2025 Shortlist for the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting Announced

This year the Prize celebrates 20 years of an incredible partnership between leading commercial property developer Bruntwood, The Oglesby Charitable Trust and world-class producing theatre, the Royal Exchange Theatre. The Prize continues to champion established, emerging and debut writers in their work for the stage, celebrating new ideas and stories.

15 plays have been shortlisted from the 100-play longlist to be considered across four categories. 10 plays from the UK are in the running for two categories: overall winner of the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting, who takes home £20,000, as well as the Judges Award worth £10,000. Two of those plays are in the running for the North-West Original New Voice Award which includes a funded year-long residency at the Royal Exchange Theatre, in recognition of the Prize’s Manchester home. In addition, five further plays are eligible for the International Award, who have applied through partners in Australia, Canada and the US.  

All winners engage with the Royal Exchange Theatre to explore ways to bring their work to production, with the winner of the North West Original New Voice Award and Residency also having access to an additional £10,000 fund dedicated to their professional development at the Royal Exchange Theatre, during a bespoke one-year residency in partnership with Bruntwood and the Oglesby Charitable Trust. 

This year’s shortlist takes us on a journey from a farm in rural Sussex to the chaotic offices of a gaming studio, via visions of Ted Cruz, 1940s Harlem and the Chernobyl exclusion zone. These plays are full of a wealth of vivid characters, an aspiring Korean pro-golfer, a father and daughter carefully moving out of the pandemic, pre-teens with an enthusiasm for religious iconography, and a Mancunian teenager who dreams of being a dog. 

It’s a list filled with epic storytelling and formal experimentation: we take a kaleidoscopic look at a women’s life through her relationships with men, share in the musicality of two lovers reuniting and experience the horror of a group of New England parents’ secrets. Our writers have produced stories that pack an emotional punch, from the regrets of a barber caught between his daughter and the woman who’s waited for him, to the demands of an audacious woman to her boyfriend’s brother, to the quietly devastating conversations between a group of 9th graders at lunchtime. 

Of the shortlist, four are first time playwrights, who have had their first full-length play shortlisted – storyteller and creative Tolu Okanlawon, writer and spoken word poet Yasmine Dankwah, playwright, poet, performer and activist Daniel Grimston and playwright, producer, graphic designer and journalist Daisy Miles. 

Shortlisted playwrights also carry a wealth of experience from writing hit shows for our TV screens to developing shows for the stage. Abbi Greenland, founding member of theatre company RashDash, sees her play shortlisted along with Ava Wong Davies, consulting producer from Season 3 of INDUSTRY (BBC/HBO) and writer on the upcoming THE GIRLFRIEND (Amazon Prime). Author Courttia Newland wrote on Steve McQueen’s five-part anthology film series SMALL AXE (BBC), and 2023’s THE WOMAN IN THE WALL (BBC). Mary Elizabeth Hamilton, who was a story editor on WHY WOMEN KILL (CBS Studios), is up for this year’s International Award.  

Four playwrights represented on this year’s shortlist teach on some of the leading playwriting programmes at universities across the globe – New York-based writer and theatre artist T Adamson teaches at Purchase College, Julia Jarcho is Head of the MFA Playwriting Program at Brown University and Seayoung Yim is a Playwriting and Beginning Screenwriting teacher at Brown University. These writers are all shortlisted for the International Award. Lecturer and module leader at Bath Spa University, Silva Semerciyan has been shortlisted for the second time in the prize’s history this year, after last being shortlisted in 2011.  

Terri Jade Donovan and Daisy Miles have both trained in the Royal Exchange’s Young Company of Writers, and are both in the running for this year’s new North West Original New Voice Award. 

The shortlisted scripts are as follows (listed alphabetically by surname): 

• The Annunciation by T. Adamson 

• Dream Body by Natasha Collie 

• rite to party by Yasmine Dankwah 

• DOG DOG DOG by Terri Jade Donovan 

• Talking to Boys by Abbi Greenland 

• Corpselight by Daniel Grimston 

• The Plan by Mary Elizabeth Hamilton 

• Coziness by Julia Jarcho 

• R Lady’s by Daisy Miles 

• TRIM PALACE by Courttia Newland 

• SHOOTERS by Tolu Okanlawon 

• Przewalski’s Horses by Silva Semerciyan 

• SPREAD by Jesús I. Valles 

• Voyagers by Ava Wong Davies 

• golf girl by Seayoung Yim 

Selina Cartmell, Artistic Director of the Royal Exchange Theatre and Judge for the 2025 Prize, said:

“Sharing the shortlist for The Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting is an extraordinary moment as it honours the courage of 15 unique voices who have crafted new worlds and stories to provoke, entertain and challenge in equal measure. Over one afternoon, my fellow judges and I discussed and debated these brilliantly eclectic group of plays that have been shortlisted. Choosing a winner was almost impossible, and I cannot wait to see extracts from each of these brilliant scripts staged in our unique in-the-round auditorium at the Royal Exchange Theatre next month.”

