This list are publisher’s submissions. Clicking on a book will take you to the publisher’s catalogue entry.

In alphabetical order:

• A Piece of Work: Playing Shakespeare & Other Stories by Simon Russell Beale (Abacus)
• Charcoalblue: Designing for Performance by Hugh Pearman (Lund Humphries)
• James Graham: State of the Nation Playwright by Maryam Philpott (Palgrave Macmillan)
• Shakespeare and the Royal Actor: Performing Monarchy 1760-1952 by Sally Barnden (Oxford University Press)
• Straight Acting: The Hidden Queer Lives of William Shakespeare by Will Tosh (Sceptre)
• What Would Garrick Do? Or, Acting Lessons from the Eighteenth Century by James Harriman-Smith (Methuen Drama)

A Piece of Work: Playing Shakespeare & Other Stories by Simon Russell Beale (Abacus)

In A Piece of Work, Russell Beale describes what it is to approach and live with some of Shakespeare’s most famous characters. Some of the actor’s inspiration comes from surprising sources. Watching Coronation Street gave him an idea for how Richard III might react on hearing of the death of the two Princes in the Tower; a visit to elderly parents in a local hospital gave him insights into King Lear’s descent into madness; and the memory of childhood family holidays led him to a spectacular plunge into an ornamental pool in Much Ado About Nothing. Russell Beale also writes fascinatingly about some of the supremely creative people he counts as his friends – including Sam Mendes, Nick Hytner, Stephen Sondheim and Lauren Bacall.

Charcoalblue: Designing for Performance by Hugh Pearman (Lund Humphries)

This book explores the evolution and innovations of 21st Century theatre design charting a twenty-year period that maps the growth of large-scale adaptable theatre through Charcoalblue’s work,
alongside the world’s leading architects. From the remaking of London’s Young Vic Theatre in the mid-2000s, through larger scale projects for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre, the Royal Opera House and many other cultural organisations worldwide, the practice have provided specialist expertise, collaborating with and mindful of everyone in the business, from actors and musicians, producers and directors, to engineers and architects.

James Graham: State of the Nation Playwright by Maryam Philpott (Palgrave Macmillan)

James Graham is one of the UK’s leading dramatists, a multi-award-winning writer who for almost 20 years has analysed and articulated concepts of power and authority in modern British society. James Graham: State of the Nation Playwright is the first full-length assessment of the writer’s output, applying core thematic areas – Democracy, Anarchy, Famous Faces and Television – to understand how different power bases operate in modern society, their effectiveness and influence, and how they came to pre-eminence during the last 70 years.

Shakespeare and the Royal Actor: Performing Monarchy 1760-1952 by Sally Barnden (Oxford University Press)

Shakespeare and the Royal Actor argues that members of the royal family have identified with Shakespearean figures at various times in modern history to assert the continuity, legitimacy, and
national identity of the royal line. It provides an account of the relationship between the Shakespearean afterlife and the royal family through the lens of a broadly conceived theatre history suggesting that these two hegemonic institutions had a mutually sustaining relationship from the accession of George III in 1760 to that of Elizabeth II in 1952. The book is driven by new archival research in the Royal Collection and Royal Archives. It reads these archives critically, asking how different forms of royal and Shakespearean performance are remembered in the material
holdings of royal institutions.

Straight Acting: The Hidden Queer Lives of William Shakespeare by Will Tosh (Sceptre)

Was Shakespeare gay? The answer is both simpler and more complex than you might think. Shakespeare’s work was profoundly influenced by the queer culture of his time – much of it totally
integrated into mainstream society. From a relentless schooling in Latin and Greek homoeroticism, to a less formal education on the streets and in smoky taverns, from the gender-bending of the
early comedies to the astonishingly queer literary scene that nurtured Shakespeare’s sonnets, this is a story of artistic development and of personal crisis which reveals a culture that both endorsed and suppressed same-sex desire. It is a call to stop making Shakespeare act straight and to recognise how queerness powerfully shaped the life and career of the world’s most famous
playwright.

What Would Garrick Do? Or, Acting Lessons from the Eighteenth Century by James Harriman-Smith (Methuen Drama)

The stage of the 1700s established a star culture, with the emergence of such acting celebrities as David Garrick, Susannah Cibber, and Sarah Siddons. It placed Shakespeare at the heart of the classical repertoire and offered unprecedented opportunities to female actors. This book demonstrates how an understanding of the practice and theories circulating three hundred years
ago can generate new ways of studying and performing plays of all kinds in the present. Marrying academic and professional theatre expertise, this book ranges through a vast archive of writing about acting. It offers a deep-dive into an important time in theatre history to illuminate practices and processes today.

The winner will be announced at a reception at the Royal Court Theatre on the morning of 20th June when the judges will speak about the books and the prize will be presented by playwright April De Angelis.

Members wishing to attend the prize giving should contact theatrebookprize@str.org.uk

2023 – Out for Blood 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 King 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 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 & 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 & Faber)

2006 – John Osborne: A Patriot for Us by John Heilpern (Chatto & 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
– (Iowa University Press/University of Hertfordshire Press)

2000 – Politics, Prudery and Perversions…. Censoring the English Stage 1901-1968 by Nicholas de Jongh (Methuen)

1999 – Garrick by Ian McIntyre (Allen Lane)

1998 – Threads of Time by Peter Brook (Methuen)

1997 – Peggy: the Life of Margaret Ramsay, Play Agent by Colin Chambers (Nick Hern)