Tarell Alvin McCraney is one of 24 recipients of a 2013 MacArthur Fellowship, commonly known as the “genius grant.” The only theatre artist in this year’s line-up, McCraney will be awarded $625,000, to be distributed over five years.
Playwright Arthur Kopit will be the honoree at the 2014 William Inge Theatre Festival in Independence, Kans., next March where he will receive the festival’s Distinguished Achievement in the American Theatre Award. Kopit’s works include Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma’s Hung You in the Closet and I’m Feelin’ So Sad, Indians and Wings.
In related news, Burgess Clark, executive artistic director of Boston Children’s Theatre, has begun a three-month residency program at the Inge Center for the Arts, where he will focus on writing new scripts that will be given developmental readings at the Inge Theatre.
The recipients of the inaugural Donald Windham–Sandy M. Campbell Literature Prizes were announced in September. The winners in the playwriting category are Naomi Wallace, Stephen Adly Guirgis and Tarell Alvin McCraney. They will each receive $150,000.
Joyelle McSweeney’s play Dead Youth, or The Leaks has been named the winner of the first Leslie Scalapino Award for Innovative Women Playwrights. The play, which will be published by Litmus Press, was read in New York City in October and McSweeney received $2,500. Her play will be published by Litmus Press.
Four theatre artists were recognized at the 2013 Henry Hewes Design Awards in October, for Broadway, Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway design. Mimi Lien won in the category of scenic design, Ann Roth won for costume design, Jane Cox won for lighting design and Peter Nigrini won for projection design.
The Princess Grace Awards, totaling more than $1 million, recognized 24 artists in the field of theatre, dance performance, choreography and film. The prizes in the field of theatre were presented in October to Maechi Aharanwa, Carrie Morris, Lila Neugebauer, Jiehae Park, Kristen Robinson, Sathya Sridharan and Dustin Wills.
Phoenix Theatre of Indianapolis in Indiana has welcomed its 2013–14 playwright-in-residence, Tom Horan, who began his tenure at the theatre in September. The program is funded by the National New Play Network, which provides an $11,500 stipend to the playwrights. In addition to Horan, the other NNPN residents are Milta Ortiz, at Borderlands Theater in Arizona, and Gabrielle Reisman, at Southern Rep in New Orleans.
The six finalists in the Playhouse on the Square New Works@TheWorks Playwriting Competition have been selected, and three of their plays were read at the Tennessee theatre in October; three others will be read in December. The plays are Memory Grove by Dean Farell Bruggeman, In Her Awkward Fist by Wayne Paul Mattingly, The Swan Queen & the Radical Faerie by Frank Canino, We Live Here by Harold Ellis Clark, Mountain View by Teri Feigelson and Sorrow’s End by Nathaniel Lachenmeyer.
Janine Nabers has been named the 2013–14 Aetna New Voices Fellow at Hartford Stage in Connecticut. She will be in residence at the theatre for a season, where she will work with the theatre’s education department, write a new play, and participate in a series of readings and workshops.
In September, James Rocco, Rob Ashford, Karen Azenberg, Jeff Calhoun, Sheldon Epps, Joey McKneely, Gregory Mosher and Susan Stroman were inducted into Broadway Salutes, which recognizes significant work on Broadway. The program is supported by the Broadway League and the Coalition of Broadway Unions & Guilds.
The Lark Play Development Center in New York City has announced its 2013–14 workshop fellows: Lynn Nottage, Rogelio Martinez, Gus Schulenburg, Christopher Oscar Peña and Kimber Lee. The fellows will meet throughout the season to develop new plays.
At Westport Country Playhouse’s annual gala in September in Connecticut, actress Phylicia Rashad was the honoree. Additionally, arts advocate and philanthropist Howard J. Aibel was given the playhouse’s Leadership Award.
Berkshire Theatre Group in Massachusetts has received the 2013 American Graphic Design Award from Graphic Design USA, for its 2013 summer season poster. The poster design was selected out of 8,000 entries.
PlayMakers Repertory Company in North Carolina has been named the inaugural winner of the Leaders in Diversity Award, presented by the Triangle Business Journal, for its diverse play programming.
