Theatre Book Prize

The Theatre Book Prize is a prize given by the Society for Theatre Research annually.

History

It was established to celebrate the Jubilee of the Society for Theatre Research (founded in Britain in 1948), and to encourage writing and publication of books on theatre history and practice—both those that present the theatre of the past and those that record contemporary theatre for the future. It was first awarded in 1998 for the best new theatre title published in English during 1997. It is now presented annually for a book on British or British related theatre that an independent panel of judges considers the best published in the preceding year.

The judges

There are three judges, who are different each year. They are drawn from the ranks of people working in theatre: performers, directors, theatre critics, senior academics concerned with theatre, and theatre archivists.

Criteria

All new works of original research first published in English are eligible, except for play texts and studies of drama as literature. The Prize embraces all aspects and genres of theatre from opera and ballet to circus and music hall, mime and puppetry as well as 'legitimate' forms and, as the list of previous winners shows, entries are drawn from right across the publishing spectrum.

Prize winners

''By year of publication''
* 2023 ''Out for Blood: a Cultural History of Carrie the Musical'' by Chris Adams (Bloomsbury)
* 2022 ''An Actor's Life in 12 Productions'' by Oliver Ford Davies (Book Guild)
* 2021 ''Stirring up Sheffield'' by Colin and Tedd George (Wordville)
* 2020 ''Black British Women’s Theatre'' by Nicola Abram (Palgrave Macmillan)
* 2019 ''Dark Star: A Biography of Vivien Leigh'' by Alan Strachan (I B Tauris)
* 2018 ''Year of the Mad King: The Lear Diaries'' by Antony Sher (Nick Hern Books)
* 2017 ''Balancing Acts'' by Nicholas Hytner (Jonathan Cape)
* 2016 ''Stage Managing Chaos'' by Jackie Harvey with Tim Kelleher (McFarland)
* 2015 ''The Censorship of British Drama 1900-1968'' by Steve Nicholson ( University of Exeter Press)
* 2014 ''Oliver!'' by Marc Napolitano (Oxford University Press)
* 2013 ''The National Theatre Story'' by Daniel Rosenthal (Oberon)
* 2012 ''Mr Foote’s Other Leg'' by Ian Kelly (Picador)
* 2011 ''Covering McKellen: An Understudy's Tale'' by David Weston (Rickshaw Publishing)
* 2010 ''The Reluctant Escapologist'' by Mike Bradwell (Nick Hern Books)
* 2009 ''Different Drummer: The Life of Kenneth Macmillan'' by Jann Parry ( Faber)
* 2008 ''Theatre and Globalisation: Irish Drama in the Celtic Tiger Era'' by Patrick Lonergan (Palgrave Macmillan)
* 2007 ''State of the Nation'' by Michael Billington ( Faber)
* 2006 ''John Osborne: a patriot for us'' by John Heilpern (Chatto and Windus)
* 2005 ''1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare'' by James Shapiro (Faber & Faber)
* 2004 ''Margot Fonteyn'' by Meredith Daneman ( Penguin/Viking)
* 2003 ''National Service'' by Richard Eyre (Bloomsbury)
* 2002 ''A History of Irish Theatre 1601-2000'' by Christopher Morash (Cambridge University Press)
* 2001 ''Reflecting the Audience: London Theatregoing, 1840-1880'' by Jim Davis & Victor Emeljanow ( University of Iowa Press/ University of Hertfordshire Press)
* 2000 ''Politics, Prudery and Perversion.... Censorship 1906-68'' by Nicholas de Jongh (Methuen)
* 1999 ''Garrick'' by Ian McIntyre ( Allen Lane)
* 1998 ''Threads of Time'' by Peter Brook ( Methuen)
* 1997 ''The Life of Margaret Ramsay, Play Agent'' by Colin Chambers ( Nick Hern)

References

{{reflist

External links

Society for Theatre Research

Awards established in 1998
1998 establishments in the United Kingdom
British non-fiction literary awards