The M. Elizabeth Osborn Award

The M. Elizabeth Osborn Award was established in 1993, named for Theatre Communications Group and American Theatre play editor M. Elizabeth Osborn, a fondly remembered ATCA member. The award now carries a $1,000 cash award and receives recognition in the Best Plays theater yearbook. It recognizes a work by an author whose plays have not yet received a major production, such as off-Broadway or Broadway, nor received other major national awards.

Scripts are nominated by ATCA members and the winner is selected by a hard-working ATCA committee. Although the winner is announced earlier, the Osborn Award is typically presented during the Actors Theater of Louisville’s Annual Humana Festival of New American Plays, at the same time as the Steinberg/ATCA Award.

This Year’s Winner

Darren Canady has won ATCA’s 2012 M. Elizabeth Osborn New Play Award for an emerging playwright. The award recognizes Canady’s Brothers of the Dust, which premiered in May 2011 at Congo Square Theatre Company in Chicago. The award will be presented at ATCA’s June conference in Chicago. Read more.

Recent Winners

Playwright Cori Thomas wins 2011 M. Elizabeth Osborn Award
Read press release.

Playwright Jason Wells wins 2010 M. Elizabeth Osborn Award
Read press release.

Playwright Yussef El Guindi wins 2009 M. Elizabeth Osborn Award
Read Press Release

ATCA honors Playwright Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder with 2008 M. Elizabeth Osborn Award
Read Press Release

Complete Roster of Osborn Winners

(The gap for 2007 is because the dating changed: instead of dating the award by the year for which it is given, it is now dated by the year in which it is presented.)

2012: Darren Canady, Brothers of the Dust, Congo Square Theatre, Chicago
2011: Cori Thomas, When January Feels Like Summer, City Theatre, Pittsburgh
2010: Jason Wells, Perfect Mendacity, Asolo Repertory Theatre
2009: Yussel El Guindi, Our Enemies: Lively Scenes of Love and Combat, Silk Road Theatre Project, Chicago, IL

2008: Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder, Gee’s Bend, Alabama Shakespeare Festival
2006: Ken LaZebnik, Mixed Blood Theatre Company, Minneapolis, MN
2005: J.T. Rogers, Madagascar, Salt Lake Acting Company, Salt Lake City, UT
2004: Rolin Jones, South Coast Repertory, Costa Mesa, CA
2003: John Walch, State Theatre, Austin, TX
2002: Mia McCullough, Stage Left Theatre, Chicago, IL
2001: S.M. Shephard-Massat, Denver Center Theatre Company, Denver, CO
2000: Coby Goss, Senachai Theatre, Chicago, IL
1999: Dan O’Brien, the Perishable Theatre Company, Providence, RI
1998: Rebecca Gilman
1997: Keith Glover
1996: Richard Kalinoski
1995: Charlie Varon
1994: Anne Galjour

---