The Judges will announce the winner of the 2025 Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting at an awards ceremony at the Royal Exchange Theatre on 21 July 2025, with a selection of tickets on sale for the first time ever. 

The 15 scripts have been judged by a panel of prestigious names across the arts industry, including  renowned journalist and broadcaster Naga Munchetty; award winning theatre-maker, director and producer and Artistic Director of the Royal Exchange Theatre, Selina Cartmell; previous Bruntwood Prize winner, Pheobe Eclair-Powell; award-winning playwright and director, Conor McPherson; international award-winning director and Artistic Director of London’s Kiln Theatre, Amit Sharma; actors, Shobna Gulati and Cherylee Houston, and Munya Chawawa, a BAFTA-nominated broadcaster, writer and comedian, and 2022 British Comedy Awards Breakthrough Talent winner. 

Naga Munchetty, Chair of the Anniversary judging panel, said:

“It takes tenacity and bravery to put pen to paper and having just written my first book I know what a huge leap of faith it is to then show that to others, invite them to read it and give feedback. It has been a pleasure and a privilege to read these plays and to discuss and debate them with my fellow judges. The shortlisted writers are all brilliant and the task of choosing a winner was difficult to say the least. I feel very lucky to have read 15 brand-new plays, because it is very rare to be able to read something that so few people have seen. I want to give huge congratulations to all 15 writers on this shortlist and thank them for trusting us with their work. “ 

Since its inception, the Bruntwood Prize has supported thousands of people to write plays, including Anna Jordan, Duncan Macmillan, Janice Okoh and Alistair McDowall. Over 17,000 scripts have been entered, £344,000 has been awarded to 38 prize winning writers and 27 winning productions have been staged in venues across the UK. The writers have gone on to win BAFTAs, Emmys, Oliviers and a range of other awards, and have made a significant contribution to mainstream popular culture.    

THE PLAYS 

1.The Annunciation by T. Adamson  

Gabi returns home to care for her dying grandmother María, a schizophrenic woman who believes she is the Virgin Mary – as María experiences visions of angels and demons from her hospital bed, Gabi must navigate the complexity of her maternal relationships. THE ANNUNCIATION is a surreal and tender confrontation with legacy, trauma and faith.  

T ADAMSON is a Texas-raised writer and theatre artist of Anglo/Mexican ancestry.

His plays include USUS (Clubbed Thumb NYC), included in Vulture & The New Yorker’s Best Theater 2024; THE NATURAL HORSE (Alleyway Theatre Buffalo NY & Metro Arts Brisbane); THE STRAIGHTS (JACK NYC); and MY DEAD FATHER THE SALESMAN, an NPC finalist in 2024. T. has received the Irv Zarkower Award, the Rita and Burton Goldberg Playwriting Prize, the Maxim Mazumdar Award, a Falco/Steinman Commission from Playwrights Horizons, and the 2022-23 Paula Vogel Playwriting Award from Vineyard Theatre. T. received an MFA from Hunter College, where he studied under playwrights Annie Baker, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, and Brighde Mullins. T. teaches playwriting at SUNY Purchase. 

2. Dream Body by Natasha Collie  

While everyone around her seems to have forgotten the pandemic, Anna hasn’t. She’s had to move in with her dad and join an online support group prescribed by her work. DREAM BODY is a sharp and introspective exploration of mental health, digital intimacy and the ‘return to normal’.  

Natasha Collie is a playwright. She writes love stories, often about the love between friends, and sometimes with a sliver of strangeness. Natasha trained as a writer on the Royal Court Theatre Writers’ Group and National Youth Theatre/Shine TV’s writer development programme. Natasha’s plays include MOONFRUIT (Unicorn Theatre; National Youth Theatre); MARY-ANN SAYS (Royal Court Theatre’s Living Archive); WHEN THE SEA SWALLOWS US WHOLE (VAULT Festival), shortlisted for VAULT Festival Origins Award and the Women’s Prize for Playwriting 2020; WITH STRIPLIGHTS HUNG FROM THE STARS, longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Playwriting 2021; ELEVEN AT NIGHT SOMEWHERE WITHOUT YOU, longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Playwriting 2023 and Verity Bargate Award 2024. Natasha was a writer and facilitator on the Royal Court Theatre’s SW1 Project, and twice won the Gold Award for Best Scripted Programming at the BBC Radio 1 Student Radio Awards. 

