Down to five for the Theatre Book Prize shortlist

Published: 22 April 2015
Reporter: Tom Howard

The Oxford Handbook of Georgian Theatre
Home on the Stage
Moving Shakespeare Indoors
Oliver
Women and Shakespeare in the Eighteenth Century

The Society for Theatre Research has announced the shortlist for the Theatre Book Prize for books published in 2014. This year's shortlist is:

  • The Oxford Handbook of Georgian Theatre edited by Julian Swindells & David Frances Taylor (Oxford University Press)
  • Home on the Stage by Nicholas Grene (Cambridge University Press)
  • Moving Shakespeare Indoors edited by Andrew Gurr and Farah Karim-Cooper (Cambridge University Press)
  • Oliver by Marc Napolitano (Oxford University Press)
  • Women and Shakespeare in the Eighteenth Century by Fiona Ritchie (Cambridge University Press)

The judges are Christopher Morahan CBE, Matt Wolf and Professor Vivien Gardner.

Christopher Morahan is a theatre, film and television director with an impressive record of work at the National Theatre, Chichester Festival Theatre and in the West End and director of iconic television drama such as The Jewel in the Crown and A Dance to the Music of Time.

Matt Wolf is the London theatre critic of The International New York Times (formerly The International Herald Tribune), theatre editor at the artsdesk.com and London correspondent of broadway.com.

Vivien Gardner is Emerita Professor of Theatre Studies at the University of Manchester.

They are chaired by writer and British Theatre Guide's own critic Howard Loxton.

For the first time since the Theatre Book Prize was set up to mark the Jubilee of the Society for Theatre Research in 1997, just two publishers, both academic presses, are left vying for the award, previous winners of which have included directors Peter Brook, Richard Eyre and Mike Bradwell, actors Ian Kelly and David Weston, and critics Jann Parry, Michael Billington and Nicholas de Jong as well as titles by academics and biographers.

The winner will be announced on the morning of Friday 22 May 2015 at a gathering of theatre people, publishers and academics at the London Palladium. President of the Society for Theatre Research, actor Timothy West CBE, will welcome guests and the judges will speak about the books before the presentation to the winner is made by a guest yet to be announced.

Further information about the Theatre Book Prize including details of these books and all those entered can be found on the STR web site.

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