Julia Cho has won the 2010 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for The

Julia Cho has won the 2010 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for The Language Archive, her play about a linguist discovering that words may not be enough to save his crumbling marriage.

The Language Archive will have its world premiere March 25-April 25 at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, Calif. South Coast Rep is producing the play by special arrangement with New York’s Roundabout Theatre Company, which commissioned it.

Tony-winning director Doug Hughes (Doubt), one of this year’s judges, presented the award to Cho Wednesday at a private ceremony in New York.

Cho, who has twice been a Blackburn finalist for her plays The Piano Teacher and 99 Histories, received the $20,000 cash prize and a signed and numbered print by artist Willem de Kooning, which he created for the Blackburn Prize.

Now in its 32nd year, the Blackburn Prize is awarded annually to an outstanding new English-language play by a woman. More than 90 scripts were submitted for this year’s prize.

Created to encourage women playwrights, the Blackburn Prize reflects the values of Houston-born actress and writer Susan Smith Blackburn, who died in 1977. The prize was founded by her sister, Emilie Kilgore, of Houston, and her husband, William Blackburn, of London.