3. rite to party by Yasmine Dankwah  

Afia and Jama reconnect in London on their shared 18th birthday; they spend the night enjoying the musicality of the city streets and reflecting on their experiences growing up. RITE TO PARTY is a poetic odyssey through London, and a lyrical celebration of youth, memory and home.  

Yasmine Dankwah is a British Ghanaian neurodivergent spoken word poet, writer and sound designer from South West London. Her work uses nostalgia and lyricism to explore how people, often from marginalised communities, can be centred in music-led narratives in ways that can be silly and joyful. Yasmine developed as a creative through her time training at the Nottingham New Theatre and Central School of Speech and Drama, where she cultivated a passion for spoken word poetry and its place in theatre and live storytelling. RITE TO PARTY is Yasmine’s first play; it was developed during her time training on Soho Theatre’s Writers’ Lab & The North Wall’s Catalyst Residency Programme. 

4. DOG DOG DOG by Terri Jade Donovan  

A young Mancunian girl is starting to think she might be a dog – she’s rapidly retreating into a canine fantasy world alongside her pet dog Pup to escape reality. DOG DOG DOG is a pulsating and unpredictable journey into the complexity of childhood trauma and neglect.  

Terri Jade Donovan is a disabled, hard of hearing and neurodivergent actor, writer, and theatre maker from Stockport. Terri often writes dark comedies, exploring feminism and historical narratives through a disabled lens. Terri is passionate about access, and is an advocate for DDN (Deaf, Disabled and Neurodivergent) voices. Terri began learning how to write plays under the mentorship of Tim Foley as part of the Royal Exchange Theatre’s Young Company of Writers. They have since taken part in writers’ groups at Sheffield Theatres, Pentabus and the Abbey Theatre, National Theatre of Ireland. Terri’s work has received support from Jermy Street Theatre, Bewley’s Cafe Theatre and CRIPtic Arts. As an actor, Terri trained at RADA and The Lir Academy. DOG DOG DOG is also a finalist for Theatre 503’s International Playwriting Award 2024/25. 

5. Talking to Boys by Abbi Greenland  

Georgia’s mind is starting to feel foggy. A lifetime of navigating complex encounters with the men around her has left her lost and searching. TALKING TO BOYS is a sharp and fragmented study of how caring about and living with men can distort women’s lives.  

Abbi Greenland is a playwright, performer and theatremaker. She is a founding member of award-winning theatre company RashDash, with Helen Goalen. Abbi wrote the text for A LITTLE INQUEST INTO WHAT WE ARE ALL DOING HERE (ThisEgg, ZOO), which won The Scotsman Fringe First Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2024. Abbi makes work about complex, strange, powerful, lonely and sexy women. Intimacy, physicality and the body is always at the centre of it. 

6. Corpselight by Daniel Grimston  

A ghost stalks the landscape of a crumbling farm in Sussex: two families are bound by the land they’ve nurtured and the secrets they’ve buried. Corpselight is a haunting and vivid exploration of queerness, memory and inheritance.  

Daniel Grimston (they/he) is a playwright, poet, performer and activist from rural Sussex. They tell stories that tread the boundaries between humans and the natural world, exploring what it means to live in the age of extinction. Daniel has trained as a poet and playwright with the Royal Court Theatre, Pentabus, John Burgess Writing Course, Barbican Young Poets, Emergence Magazine, the V&A and Apples and Snakes. Daniel is currently Poet in Residence at both Right to Roam and Singing with Nightingales. Their writing has been performed at The Bush Theatre and workshopped at The Royal Exchange Theatre and London Performance Studios. CORPSELIGHT is Daniel’s first full-length play; it won Theatre Royal Haymarket’s Pitch Your Play Competition in 2023 and was shortlisted for the Papatango Prize in 2024. 

 7. The Plan by Mary Elizabeth Hamilton  

Julia has a plan that she is desperate to make happen: she’s going to leave her dead-end life behind and move to New York City with her boyfriend Billy – but Billy won’t leave his brother Collin. THE PLAN is a harrowing depiction of three lives changed irrevocably by one conversation.  

