2019 DG Council Election Results
New York, NY – The Dramatists Guild is pleased to welcome our newest Council member, Michael R. Jackson.
Michael holds a BFA and MFA in Playwriting and Musical Theatre Writing from the NYU Tisch School of the Arts. He has received a 2017 Jonathan Larson Grant, a 2017 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award, a 2017 ASCAP Foundation Harold Adamson Award, was a 2016/17 DGF Fellow, and was the 2017 Williamstown Theatre Festival Playwright-In-Residence. He has commissions from Grove Entertainment & Barbara Whitman Productions, and LCT3. His musical A Strange Loop, for which he wrote book, music, and lyrics, premieres at Playwrights Horizons in May 2019.
The incumbents who were re-elected to serve another term on Council are Rebecca Gilman, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Christine Toy Johnson, Lisa Kron, Deborah Zoe Laufer, Alan Menken, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Lynn Nottage, and Lloyd Suh.
Rose Receives First Bonnie and Terry Burman New Play Award
Pittsfield, MA – DG member and former DGF Fellow Stacey Rose was awarded the first Bonnie and Terry Burman New Play Award, selected from among almost 500 submissions. Rose receives $25,000 and her play, America v. 2.1: The Sad Demise & Eventual Extinction of the American Negro, will be produced as a world premiere at Barrington Stage.
Two DG members, Brent Askari and Christina Quintana, won second place. They each receive $5,000 and a developmental staged reading of their respective plays, American Underground and Citizen Scientist.
Herzog & Schreck Co-Recipients 2019 Horton Foot Playwriting Award
New York, NY – The Dramatists Guild of America is proud to announce they will present the 2019 Horton Foote Playwriting Award to DG members Amy Herzog and Heidi Schreck at the Dramatists Guild’s annual awards presentations in July. The Richenthal Foundation is again sponsoring the award. Each writer will receive a $12,500 prize.
The award, in its fourth year, celebrates a dramatist (or dramatists) “whose work seeks to plumb the ineffable nature of being human.” The award is named after playwright Horton Foote, who passed away in 2009. Due to Foote’s longtime association with the Dramatists Guild, the award is administered by the Dramatists Guild Foundation. The first three recipients of the award were Stephen Karam, Rajiv Joseph, and James Anthony Tyler.
Amy Herzog’s play Mary Jane received the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play as well as an Obie Award. Amy’s play 4000 Miles received the Obie for Best New American Play and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Other awards include the New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award, the Whiting, the Helen Merrill, and the Benjamin H. Danks Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Heidi Schreck is a playwright and screenwriter living in Brooklyn. Her most recent plays include What the Constitution Means to Me, opening on Broadway at the Helen Hayes Theatre in March, and Grand Concourse, which debuted at Playwrights Horizons and Steppenwolf Theatre in 2014-15. Screenwriting credits include I Love Dick, Billions, and Nurse Jackie. Heidi is the recipient of two Obie Awards, a Drama Desk, and the Theatre World Award.
The Horton Foote Playwriting Award will be presented in July 2019, at a location to be announced. The Guild’s other awards, including the Hull-Warriner Award, the Frederick Loewe Award, and the Flora Roberts Award, will also be announced at a later date.
Ars Nova Announces Commissioned Artists and Resident Artists
New York, NY – Ars Nova commissions and develops new work with an eye for artists who work with nontraditional creative processes and projects that combine multiple disciplines. Their 2019 Commissioned Artists include DG members Antoinette Nwandu and Zack Zadek.
They also welcome their new Resident Artists to their Makers Lab including DG members Dustin Chinn, Guadalís Del Carmen, Erika Dickerson-Despenza, and Jessica Huang.
Makers Lab provides a dynamic group of generative theatre artists with individually tailored residencies designed to holistically support their careers and work. Creating in a range of category-defying forms and disciplines, these artists use Ars Nova as a home base for residencies designed to advance a new project.
Visit their website for submission dates and information.
Williams Wins 2019 Stanley Drama Award
Staten Island, NY – The Wagner College Theatre presented DG member Carl L. Williams with the 2019 Stanley Drama Award for his play Some Other Verse.
Established in 1957, the Stanley Drama Award offers a first place prize of $2000 for an original work that has not been professionally produced or received trade book publication. The annual submission deadline is October 31. Visit https://wagner.edu/theatre/stanley-drama for rules and application.
MacDowell Names Himburg New Executive Director
New York, NY – Playwright and DG member Philip Himberg joins the MacDowell Colony, one of the nation’s leading contemporary arts organizations, as its executive director. Himberg comes to MacDowell from the Sundance Institute where he has served as the artistic director for Sundance Institute’s Theatre Program, expanding the program significantly by providing year-round support for theatre artists, creating international labs for the development of talent and transforming it into one of the pre-eminent play development organizations in the world.
Himberg succeeds Cheryl Young, who is retiring after 30 years with the MacDowell Colony. He was selected following a national search that attracted interest from a strong and diverse pool of candidates.
Artists working at the MacDowell Colony have made important contributions to American and world culture for more than a century. More than 8,200 artists in seven disciplines have been awarded Fellowships and led to their earning 86 Pulitzer prizes, eight National Medals for the Arts, 31 National Book Awards, 32 MacArthur Fellowships, 107 Rome Prizes, 30 Tony Awards, 828 Guggenheim Fellowships, as well as many other accolades.
Applications are being accepted from February 15 – April 15, 2019 for Fall 2019; July 15 – September 15, 2019 for Winter/Spring 2020; and October 15, 2019 – January 15, 2020 for Summer 2020. Visit www.macdowellcolony.org/application-guidelines for complete details and online application form.
