NEW YORK CITY: The National Arts Club has announced that the 2016 Kesselring Prize for Playwriting will be awarded to Lindsey Ferrentino for her play Ugly Lies the Bone. The cash prize, which will be presented to Ferrentino on Nov. 14 at the National Arts Club in New York, has been increased from $10,000 to $25,000 this year.
Each year, the National Arts Club invites a different set of nonprofit theatres to nominate playwrights for the prize. Ferrentino, who was one of a dozen playwrights nominated, was submitted for consideration by Los Angeles’s Geffen Playhouse.
The jury for the 2016 Kesselring Prize is comprised of playwrights John Guare and Lynn Nottage, along with Ann Cattaneo, dramaturg for Lincoln Center Theater. Michael Parva, artistic director of the Directors Company in New York, is the prize committee’s artistic advisor.
Founded in 1980 by the National Arts Club, the Kesselring Prize for Playwriting was established by Charlotte Kesselring in memory of her husband and longtime National Arts Club member, Joseph Kesselring. Following a six-year hiatus, the prize was awarded to Lucas Hnath last year.
