ATCA names six finalists for nation’s largest new play award

ATCA names six finalists for nation’s largest new play award

ATCA has selected six finalists for the Harold and Mimi Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award, recognizing playwrights for the best scripts that premiered professionally outside New York City during 2014. The top award of $25,000 and two citations of $7,500, plus commemorative plaques, will be presented April 11 at Actors Theatre of Louisville during the Humana Festival of New American Plays. At $40,000, Steinberg/ATCA is the largest national new play award program of its kind.

The finalists, alphabetically by playwright: Tom Coash, Veils; Nathan Alan Davis, Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea; Rebecca Gilman, Luna Gale; Lucas Hnath, The Christians; Caitlin Parrish, The Downpour; Richard Strand, Butler.

For fuller descriptions of the plays and the history of the Steinberg/ATCA Award, click below.

In 1977, ATCA began to honor new plays produced at regional theaters outside New York City, where there are many awards. No play is eligible if it has gone on to a New York production within the award year. Since 2000, the award has been generously funded by the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust.

The finalists, alphabetically by playwright:

Tom Coash, Veils, – A unique look at the differences and similarities between America and the Middle East as viewed in the clashing sensibilities of women’s rights and traditional roles in both civilizations. Two young Muslim women attending the American Egyptian University in Cairo just before the anarchic Arab Spring in 2010 are complex three-dimensional characters, since the American is the more traditional of the two and the Egyptian is enamored of western pop culture. But both are searching for sustaining definitions of how they should lead their lives in order to honor both their faith and their integrity in the world. Its premiere was held in February 2014 at Portland Stage in Maine.

Nathan Alan Davis, Dontrell, Who Kissed The Sea — This powerful, metaphoric and poetic drama traces one young man’s odyssey in present day Baltimore to palpably connect with his roots by embracing a heroic ancestor who preferred drowning in the Atlantic Ocean to arriving in America as a slave. Simultaneously grounded in modern day America, yet gloriously lyrical and theatrical, it mixes the sacred and mundane. The work was formally unveiled as part of the National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere Program in a co-production at the Skylight Theatre Company and Lower Depth Theatre Ensemble in Los Angeles after a developmental production at the DC Source Theater Festival.

Rebecca Gilman, Luna Gale – A social worker with a crushing caseload and personal baggage faces a Gordian Knot: leave a child with neglectful meth heads parents or place her with a grandmother who is a religious zealot. This complex and disturbing work is a heart-breaking high-stakes tragedy both relevant and timeless, what one judge called “a pure adrenaline rush.” The play does not provide easy answers for the lifelong after-effects of abuse and how people struggle to fill the resulting holes in their lives with religion, drugs and public service. Its first production was in January 2014 at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago.

Lucas Hnath, The Christians –The audience is thrust into a Sunday morning service in a well-heeled church with an affable, charismatic pastor. But the preacher suddenly advocates a profound departure from dogma, causing a huge rift in the congregation. This even-handed, compelling and theatrical work investigates belief on a personal and theological level. It asks deep moral and spiritual questions about doctrine, faith and belief without condescension and with verve and skill. The work debuted last spring at Actors Theatre of Louisville during the Humana Festival. Hnath was a Steinberg citation recipient last year for Death Tax.

Caitlin Parrish, The Downpour – Described by some judges as a character study in the guise of a Hitchcockian suspense thriller, The Downpour is a disturbing and well-crafted tale of two sisters scarred by abuse as children. Now adults, they deal differently with the imminent birth of a child. But allegiances, assumptions and expectations turn inside out more than once to make the audience question shallow snap judgments as Parrish confronts unspeakable sorrow without any effort to sugar-coat anything.  It had it first outing in September at Route 66 Theatre Company in Chicago.

