The 2021 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize has been awarded to U.S. playwright Erika Dickerson-Despenza for her play about the Flint, Michigan water crisis, cullad wattah. Awarded annually since 1977, The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize is the largest and oldest international prize honoring Women+ playwrights. On April 7, a livestream of the award ceremony honored Dickerson-Despenza and the other 9 Finalists. Award-winning star of stage and screen, and one of this year s Blackburn Prize Judges, Paapa Essiedu, announced the winning play, which comes with an award of $25,000 and a signed and numbered print by artist Willem De Kooning. What a play. Oh my God, what a play! When I say that this play hit me like a train. Like a ton of bricks. I don t think I slept for about three weeks after reading this play. It did something very significant to me. . Through its passionate exploration of the black female experience in America right now I feel like this play is going to be a classic of today and
Page 73 today announced a new playwright-supporting initiative: self-directed retreats, tailored to writers individual needs and preferences. In lieu of the organization s usual Summer Residency, this year Page 73 offers four playwrights in its community-current Page 73 Fellows Bleu Beckford-Burrell and Emma Goidel, two-time Interstate 73 member Amina Henry, and 2019 Interstate 73 member Jessica Huang-the opportunity to design their own week-long professional writing retreats, with Page 73 covering expenses for housing, travel, and food, with an additional $1,000 stipend.
Across their respective retreats, the playwrights will have regular check-ins with the Page 73 artistic team and document moments of their trip to share upon their return. In August, Page 73 will hold a public Zoom event, bringing the four playwrights together to recount their writing experiences, with Page 73 Artistic Director Michael Walkup and Page 73 Associate Producer Kari Olmon.
NAATCO, today announced that the company has commissioned five Asian American Playwrights, all women, to write monologues for characters no younger than 60-years-old. Each monologue will be at least 30 minutes long, and all five will be performed together as a piece entitled Out of Time. The playwrights, Asian American women, are Jaclyn Backhaus, Samantha Chanse, Mia Chung, Naomi Iizuka, and Anna Moench.
The idea was conceived and will be directed by Les Waters for NAATCO. NAATCO will develop the monologues during this time of lockdown, with the goal of having them ready for live performance as soon as theatres re-open.
New York Stage and Film Commits $100,000 to Support Artists with NEXUS Initiative
New York Stage and Film, considered “one of the preeminent incubators for theater in the country,” has committed $100,000 to their new NEXUS Initiative that brings together 20 multi-hyphenate artists to explore the question “where does story exist at the intersection of stage and film?” Through this inaugural program, NYSAF will offer direct support to these artists – each participant receives $5,000 and will take part in a series of conversations focused on the needs of new and expanded forms of storytelling that resonate with our time.
In order to increase access to the program and respond to the ideas of a broad range of storytellers, these 20 participants were recommended by 14 leading artists of stage and film for their accomplishments in exploring new forms of storytelling. The leading artists selection committee includes Ayad Akhtar, César Alvarez, Luis Castro, Elsie Choi, Marcus Ga