NEW YORK—The 2010 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, given annually to women playwrights, has been awarded to American playwright Julia Cho for her play The Language Archive. 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 Cho by Tony Award-winning director Doug Hughes, one of the distinguished judges for the 2010 Blackburn Prize. 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. 

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

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.

Members of the international panel of judges for the 2010 Blackburn Prize were effusive in their praise for the show:

“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 included

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).

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.

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.

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

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