Richard Strand, Butler – What starts as a droll comedy of words evolves into a fascinating retelling of a true incident that undermined a century of government-sanctioned slavery. Strand depicts the prickly interaction between a contentious but brilliant escaped slave and a taciturn lawyer recently appointed as a Union Army major general. Amid wry comedic interplay between the protagonists and with an ever-closing life-or-death deadline approaching, the title character finds an ingenious way to turn the official view of slaves as property into a legal way of giving sanctuary and eventually providing freedom to thousands of runaways. The play received its world premiere at the New Jersey Repertory Company in June 2014.

These six finalists were selected from 27 eligible scripts submitted by ATCA members. They were evaluated by a committee of 17 theater critics, led by chairman Wm. F. Hirschman, FloridaTheaterOnStage.com, and vice-chairman Lou Harry, Indianapolis Business Journal/IBJ.com.

Other committee members are Misha Berson, Seattle Times; Bruce Burgun, freelance (Bloomington, Ind.; Lindsay Christians, The Capital Times (Madison, Wisc.); Mark Cofta, Philadelphia City Paper; Pam Harbaugh, BrevardCulture.com  (Melbourne); Michael P. Howley, theatremontgomery.blogspot.com; Erin Keane, culture editor, Salon.com; Jerry Kraft, www.SeattleActor.com, (Port Angeles, Wash.); Mark Lowery, TheaterJones.com and Fort Worth Star-Telegram; Julius Novick, veteran critic and professor (New York City); Kathryn Osenlund, CurtainUp, Phindie (Philadelphia); Wendy Parker, Midlothian, Va); David Sheward, ArtsinNY.com, Theaterlife.com, CulturalWeekly.com; Herb Simpson, artesmagazine.com/theater and totaltheater.com (Geneseo, N.Y.),; Perry Tannenbaum, Creative Loafing, CVNC.org, Charlotte, NC); and Tim Treanor, senior reviewer, DC Theatre Scene (Washington, D.C.)  

Hirschman said, “This year’s entries were an encouraging reaffirmation that a fresh crop of plays are being written that will someday be viewed as the classic American theater of the early 21^st Century. Multiple works dealt with issues brought on by a faltering economy, prejudice in multi-ethnic communities and issues roiling the Mideast. Refuting concerns about theater as a relevant and popularly embraced art form, the stunning array and high quality of scripts we read confirmed the enduring commitment of regional theaters and a dazzling diversity of playwrights to be the primary standard-bearers for new works.”

Since the inception of ATCA’s New Play Award, honorees have included Lanford Wilson, Marsha Norman, August Wilson, Arthur Miller, Mac Wellman, Adrienne Kennedy, Donald Margulies, Lynn Nottage, Moises Kaufman, Craig Lucas and Robert Schenkkan. Last year’s honoree was Lauren Gunderson’s I and You which has gone to be one of most produced new plays coming out of the regional theater movement. For a full list of winners and runners-up, click here.

The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust was created in 1986 by Harold Steinberg on behalf of himself and his late wife. Pursuing its primary mission to support the American theater, it has provided grants totaling millions of dollars for new productions of American plays and educational programs for those who may not ordinarily experience live theater.

ATCA was founded in 1974 and works to raise critical standards and public awareness of critics’ functions and responsibilities. The only national association of professional theater critics, with several hundred members working for newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations and websites, ATCA is affiliated with the International Association of Theatre Critics, a UNESCO-affiliated organization that sponsors seminars and congresses worldwide.

ATCA also presents the M. Elizabeth Osborn Award, honoring emerging playwrights.  It also administers the $10,000 Francesca Primus Prize, funded by the Francesca Ronnie Primus Foundation, honoring outstanding contributions to the American theater by female artists who have not yet achieved national prominence. Annually, ATCA makes a recommendation for the Regional Theater Tony Award presented by the American Theatre Wing/Broadway League and votes on inductions into the Theater Hall of Fame.

For more information on ATCA, visit www.americantheatrecritics.org.

For more information on the Steinberg/ATCA Award, contact Wm. F. Hirschman, chair of the ATCA New Play Committee, at muckrayk@aol.com or 954-478-1123; or Christopher Rawson, ATCA communications chair, at cchr@pitt.edu or 412-216-1944.