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Just weeks prior to the world-premiere of her play
“THE LANGUAGE ARCHIVE”
JULIA CHO
 wins
2010 SUSAN SMITH BLACKBURN PRIZE
the most distinguished award
given annually to women playwrights
$20,000 award presented on March 3, 2010 in NYC

Twice a finalist in previous years,
Ms. Cho takes top prize in the 32^nd annual Blackburn Prize

The 2010 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the most prestigious award given annually to women playwrights, has been awarded to American playwright Julia Cho for her play “The Language Archive.”  Ms. Cho received the honor at a private reception in New York City on Wednesday, March 3.  The award of $20,000 and a signed and numbered print by artist Willem de Kooning were presented to Ms. Cho by Tony Award-winning director Doug Hughes, one of the distinguished judges for the 2010 Blackburn Prize.

Julia Cho

Now in its 32nd year, The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize is given annually to recognize women from around the world who have written works of outstanding quality for the English-speaking theatre.  The Blackburn Prize is the first international award created for women playwrights, and remains the most important award of its kind. 

“The Language Archive” – receiving its world-premiere in a production directed by Mark Brokaw at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, California March 25 to April 25, 2010 – is about a linguist who discovers words may not be enough as his marriage crumbles and his career encounters a certain silence of its own.  South Coast Rep is producing “The Language Archive” by special arrangement with New York’s Roundabout Theatre Company, which commissioned the play.

About “The Language Archive,” members of the international panel of judges for the 2010 Blackburn Prize have said:

“A brilliant piece of writing.  We are taken beyond the space we are looking at, and that is something rare in modern writing.”  -- actor Fiona Shaw

“A humane, wise work.  It is funny and filled with surprises in this play about the terrifying inadequacy of language to bridge the distance between human beings.”

 --  director Doug Hughes

“This is a fascinating, sweet, quite gorgeous play about language and love, especially marriage.” – Todd London, New Dramatists

The list of finalists for the 2010 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize includes:
Annie Baker, "The Aliens" (U.S.); Melissa James Gibson, “This” (U.S.); Lucy Kirkwood, “it felt empty when the heart went at first but it is alright now” (U.K.); Young Jean Lee, “The Shipment” (U.S.); Rebecca Lenkiewicz, “The Nature of Love” (U.K.); Hannah Moscovitch, “East of Berlin” (Canada); Lizzie Nunnery, “The Swallowing Dark” (U.K.); Lucy Prebble, “Enron” (U.K.); and Abbie Spallen, “Strandline” (Ireland).

Ms. Cho – who has twice been a finalist for the Blackburn Prize for her plays “The Piano Teacher” and “99 Histories” -- attended the March 3^rd event, having flown overnight from California to New York following the very first day of rehearsals for “The Language Archive” at South Coast Rep.  2010 finalists also in attendance were Lizzie Nunnery and Hannah Moscovitch, who flew from Liverpool, England and Toronto, Canada, respectively, as well as Annie Baker and Melissa James Gibson. 

The international panel of six judges for the 32nd annual Susan Smith
Blackburn Prize included three from the U.K. and three from the U.S.:  celebrated
American stage and film actor Hope Davis, Tony-award winning director
Doug Hughes; Mark Lawson, BBC Radio host and critic; Todd London, artistic
director of New Dramatists (New York); British stage director Indhu Rubasingham:
and renowned star of British theatre, Fiona Shaw.

Established in 1978, The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize reflects the values and interests of
Susan Smith Blackburn, noted American actress and writer who lived in London
during the last 15 years of her life. She died in 1977 at the age of 42, and
her sister, Emilie Kilgore, and husband, William Blackburn, established the
award in her honor.  More than 350 plays have been chosen as finalists since the Prize began, and in excess of 75 of them are frequently produced in the U.S. today.

Lucinda Coxon’s play “Happy Now,” recipient of a Special Commendation from the Blackburn Prize in 2009, is currently playing in New York City at Primary Stages.

Over the past three decades, the Blackburn Prize has been awarded to such
celebrated playwrights as Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti, Caryl Churchill, Gina
Gionfriddo, Beth Henley, Wendy Kesselman, Marlene Meyer, Ellen McLaughlin, Susan
Miller, Chloe Moss, Dael Orlandersmith, Sarah Ruhl, Judith Thompson, Paula
Vogel, Naomi Wallace and Timberlake Wertenbaker. 

The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize has anticipated later recognition.  Since
the inception of the Blackburn Prize, seven women have won the Pulitzer Prize
for Drama, and in every case they have first been honored by the Blackburn.

    "The emergence of women playwrights over the history of the Susan  
Smith Blackburn has spear-headed a change in the position of  women in every
realm of the theater."
    -Wendy Wasserstein, 1988 winner for "The Heidi Chronicles"
          and first woman playwright to garner a Tony award.

    "The Blackburn Prize has done more than any other single force or  
festival to get plays by women collected and celebrated, but more  
importantly, produced." 
    -Marsha Norman, 1983 winner for "'night Mother"

Ms. Norman referred to the Blackburn Prize and its importance to
women playwrights and the entire theatre world in her widely-discussed
feature about the paucity of productions of plays by women in the November 2009
issue of American Theatre Magazine.

Each year artistic directors and prominent professionals in the theatre
throughout the English-speaking world are invited to nominate plays.  In
addition to the U.S., the U.K. and Ireland, new plays have been submitted from
Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and India.  Each script receives multiple readings by an international reading committee that then selects 10 finalists.  The finalists' plays are read and considered by all six judges in determining the winner. 

A theatrical "Who's Who" of judges has adjudicated the Blackburn Prize
through the years:  Edward Albee, Dame Peggy Ashcroft, Simon Russell Beale,
Michael Billington, Eileen Atkins, Blair Brown, Zoe Caldwell, Glenn Close,
Harold Clurman, Colleen Dewhurst, Ralph Fiennes, John Guare, A.R. Gurney, Mel
Gussow, Christopher Hampton, Tony Kushner, John Lahr, Joan Plowright, Corin
Redgrave, Diana Rigg, Max Stafford-Clark, Tom Stoppard, Meryl Streep, Jessica
Tandy, Paula Vogel, Sigourney Weaver, and August Wilson, among nearly 200
artists in the U.S., England and Ireland.

For further information about The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, visit
www.blackburnprize.org

JULIA CHO biography

Julia Cho’s plays include THE PIANO TEACHER, DURANGO, THE WINCHESTER HOUSE, BFE, THE ARCHITECTURE OF LOSS and 99 HISTORIES.  Her work has been produced at The Public Theater, The Vineyard Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, South Coast Repertory, New York Theatre Workshop, East West Players, The Theatre@Boston Court, Theater Mu and Silk Road Theatre Project among others.  Honors include the Barrie Stavis Award, the Claire Tow Award for Emerging Artists and the L. Arnold Weissberger Award.  An alumna of the Juilliard School and NYU’s Graduate Dramatic Writing Program, Julia is currently a member of New Dramatists. 

This page last updated March 2010