Winner of the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting 2015 announced

The winner of the tenth anniversary Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting has been announced today at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester.

Wish List by Katherine Soper beat the 1,938 scripts submitted to scoop the prize of £16,000 and a residency at the Royal Exchange Theatre. The play by the London perfumery assistant is about young carers dealing with welfare cuts.

Soper commented: "This is the best boost of writerly confidence I could imagine."

The Bruntwood Prize is Europe's biggest playwriting prize and is open to writers in the UK and Ireland aged 16 and over. Previous winners have included Luke Norris, Anna Jordan, Chris Urch and Duncan Macmillan.

Wish List, which is Soper's first play, was her dissertation play at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.

The chair of the judging panel, former artistic director of the National Theatre Nicholas Hytner said: "The Bruntwood shortlist has been a pleasure to read, and it includes strikingly accomplished plays covering a startling range of urgent subject matter."

Joining Hytner on the judging panel were Royal Exchange Theatre artistic director Sarah Frankcom, playwright and former Bruntwood winner Vivienne Franzmann, Actors Touring Company artistic director Ramin Gray, playwright Bryony Lavery, Bruntwood chairman Michael Oglesby, writer and broadcaster Miranda Sawyer and actor and writer Meera Syal.

In addition to the winning prize, the judges present three Judges' Award. As the standard was so high this year, an additional Judges' Award has been presented. The plays chosen are, Sound of Silence by Chloe Todd Fordham, Parliament Square by James Fritz, How My Light is Spent by Alan Harris and Almighty Sometimes by Kendall Feaver.