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A Clean Break writer has, for the second consecutive year, been recognised by the prestigious Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. 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.
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
Lucy wrote the play, which was performed at Arcola Theatre in London from 7 to 31 October 2009, 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 ‘chain-play’ 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.
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).
Tags: Arcola Theatre, Clean Break, ex-offender, Lucy Kirkwood, play, prison, Prostitution, sex-trafficking, Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, theatre, Vicki Owen, Women in Prison - Rehabilitation, writer
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