Mary Elizabeth Hamilton is a Brooklyn based playwright and screenwriter. She holds her MFA from The University of Iowa and an Artistic Diploma from Juilliard. Mary was a Jerome Fellow at The Lark and has participated in Youngblood, The O’Neill, Ars Nova, I-73, New Georges’ The Jam, and Play Penn. Her play 16 WINTERS won ASC’s New Contemporaries Award and her Sloan commission, SMART, was produced off Broadway at Ensemble Studio Theater and optioned by AMC. Mary was a Story Editor on WHY WOMEN KILL and is a Resident Playwright at New Dramatists. 

8. Coziness by Julia Jarcho   

A group of parents grow concerned in a small New England city after their children’s schoolteacher Ms. Amy is violently murdered – conversations devolve from gossip into chaos. COZINESS is an absurdist attempt to make sense of how we can raise children in a world of endless violence. 

Julia Jarcho is a playwright, director and scholar from New York City, where she puts on plays with her company Minor Theater. These include MARIE IT’S TIME and PATHETIC (both New York Times Critics Picks), THE TERRIFYING, EVERY ANGEL IS BRUTAL (Clubbed Thumb), NOMADS, DREAMLESS LAND (New York City Players) and AMERICAN TREASURE (13P). Her play GRIMLY HANDSOME won a Best New American Play OBIE after its premiere in 2013, and was staged in London at the Royal Court in 2017. Her book THROW YOURSELF AWAY: WRITING AND MASOCHISM came out in 2024 from the University of Chicago Press. Other books: MINOR THEATER: THREE PLAYS (53rd State) and WRITING AND THE MODERN STAGE: THEATER BEYOND DRAMA (Cambridge University Press). Since 2020 she has directed the MFA playwriting program at Brown University.    

9. R Lady’s by Daisy Miles  

At Our Lady’s Catholic Primary School in Stockport, three girls start reenacting scenes from Jesus’ crucifixion, but what starts out as harmless fun soon descends into cruel acts of violence. R LADY’S is a funny and disturbing examination of innocence and power.  

Daisy Miles is a playwright, producer, graphic designer and journalist from Stockport.   

Daisy uses comedy to approach the naughty, embarrassing, and grotesque. She’s interested in exposing humanity with absurdity and finding truth in the improbable and unlikely. Daisy studied Creative Writing and Drama at the University of East Anglia and is an alumnus of Menagerie Theatre Company’s Young Writers’ Workshop. She is currently training as part of the Royal Exchange Theatre’s Young Company of Writers.  

Her short plays include CAT O NINE TALE (Cambridge Junction), THE AMBIGUOUS DIVINITY OF SARAH CHOOK (Off Main Stage) and REVERSE COWGIRL (Itchy Feet). Daisy is the founder of NOT LONG, an interdisciplinary artists’ network and production company creating hybrid theatre and nightlife events. R LADY’s is Daisy’s first full-length play.   

10. TRIM PALACE by Courttia Newland  

It’s a big day for Trim; he’s meeting his 15-year-old daughter for the first time. He just needs to make sure his West London barbershop runs smoothly, and keep an eye on the protests growing outside. TRIM PALACE is a staggering portrait of community, and the ways in which it can offer us hope, redemption and love.  

Courttia Newland is an author, screenwriter and playwright. Courttia is the author of nine books including his debut THE SCHOLAR, and a story collection COSMOGRAMMA. His short stories have appeared in many anthologies and have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4. Courttia’s latest novel A RIVER CALLED TIME was shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Science Fiction Book of the Year 2022. He is currently working on a collection of essays THE ART OF OPPOSITION, published by Faber in 2026. As a screenwriter Courttia has co-written two episodes of the Steve McQueen BBC series SMALL AXE, and an episode of THE WOMAN IN THE WALL for BBC/Showtime. 

11. SHOOTERS by Tolu Okanlawon  

In 1940’s Harlem, African American photojournalist Gordon Parks attempts to document the lives of a gang of teenage boys for Life Magazine. SHOOTERS is an epic exploration of authenticity, masculinity and journalism as a mediator of reality – questioning who has the right to tell someone else’s story.  

Tolu Okanlawon is a British-Nigerian writer from Hackney, East London. He has a taste for stories that bounce between fact and fiction. A graduate of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama’s Writing for Stage and Screen MFA, Tolu’s work spans TV, film, documentary, and theatre. Tolu was recently selected to be part of the Diverse Writers Development Programme 2025, a joint initiative from Left Bank Pictures and The National Film and Television School, with support from Sony Pictures Television, where he devised an original drama concept for TV. 

