About The Prize
At a time when theatres are actively seeking work that resonates widely and revitalises attendance, the Prize supports writers who think big: plays with emotional weight, narrative drive, and the power to fill a room. The Mainstage Prize celebrates theatrical storytelling with scale — bold characters, gripping plots, and ideas that spark public conversation.
Each year, the Prize identifies a guiding theme or creative direction that reflects the stories audiences are hungry for now, signalling to the industry where the next wave of major new work may emerge. The Prize exists to celebrate high-impact, high-appeal theatre— and to launch writers whose plays can tour nationally, transfer commercially, and stand alongside the most successful works on the contemporary stage.
Prize Mission
To champion playwrights with the ambition to create high-impact theatre — work with the potential to reach large audiences, tour nationally, and thrive on major stages.
To identify the stories, themes, and ideas that audiences are hungry for, and support writers who can transform those impulses into compelling, dramatic works.
To connect emerging playwrights with major industry figures creating real pathways to production, visibility, and long-term careers.
To stimulate a renewed culture of popular theatre in the UK, celebrating plays that combine emotional power, narrative drive, and artistic excellence.
Team
Sophie Cairns
Founder
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Sophie Cairns is a producer and director dedicated to new writing with over a decade of experience across the UK, Ireland, and the USA. Through Sophie Cairns Productions, she has championed over 200 artists and commissioned 50+ original works, leading to award-nominated runs and successful Fringe tours.
Laura Turner
Literary Manager
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Laura Turner is a playwright, screenwriter, dramaturg, actor and university lecturer. An Associate Artist at Nottingham Playhouse, she has over 15 years' experience working with the BBC, BFI, Hull Truck Theatre, the Almeida, the Universities of Lincoln and York, the Undergraduate Global Awards, the Women of the Future Awards, among others.
Pippa Hill
Judge & Strategic Advisor
Chair
Judge
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Pippa Hill is a dramaturg and producer with a career in developing new plays at Hampstead Theatre, Paines Plough and most recently as Head of New Work for the Royal Shakespeare Company. She is Co-Director of Rum & Raspberry Theatre Company and Artistic Associate for Liminal Stage. Her recent dramaturgy work includes My Neighbour Totoro (Barbican 2022 and Gillian Lynne, 2025/26), Hamnet (RSC Swan, Garrick Theatre, 2023 and USA tour 2026) and Anne Boleyn the Musical (Hever Castle,2025).
Ellie Keel
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Ellie Keel is the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Four (HarperCollins), an Olivier Award-nominated theatre producer, and the youngest ever winner of The Stage’s Producer of the Year Award (2024). She is the Founder Director of the Women’s Prize for Playwriting, the leading award for female and non-binary playwrights from the UK and Ireland. With her company EKP, Ellie has produced over twenty-five new plays to critical acclaim in London, at the Edinburgh Festivals, and on tour across the UK, at venues including the Royal Court Theatre, Barbican Centre, Southbank Centre, Chichester Festival Theatre, and Sheffield Theatres. She is the co-leader of the National Theatre’s How to be a Producer course.
Isabel Marr
Judge
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Isabel is a director for stage and screen who has worked extensively across the West End, at the Bridge Theatre and at Shakespeare’s Globe. She co-directed the award-winning show 2:22 A Ghost Story alongside Matthew Dunster, seeing it through record-breaking seasons across five West End theatres and a year-long national tour. Isabel has a passion for horror and new writing; her other directing work includes Deep Night, Dark Night at Shakespeare’s Globe, a series of short horror plays featuring new work from writers including Jeanette Winterson, Morgan Lloyd Malcolm, Diana Evans and Abi Zakarian. Isabel recently directed a short film for Ridley Scott Associates and Stigma Films, and is developing a horror feature film. She has worked as an associate director to Nicholas Hytner, Matthew Dunster, Robert Hastie, Mark Gatiss, Max Webster and Dominic Dromgoole.
Madani Younis
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Madani Younis builds ambitious cultural work and the institutions, partnerships, and conditions that allow it to thrive. His career has been shaped at the intersection of artistic leadership, executive strategy, and cultural placemaking, working with leading artists, boards, public bodies, and partners to realise work of scale, deepen public engagement, and strengthen the role of culture within civic and urban life.
Most recently, as Chief Executive Producer at The Shed in New York, Madani led the development and production of major new work within one of the city’s most ambitious multidisciplinary cultural institutions. During his tenure he secured and executive produced a body of work that set new benchmarks for the organisation, including the world premiere of Here We Are by Stephen Sondheim and David Ives, Straight Line Crazy by David Hare starring Ralph Fiennes, which reached more than 35,000 people, The Effect by Lucy Prebble directed by Jamie Lloyd, and The Brothers Size by Tarell Alvin McCraney, which achieved sold-out runs in both New York and Los Angeles. He also expanded the institution’s international reach through the US presentation of Arinzé Kene’s Misty, strengthening connections between UK and US theatrical ecosystems. Throughout, he worked closely with executive leadership on budgets, co-production structures, and run-length strategy, reshaping producing and scheduling models to support longer runs, greater audience reach, and stronger earned revenue performance.
Earlier, Madani served as Creative Director of the Southbank Centre, brought in during a period of leadership transition to provide artistic direction and stability across one of Europe’s largest arts centres.
As Artistic Director and CEO of the Bush Theatre in London, from 2012 to 2018, Madani led one of the most significant periods of transformation in the theatre’s history. He oversaw the organisation’s relocation to a new purpose-built venue, delivered a major capital redevelopment alongside a record-breaking fundraising campaign, and repositioned the Bush as one of the UK’s leading homes for bold new writing. Under his leadership the theatre achieved sustained near full-capacity audiences and championed a generation of artists including Michaela Coel, Cush Jumbo, Vijay Patel, and Arinzé Kene. He also delivered the Bush’s first commercial West End transfer in fifteen years with Misty, marking a defining moment in the theatre’s national standing. He built a programme rooted in one of London’s most diverse communities while expanding the institution’s visibility and ambition far beyond its home base.
Before the Bush, as Artistic Director and CEO of Freedom Studios, Madani led a formative period of institutional growth, securing long-term Arts Council England funding and establishing the organisation as a nationally recognised producing company with deep community roots and strong external partnerships.
Alongside his executive and artistic leadership, Madani has contributed to cultural policy at the highest levels of public life. As a Cultural Ambassador on the Mayor of London’s Cultural Leadership Board from 2017 to 2022, he was appointed to the inaugural cohort advising the Mayor’s cultural team, contributing senior institutional and civic insight to policy shaping London’s cultural future. He also served as an Artistic Associate of LEEDS 2023, contributing to a landmark city-wide cultural programme that placed creativity, participation, and placemaking at the centre of public life.
Madani holds a Masters in Philosophy in Playwriting Studies from the University of Birmingham and studied Film at Solent University. He works internationally with artists, cultural organisations, government partners, and civic stakeholders on cultural policy, public life, and the role of culture in shaping identity, belonging, and the future of cities.
The Mainstage Prize is made possible by the support of:
