ak payne wins Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for Furlough’s Paradise

US playwright ak payne has been awarded the 2025 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for their play Furlough’s Paradise, announced at a ceremony held at Playwrights Horizons in New York last night.

The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, established in 1978, is renowned for recognising exceptional works by women+ playwrights in the English-speaking theatre community.

Payne describes her play as a “lyrical journey about grief, home, and survival.” It tells the story of two cousins, Sade and Mina, who were raised like sisters, and their intertwined yet wildly divergent lives. When they return to their childhood town for the funeral of their mother and aunt, Sade is on a three-day furlough from prison, while Mina experiences a brief reprieve from her career and life on the West Coast.

The play won the 20th annual Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Competition and the National Theatre Conference’s Stavis Playwriting Award. 

The panel of judges for the 47th Susan Smith Blackburn Prize included notable figures such as Linda Cho, Jennifer Ehle, Nancy Medina, Mark Ravenhill, George Strus and Indira Varma.

Furlough’s Paradise was nominated for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize by Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre, where the play premiered in 2024, directed by the Alliance’s artistic director, Tinashe Kajese-Bolden. 

In addition to Payne’s win, two plays received a Special Commendation. They are 49 Days by Haruna Lee, and An Oxford Man by Else Went.