOOK TICKETS FOR THE PHLEBOTOMIST