12. Przewalski’s Horses by Silva Semerciyan  

Alina has fled Kyiv and sought refuge with her estranged grandmother in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, but tensions rise with the unexpected arrival of a young man and a suspicious soldier. PRZEWALSKI’S HORSES hums with the persistent threat of history, exploring the fragile and dangerous ways we try to experience connection.   

Silva Semerciyan is a playwright and lecturer that has lived in the UK for the past 25 years. Her plays include I AND THE VILLAGE (Theatre 503), which was shortlisted for the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting 2011 and Best New Play at the Off West End Awards 2016; A QUEST FOR ARTHUR (National Theatre Let’s Play); THE LIGHT BURNS BLUE (Tonic Theatre); UNDER A CARDBOARD SEA, THE WINDOW and THE TINDERBOX (Bristol Old Vic Theatre); FLASHES (Young Vic Theatre); and GATHER YE ROSEBUDS (Nightingale Theatre), winner of Best New Play at the Brighton Fringe Festival 2013. Silva’s first radio play VARANASI was shortlisted for a BBC Audio Drama Award. She recently completed a PhD at the University of East Anglia focusing on Armenian women’s playwriting and now lectures in drama in South West England.    

13. SPREAD by Jesús I. Valles  

At a high school in Austin, four teenage boys gather at lunchtime to make ‘spread’ from their junk food snacks – they tease, play fight and talk big, but beneath the bravado lies deep insecurity and quietly pressing emotional needs. SPREAD is a profound and visceral window into the lives of boys on the brink of adulthood.  

Jesús I. Valles (they/them) is a queer Mexican immigrant writer-performer from Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua/El Paso, Texas. They often write poems and plays about immigration, sex, citizenship, desire, mourning, friendship, food, fat and Mexicans. Jesús is the winner of a 2023 Princess Grace Award in Theater, the 2023 Yale Drama Series (BATHHOUSE.PPTX), the 2022 Kernodle Playwriting Prize (A RIVER, ITS MOUTHS) and the 2022 Emerging Theatre Professional by the National Theatre Conference. Their playwriting has received support from The Bushwick Starr, Clubbed Thumb, The Flea, The Lortel, Manhattan Theatre Club, OUTsider Festival, The Playwrights’ Center, The Playwrights Realm, Sewanee Writers’ Conference, Teatro Vivo and The VORTEX. As a poet, they have received fellowships from Community of Writers, Idyllwild Arts, Lambda Literary, Tin House, and Undocupoets. Jesús is a Resident Playwright at New Dramatists and a Writing Freedom fellow with Haymarket Books. 

14. Voyagers by Ava Wong Davies 

The team at an independent video game studio in South London are entering the crunch period for their new sci-fi game VOYAGERS, but ambition, ego and burnout are threatening the entire project. An intimate examination of collaboration, VOYAGERS explores the risks of what we sacrifice to make art in a commercial world.  

Ava Wong Davies is a playwright and screenwriter from London. Her screenwriting credits include INDUSTRY season 3 and season 4 (HBO), THE GIRLFRIEND (Amazon Prime), and THE LORD OF THE RINGS: RINGS OF POWER season 3 (Amazon Prime). Her theatre credits include GRACELAND (Royal Court, 2023), which won the 2022 Ambassador Theatre Group’s Playwriting Prize. She is a 2024 MacDowell Fellow and one of Variety’s 2025 10 Brits to Watch. 

15. golf girl by Seayoung Yim 

Golf Girl is a rising star retracing the path of legendary golfer Pak Se-Ri’s historic 1998 US Women’s Open win; she and her dedicated father have toiled their whole lives for this moment, but who wants it most? GOLF GIRL is a quirky contemporary fairy tale that asks: what happens after the big win, and is it worth the ruthless sacrifice?  

Seayoung (SHEE-young) Yim is a writer and educator from Seattle, now based in New York City. Seayoung is the winner of the Dramatist Guild’s Lanford Wilson Award, Yale Drama Series Prize, and People’s Choice Award for Outstanding New Play at The Gregory Awards. She is currently a resident with Colt Coeur and a member of Clubbed Thumb’s Early Career Writers Group. She has received the Sewanee Writers’ Conference Playwriting Fellowship, a Hedgebrook residency, and the Stephen Sondheim Graduate Fellowship in Theater Arts. Seayoung has worked with Ma-Yi Writers Lab, The Old Globe, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company,  Public Theater, Theatre Battery, UW School of Drama, SIS Productions, and Pork Filled Productions. She taught Playwriting and Screenwriting at Brown University and Playwriting at RISD.