NEW YORK CITY: Roundabout Theatre Company and Columbia University School of the Arts have announced the winners of Columbia@Roundabout’s 2018 New Play Reading Series. The initiative, supported by the Tow Foundation, awards three playwrights in Columbia’s current MFA program and recent alumni with cash prizes and a reading at Roundabout’s Rehearsal Hall (Sept. 24-27). In addition, David Henry Hwang, Lynn Nottage, and Charles L. Mee will provide mentorship to the writers.
The winners are Andy Boyd, Os Confederados; Kristin Slaney, Hockey Messiah; and Jay Stull, Undone.
Five finalists will also receive cash prizes. This year’s finalists include Melis Aker, When My Mama Was a Hittite; Matt Barbot, Princess Clara of Loisada; Jack T. Calk, Not All That Far; Samantha Cooper, And, And, And Isabella Bootlegs; and Stephen Foglia, Outer Banks.
The first reading will be Boyd’s Os Confederados (Sept. 24), about a small group of men and women who immigrate to Brazil following defeat in the Civil War. Whitney White will direct.
Next up will be Slaney’s Messiah (Sept. 26), about a 13-year-old hockey prodigy and his unlikely friendship with a girl in his neighborhood. Ellie Heyman will direct.
The reading series will close out with Stull’s Undone (Sept. 27), a portrait of two friends whose decade-long relationship is fractured by schizophrenia. Knud Adams will direct.
The selection committee for the third annual Columbia@Roundabout New Play Reading Series included Jill Rafson, Robyn Goodman, Christian Parker, and Hwang.
