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2023's Playwrights
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Confessional
by Emily Claire Schmitt When the unsolved shooting of a Catholic high school girl rocks the tight-knit community of Staten Island, New York, Abby, who has begrudgingly moved back after years of living in Manhattan, finds herself inexplicably drawn back to the people and patterns of her youth. Is her creeping sense of guilt merely a byproduct of her Catholic upbringing, or are the persistent memories of sinister encounters with her own brother pointing her toward a darker truth? Confessional is a story of the questions we avoid asking and the secrets we keep from ourselves.
Emily Claire Schmitt: Emily Claire Schmitt is a playwright and screenwriter focused on uncovering the mystical in the modern world. She is a frequent collaborator with The Skeleton Rep and is currently the Executive Director of The Catholic Artists Connection. Her musical The Inconvenient Miracle (with Ria T. DiLullo and Emily Rose Simons) recently played at EAG as part of their Open Stage space grant. |
Abhinaya: A Dance Play
by Veda Kumarjiguda Avni is preparing for her arangetram, her Indian classical dance debut. Her training grounds her, even as her family falls apart. Money struggles, divorce, secrets, and the failed American dream combine with stories from the Ramayana and Mahābhārata. Abhinaya: A Dance Play explores the role of classical arts in the modern world.
Veda Kumarjiguda: Veda Kumarjiguda is a writer based in Queens, New York. She is a Primary Stages Echoes Writer in 2021-2022. Her theatrical work has appeared at New Jersey's South Asian Theater Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. |
Un Hombre: A Golem Story
by Stephen Kaplan A modern-day golem story about Rebecca Wolfson, a recently widowed single mother, who makes a clay man that comes to life and serves as a Bar Mitzvah and Spanish tutor for her 12-year-old son. As mother and son get wrapped up in the distractions that this seemingly perfect solution to their problems offers, the clay man begins questioning his own existence and purpose, forcing all three to confront the truths they’ve all been avoiding.
Stephen Kaplan: Recent productions include: Tracy Jones (NNPN Rolling World Premiere) and Branwell (and other Brontës)…. Other plays produced off-Broadway at 59E59 and regionally. A 2021 Individual Artist Fellowship winner in playwriting from the NJ State Council on the Arts and finalist: Bay Street, Seven Devils, Woodward/Newman and semi-finalist: O’Neill, Bay Area, PlayPenn, and more. www.bystephenkaplan.com |
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Past Award Winners
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2008 - Jack Frankel, Human Voices (Polaris North)
2009 - Alisha Silver, Golden (Hunter College) 2010 - (tie) Lynn Rosen, Apple Cove, and Laura Eason, 40 Days (Women’s Project) 2011 - Ian August, Donna Orbits the Moon (NJ Rep) 2012 - Aaron Jafferis, How to Break (HERE) 2013 - Bill Cosgriff, Rio Rita (ARTC) 2014 - Mark Karafin, Man in the Moon (Oberon Theatre Ensemble) 2015 - Dara O’Brien, Early Sunday Morning (Resonance Ensemble) 2016 - Perry Guzzi, Across the Way (HB Studios) 2017 - Andrea J. Fulton, A Punk or A Gentleman (Theater for a New City) 2018 - Alexis Roblan, The Andrew Play (New Perspectives Theatre Company) 2019 - Reynaldo Piniella, Black Doves (Quick Silver Theater Company) 2020 - As a result of COVID-19 disrupting our 2020 Barbour readings, the award was split between all three finalists: Garrett David Kim, Cherry Lou Sy, and Ray Yamanouchi (Leviathan Lab) 2021 - Garrett David Kim, Are You There Truman? (Leviathan Lab) 2022 - Jon Krupp, Kilonova (Playwrights Gallery) |