The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize has announced the winners of its 2026 playwriting award.

The joint winners of the 48th annual award are Ro Reddick (U.S.) for Cold War Choir Practice, and Hannah Doran (Ireland/UK) for The Meat Kings! (Inc.) of Brooklyn Heights.

The winners were announced at a ceremony on 26 February 2026, at the Royal Court Theatre in London.

This is the first time in over 25 years that the prize has been awarded to joint winners.

The Prize is the largest and oldest international playwriting award recognising women+ writers for plays of outstanding quality written for the English-speaking theatre.

Susan Smith Blackburn Prize - 2026 finalists. Photo by Roy J Baron

Susan Smith Blackburn Prize – 2026 finalists. Photo by Roy J Baron

Both Doran and Reddick each received a cash prize of $25,000, and a signed print by renowned artist Willem de Kooning, created especially for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. The eight finalists were each awarded $5,000.

Hannah Doran’s play The Meat Kings! (Inc.) of Brooklyn Heights recently ran at the Park Theatre in London.

Cold War Choir Practice is playing at MCC Theater in the US in a co-production with Clubbed Thumb and Page 73 in March 2026.

Video: Watch Pedro Pascal announce the finalists

The 2026 Judges

This year’s judges were:

  • Julie Hesmondhalgh (UK) – Award Winning Television and Theatre Actress
  • Mara Isaacs (US) – Tony Award-Winning Broadway Producer
  • Mimi Lien (US) – Tony Award-Winning Set Designer
  • Benedict Lombe (UK) – Award-Winning Playwright
  • Audra McDonald (US) – Emmy, Grammy, and six-time Tony Award Winning Singer and Actor
  • Ian Rickson (UK) – Celebrated Theatre Director and former Artistic Director of the Royal Court

Past Winners

Established in 1978, eleven Susan Smith Blackburn finalist playwrights have gone on to win the Pulitzer Prize in Drama.

The 2025 winner was US playwright a.k. payne picking up the Prize for their play Furlough’s Paradise. Additional Special Commendations went to 49 Days by Haruna Lee (Taiwan-Japan-US), and An Oxford Man by Else Went (US).

Past winners of the Prize include Annie Baker, Alice Birch, Benedict Lombe, Julia Cho, Caryl Churchill, Jackie Sibblies Drury, Katori Hall, Lucy Kirkwood, Marsha Norman, Lynn Nottage, Dael Orlandersmith, Lucy Prebble, Sarah Ruhl, Paula Vogel, Wendy Wasserstein and Timberlake Wertenbaker.

Susan Smith Blackburn Prize 2026 – Finalists and Winners

  • Barbara Bergin (Ireland) – Dublin Gothic
  • Hannah Doran (UK/Ireland) – The Meat Kings! (Inc.) of Brooklyn Heights – WINNER
  • Amy Jephta (South Africa) – A Good House
  • Frances Poet (UK) – Small Acts of Love
  • Ro Reddick (US) – Cold War Choir Practice – WINNER
  • Jasmine Sharma (US) – Pigeonhole
  • Jen Silverman (US) – Regressions
  • DeLanna Studi (Cherokee Nation) – “I” is for Invisible
  • Else Went (US) – Initiative
  • Bess Wohl (US) – Liberation

More about the 2026 winners of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize

Cold War Choir Practice by Ro Reddick (US) submitted by Clubbed Thumb (New York City)

A young girl is embroiled in intrigue when her estranged uncle, a prominent Black conservative, brings his mysteriously ill wife home for the holidays. Cold War Practice is a fugue of Reaganomics, espionage, roller disco, cults… and choir practice. Cold War Choir Practice (NYT Critic’s Pick, dir. Knud Adams), premiered in Clubbed Thumb’s Summerworks 2025, co-produced by Page 73.

This production will be remounted at MCC Theater in a co-production with Clubbed Thumb and Page 73 in March 2026. Cold War Choir Practice was also produced in September 2025 at Trinity Repertory Company (dir. Aileen Wen McGroddy).

Meat Kings! (Inc.) of Brooklyn Heights by Hannah Doran (UK-Ireland) submitted by Papatango Theatre Company (London)

T is the new summer hire at Cafarelli & Sons, an iconic New York butcher, but life in a freezing cut room is far from glamorous. No-nonsense boss Paula is fighting to keep her business alive. Apprentices JD and Billy find themselves pitted against each other as her number two David watches on. How far will they go to survive? The Meat Kings! (Inc.) carves into the dark underbelly of America’s anti-immigration policies and the brutal sacrifices people make in the pursuit of prosperity. This searing debut play won the 2024 Papatango Prize.

Premiere production ran at the Park Theatre (London) in 2025.

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Main photo: Susan Smith Blackburn Prize - 2026 winners Hannah Doran and Ro Reddick. Photo by Roy J Baron

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