Nancy Poole PR Press release
07957 342 850 ∙ nancy@nancypoolepr.com
Issued 21 January 2010
Clean Break writer Lucy Kirkwood announced as a finalist for
The 2010 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize
A Clean Break writer has, for the second consecutive year, been recognised by the prestigious Susan Smith
Blackburn Prize. Lucy Kirkwood is a finalist for the Prize for her Clean Break play, it felt empty when the heart
went at first but it is alright now. The winner, to be announced in March in a ceremony in New York, will be
awarded $20,000 and receive a signed and numbered print by renowned artist Willem de Kooning, created
especially for The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize
In 2009, Clean Break writer Chloë Moss won the Prize for her play This Wide Night. This year, Lucy Kirkwood is a
finalist alongside fellow Clean Break writer Rebecca Lenkiewicz (nominated for her play The Nature of Love, she is
currently working with Clean Break on the company’s Birdcage commission). The news comes at an exciting time
as Clean Break is also currently nominated in the Arts Council England Diversity category of the last ever South
Bank Show Awards, to be announced on Tuesday 26 January.
The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize is a major international award given each year to a woman who has written an
outstanding new work for the English-speaking theatre. It is administered in the US and the UK, with the
ceremony alternating between London and New York. The ten finalists were chosen from a total of 90 plays
submitted. This year’s judging panel is: Tony Award-winning director Doug Hughes; presenter and critic Mark
Lawson; Todd London, Artistic Director of New Dramatists (New York); British director Indhu Rubasingham; and
actors Fiona Shaw and Hope Davis.
Further British finalists this year include Lizzie Nunnery (The Swallowing Dark) and Lucy Prebble (Enron). US
writers are Annie Baker (The Aliens), Julia Cho (The Language Archive), Melissa James Gibson (This), Young Jean
Lee (The Shipment), alongside Canadian Hannah Moscovitch (East of Berlin) and Irish playwright Abbie Spallen
(Strandline).
Press enquiries
Clean Break
The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize
Nancy Poole: 07957 342 850 / nancy@nancypoolepr.com
London Administrator: caroline@ckeely.co.uk
Notes to Editors
The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize
Established in 1978, The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize is the first international award created to recognise women
playwrights, and remains the most important award of its kind. The 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 honour.
Past recipients of The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize include Judith Thompson’s Palace of the End, Gurpreet Kaur
Bhatti’s Behzti, Sarah Ruhl’s The Clean House, Dael Orlandersmith’s Yellowman, Susan Miller’s A Map of Doubt
and Rescue, Gina Gionfriddo’s U.S. Drag, Bridget Carpenter’s Refuge, Paula Vogel’s How I Learned to Drive, Moira
Buffini’s Silence and Caryl Churchill’s Serious Money.
Clean Break
Clean Break was founded in 1979 by two women in prison. The company now delivers a year-round programme
of theatre productions, new writing projects and drama-based education from its North London studios and in
women’s prisons, alongside professional development, training and advocacy.
it felt empty when the heart went at first but it is alright now played at Arcola Theatre in London from 7 to 31
October 2009.
Lucy Kirkwood wrote the play during her time as Clean Break’s Resident Playwright. Her residency included
working with Clean Break’s students in its Kentish Town centre and in prisons. She wrote Cakehole for the Access
to Theatre student group (Michael Frayn Space, Hampstead Theatre) and also initiated North Circular, a ‘chainplay’ written by prisoners at three women’s prisons which received a Koestler Award and was staged at the South
Bank in December 2009.
The play tells the story of Dijana: professional romantic, eternal optimist and accidental prostitute. Sex-trafficked
to the bright lights of London by her boyfriend, she keeps a tight grip on her plans for the future as she shares her
hopes and disappointments, ambition and humour. Directed by Lucy Morrison and designed by Chloe Lamford,
the production transformed the Arcola’s Studio K to immerse its audience in her journey.