Katherine Soper has won Best Writer at the 2017 Stage Debut Awards for her Bruntwood Prize Award winning script Wish List.

After winning the 2015 Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting Wish List went on to be staged in a co-production by the Royal Exchange Theatre and Royal Court Theatre.

The Stage Debut Awards is the only awards to recognise breakthrough theatre talent. Winners were decided by a panel of judges including Stage editor Alistair Smith, Lyn Gardner, Mark Shenton, Sam Marlow and Stage reviews editor Natasha Tripney.

Directed by the Royal Exchange Theatre’s Associated Artistic Director Matthew Xia, Wish List premiered at Manchester’s Royal Exchange in September 2016 before running in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs at the Royal Court in January 2017.

Katherine says of winning the Bruntwood Prize

‘When I wrote Wish List, I was certain it would never be performed. I was finding it tricky to even break into the world of scratch nights, let alone start serious relationships with theatres. My hope with the Bruntwood was to crack the top 100, and getting longlisted was a brilliant boost of confidence. Getting shortlisted, and then winning, was so strange and wonderful that I still can’t really believe it really happened. As well as having Wish List directed by the brilliant Matthew Xia in Manchester and London, I’ve also signed with an agent, I’m currently two weeks away from handing in the draft of a new play and I’m on the BBC Writeroom’s Drama Room scheme. None of this would have been possible without the Prize- seeing a full play of mine onstage for the first time has helped my improve as a writer is a way I would have struggled to do otherwise’

You can see all the Stage Debut awards winners here https://www.thestage.co.uk/features/2017/stage-debut-awards-winners-words/

The Bruntwood Prize 2017 Longlist will be announced on this site on September 27th