Rising British playwright wins 2024 Hermitage Major Theater Award

British playwright Chris Bush is both excited and a little nervous about spending time at the Hermitage Artist Retreat to work on a new play she will create as the winner of the 2024 Hermitage Major Theater Award.

The Hermitage announced Friday that Bush, who wrote the book for the Olivier Award-winning musical “Standing at the Sky’s Edge” – which is set to open this month in London’s West End – is the latest recipient of a $35,000 commission for a new play.

In a proposal to the three-member jury of British theater and film artists, Bush said she plans to write “Orlando (FL)” inspired by the Virginia Woolf book “Orlando” about a poet who changes sex from male to female and lives for hundreds of years.

“I’m using that as a jumping off point,” she said in a Zoom interview. Bush intends to juxtapose the fantasy and allegory of the Woolf novel “against a more concrete reality of what does it mean to be a trans person in the 21st century in an increasingly hostile environment in lots of places.”

Bush said when she hears mentions of Florida, it “is one of the first places my mind goes where it’s abysmal, oppressive, fascistic and I wonder is it somewhere I can visit. I am aware that it’s getting headlines but that never paints a full picture of a reality. I want to build a story around those two sorts of worlds colliding.”

The story is personal to Bush who said she has not spoken or written broadly about being a trans woman. “In a way this is a bit of a departure. I have not had anything staged with a trans protagonist.”

She added that she is “exhausted of staying quiet and putting my head in the sand, thinking if I’m invisible and polite I’ll be left alone. That’s not the place where we are. That feels quite scary in ways. I know from personal experience how much I would have benefitted having more trans representation when I was younger.”

Expanding the reach of a writing prize

The Hermitage Major Award, which was launched  in 2021, is presented annually by the  Hermitage with funding from Sarasota philanthropist Flora Major and the Kutya Major Foundation. The Hermitage also presents with the Greenfield Foundation, the Hermitage Greenfield Prize, which also offers a $35,000 commission and rotates annually among playwrights, visual artists and composers.

Winners of the Hermitage Major Theater Award have about two years to put together a script that will have a reading or workshop in a major arts center. Andy Sandberg, artistic director and CEO of the Hermitage, said Bush’s play will be presented with a theater company in London.

Bush is the fourth recipient of the prize and the first international winner, part of an effort to expand the reach of the award and awareness of Sarasota’s cultural assets around the world, said Sandberg.  “We call it the cultural coast of Florida, but people in Europe haven’t heard that,” he said.

Bush was selected by a three-judge panel of prominent British theater artists, including film and stage director Michael Grandage, the former artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse; film producer Tessa Ross, and Indhu Rubasingham, an Olivier Award-winning director  who was recently named as the incoming artistic director of the National Theatre.

Grandage described Bush as “a hugely talented playwright who has already demonstrated that big ideas can change the world.” And Rubasingham described Bush as “an artist the theater world cannot ignore and this award from the Hermitage offers her the opportunity to make a work that is deeply personal.”

In addition to the $35,000 commission, Bush will get a six-week residency at the Hermitage.

The three other finalists considered for the prize were Olivier Award-nominated playwright Natasha Gordon; playwright Beth Steel, whose “Till the Stars Come Down” is currently running at the National Theatre; and Sam Steiner, the creator “Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons,” which opened on the West End in 2023 and has been performed around the world. Each of the finalists receives a cash prize of $1,500 and a Hermitage residency.

Bush first gained notice in 2007 for “Tony! The Blair Musical.” She was born in Sheffield, in central England, and has written several pieces focused on or set in the area.  “Standing at the Sky’s Edge,” which features music and lyrics by Richard Hawley, explores the lives of three families over 60 years living in Sheffield.

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This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: 2024 Hermitage Major Theater Award goes to British playwright