The judges for the annual Theatre Book Prize awarded by the Society for Theatre Research have come up with their shortlist.
A new biography of John Osborne by Peter Whitebrook, the fourth volume of Simon Callow’s biography of Orson Welles, which covers most of his work in the British Isles, and James Shapiro’s 1606, which looks at William Shakespeare and his world in the year he wrote King Lear (already winner of the Sheridan Morley prize for theatrical biography) are all in contention.
They are all up against Howard Barker’s Theatre, a collection of essays that combines testimony from both practitioners and scholars leading to a re-evaluation of Barker’s theatre, and the final volume of The Censorship of British Drama which completes Steve Nicholson’s massive study of 20th-century censorship by the Lord Chamberlain’s office.
They are all strong candidates, drawn from a year’s extremely eclectic range of entries which came from both trade and academic publishing houses and included some self-published titles (you can find a full list on the Society’s web site).
The winner will be announced on 22 April at a reception at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane (thanks to the support of Really Useful Theatres Group), when actress Dame Siân Phillips, herself an author and a former judge for this prize, will make the presentations and the judges will speak about the books.
This year’s judges are Sam Walters, theatre director, founder and until recently artistic director of the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, Sarah Hemming, theatre critic for the Financial Times, and Colin Chambers, Professor Emeritus Kingston University, formerly Literary Manager at the Royal Shakespeare Company and author of, among many books, the winner of the first Theatre Book Prize, awarded in 1997 for his The Life of Margaret Ramsay, Play Agent. They are chaired by BTG’s own critic Howard Loxton.
Space in the Grand Saloon at Drury Lane is limited but if you would like to be there at 11AM on Friday 22 April The Society for Theatre Research is holding some places for British Theatre Guide readers. If you would like to attend, e-mail with your name mentioning whether you are a playgoer or actor, theatre technician etc to [email protected] and an invitation will be sent if a place is available.
The Short List
- 1606 William Shakespeare and the Year of King Lear by James Shapiro (Faber & Faber)
- The Censorship of British Drama 1900-1968 by Steve Nicholson (University of Exeter Press)
- Howard Barker’s Theatre edited by James Reynolds and Andy W. Smith (Bloomsbury)
- John Osborne by Peter Whitebrook (Oberon)
- Orson Welles: One Man Band by Simon Callow (Jonathan Cape)