WILLIAMSTOWN, MASS.: Williamstown Theatre Festival (WTF) has announced that Jiehae Park’s Hannah and the Dread Gazebo is the recipient of the 2016 L. Arnold Weissberger New Play Award. Park will receive $10,000, a reading at WTF, and an optional publication by Samuel French.
WTF administers the L. Arnold Weissberger New Play Award on behalf of the Anna L. Weissberger Foundation. The award honors the theatrical attorney and recognizes excellence in playwriting. The 2016 judges were Becky Ann Baker, Daniel Goldfarb, Donald Margulies, Cynthia Nixon, and Liesl Tommy.
Park is also the recipient of the Jay Harris Commission, a $10,000 prize to write a new play.
WTF artistic director Mandy Greenfield has also announced the recipients of the 2016 New Play Commissioning Program: Melissa James Gibson (in a co-commission with Second Stage Theatre), Matthew Lopez, and Lucy Thurber. The writers will receive a writing residency at the festival.
Harrison David Rivers will serve as the festival’s 2016 playwright-in-residence, contributing plays for the theatre’s reading series, creating program dramaturgy for playbills, and moderating post-show talkbacks.
