Alice Birch Wins 2018 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize
(photo provided by DKC/O&M)
Alice Birch has won the 2018 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for her play Anatomy of a Suicide. Birch will receive $25,000 and a signed and numbered print by artist Willem de Kooning.
The prize, celebrating its 40th anniversary, is awarded annually to recognize women from around the world who have written outstanding works for the English-speaking theater. Clare Barron won the award last year for her play Dance Nation, which will premiere at Playwrights Horizons in April. Other previous recent winners include Lynn Nottage for Sweat and Annie Baker for The Flick.
Premiering last spring at the Royal Court Theatre in England, Anatomy of a Suicide, according to a press release, "portrays three generations of women struggling with a legacy of depression in a family haunted by its past. The play is a triptych in which the three separate yet interconnected narratives, taking place in different time periods, are performed simultaneously." Birch had previously been a two-time finalist for the prize with her plays Many Moons and Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again.
