Linbury Prize for Stage Design winners announced

The winners of this year's Linbury Prize for Stage Design were announced at a ceremony at the National Theatre yesterday, marking 30 years since the prize was first held at the venue.

The overall winner of the award for 2019 is Sami Fendall, who will be designing a newly commissioned dance work as part of the Ballet Now initiative for Birmingham Royal Ballet.

The judges also announced the other winners whose designs will also be realised with the remaining three partner companies – Zoë Hurwitz will design ACID for Nuffield Southampton Theatres, Rose Revitt will design Dr Korczak's Example for Leeds Playhouse and TK Hay will design An Adventure for Octagon Theatre Bolton.

The Linbury Prize for Stage Design allows graduates to work with leading directors and choreographers and gain a professional commission with four major UK companies. The judging panel this year was made up of designers Lizzie Clachan (Absolute Hell, As You Like It), Katrina Lindsay (Small Island, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child) and Rajha Shakiry (Nine Night, Misty).

Speaking about this year's competition, Shakiry commented: "The Linbury Prize for Stage Design stands as the most prestigious award for young designers to launch their careers. The design portfolios of this year's applicants represented a variety of exciting creativity and skills that are being developed and nurtured by design schools around the UK. It was a challenge to narrow down the selections and it's fantastic that aside from the four winners, the award also gives a platform to all selected designers to publicly exhibit their ideas and process at the National Theatre."