Shortlist announced for the Society for Theatre Research Theatre Book Prize 2025

The Society for Theatre Research is delighted to reveal the shortlist for the Theatre Book Prize 2025.

Judged by performer and director Tricia Thorns, theatre critic Gary Naylor and historian Dr Lucy Munro on a panel chaired by STR Committee Member Howard Loxton, the shortlist includes six titles ranging from a study of queerness and Shakespeare, to an assessment of prolific British playwright James Graham, to the recollections of celebrated actor Simon Russell Beale.

The shortlist is as follows:

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

2025 marks the 27th STR Theatre Book Prize, which was established in 1998 to celebrate the Society’s Golden Jubilee. The aim of the Book Prize is to encourage the writing and publication of books on British-related theatre history and practice.

Recent winners include Out For Blood: A Cultural History of Carrie the Musical by Chris Adams (Methuen Drama); An Actor’s Life in 12 Productions by Oliver Ford Davies; Stirring Up Sheffield by Colin and Tedd George, and Black British Women’s Theatre by Nicola Abram. Previous members of the judging panel include actors Cleo Sylvestre and Corin Redgrave, producer Thelma Holt, actress-director Yvonne Brewster and critics Michael Billington and Cindy Marcolina.

The winner of this year’s prize will be announced in June.

The Judges

This year’s judges are actress and director Tricia Thorns, best known for her revivals of plays written during and about World War I; Dr Lucy Munro, Professor of Shakespeare and Early Modern Literature at King’s College, London and author of books on Jacobean Theatre and Shakespeare’s own company The King’s Men, and theatre critic Gary Naylor, who has written for Broadway World since 2008 and The Arts Desk since 2020.

They are chaired by Howard Loxton, who worked in theatre before a career as a writer and publisher and has reviewed theatre in print and online since 2000.

Submissions

To be eligible, titles must be about British or British-related theatre, be in English, first publications and carry the copyright date 2024. They may be on any form of theatrical performance and any aspect of production, history, architecture or management, whether presenting theatre of the past, recording contemporary theatre or looking forward to the future. Play texts and studies of drama as literature are excluded.

About the Society for Theatre Research

The Society for Theatre Research was founded in 1948 to serve all those interested in the history and technique of British and British-related theatre: academic and independent scholars, researchers, performers and other theatre workers – and of course theatregoers. The STR is the oldest society of its type in the English-speaking world, with a membership that is international.  It continues to support theatre research through publications, its journal Theatre Notebook; staging an annual programme of events and funding new research. More details of these and other activities promoted by the Society are available on our website: www.str.org.uk

Written by Theatrefullstop