@dramatistsguild
Dramatists Guild members in the Seattle area have garnered a number of awards in recent months. At the local Bill and Peggy Hunt Playwrights Festival, three Guild members had new plays selected and given full productions in May at the Burien Little Theatre: Bottom Line, a one-act comedy by Judy Jacobs; Undiscovered Places, a full-length drama by D. Richard Tucker; and Parsing Race, a full-length drama by David Miller.
Keri Healey won the 2013 M. Elizabeth Osborn New Play Award and a $1,000 prize given by the American Theatre Critics Association. ATCA gives this award each year to recognize the work of an emerging playwright who has not yet achieved national stature. The award specifically recognizes Healey’s play Torso, which premiered in March 2012 at Printer’s Devil Theater in Seattle. Keri received the award in April at the Humana New Plays Festival at Actors’ Theatre of Louisville. ATCA described Keri as “an increasingly common example of an artist who has become a respected fixture in small theaters in her region, but is little known elsewhere despite producing several short plays, one acts and full-length plays developed in workshops, readings and fringe festivals before receiving full stagings.”
Robert Schenkkan’s new play All the Way which premiered last year at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival was a co-winner of the inaugural Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History. Robert (whose play The Kentucky Cycle won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for Drama) received $50,000 and is collaborating with Columbia University librarians to create a website featuring articles and discussions relating to the content of his play. All the Way focuses on the first year of Lyndon Johnson’s presidency in the aftermath of the assassination of President Kennedy. The play is told by several real-life figures from the era, including the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and J. Edgar Hoover as well as Johnson. It was the hit of the 2012 season at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Jean Kennedy Smith, former United States ambassador to Ireland and sister of the late Senator Kenney, presented the award to Robert. All the Way will receive its East Coast premiere at the American Repertory Theatre in Boston this September.
Kudos to these five Seattle-area Dramatists Guild authors!