NEW YORK CITY: Honor Roll!, the national organization for women+ playwrights over 40, has announced the recipients of their second annual Honors. The Honors include five distinct awards.
This year’s awardees include Julia Jordan; Jerry Rapier and Cheryl Ann Cluff of Plan-B Theatre; Thomas Coté of the Workshop Theater; Debbie Lamedman of Smith & Kraus; and Elizabeth Kaiden and Nitza Wilon of the Writers Lab.
Jordan, the co-creator of the Lillys, has received the Legacy Award. Jordan initiated the Count, an ongoing study that examines whose work is produced in American theatres. She is also a playwright and film and television writer.
Rapier and Cluff have accepted the Individual Achievement Award on behalf of Plan-B Theatre, where they serve as artistic director and managing director, respectively. Over the past 15 years, Plan-B has produced 32 plays by women and nonbinary writers over the age of 40.
Coté has received the Outstanding Producer Award. Each year, Coté and the Workshop Theater offer a playwriting intensive to four Honor Roll! playwrights. The eight-week intensives partner playwrights with two dramaturgs to work on unproduced plays.
Lamedman has received the Outstanding Publisher Award for her work at the theatrical publishing company Smith & Kraus. She edits annual editions of The Best Ten-Minute Plays as well as The Best Men’s Stage Monologues and The Best Women’s Stage Monologues. Lamedman is also a playwright, director, and teaching artist.
Kaiden and Wilon have accepted the award for the Inclusionary Festival on behalf of the Writers Lab, which offers female-identifying writers the opportunity to develop their screenplays during a retreat. The Writers Lab, which is part of New York Women in Film & Television, covers the costs of the retreat for participants.
Nominations for this year’s Honors were gathered from among Honor Roll!’s 1,700 members. Selections were then made by the organization’s executive committee.
Honor Roll! is a grassroots advocacy group of women+ playwrights over 40 and their allies who work for inclusion in theatre, celebrate diversity, and fight discrimination on the basis of age and sex.
