National Theatre Conference Honors Elizabeth McCann, Dominique Morisseau, and New Federal Theatre with 2012 Awards

Dominique Morisseau (photo below), selected for her play Detroit 67, is a playwright and actress, and a current member of the 2010-2012 Women's Project Playwrights Lab and the 2010/2011 Public Theater Emerging Writer's Group. In September, her play Sunset Baby premiered at The Gate Theatre in London. The Public Theater will produce Detroit 67 in the spring of 2013 with Kwame Kwei-Armah directing. Her play Follow Me To Nellie's was developed at the 2010 Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference and has received readings with The Standard, Penumbra Theatre Company, and the Classical Theatre of Harlem. As an actress, she has worked with Women's Project, MCC Theater, Lark Play Development Center, NYS&F, and McCarter Theatre. Her literary work has been published in several publications, including New York Times bestseller Chicken Soup for the African American Soul. Ms. Morisseau is a Jane Chambers Playwriting Award Honoree, a two-time NAACP Image Award Recipient, a two-time nominee for the Wendy Wasserstein Prize in Playwriting, and a two-time PONY Award nominee.

The National Theatre Conference is an organization founded in 1925 that meets annually in New York City to celebrate outstanding achievement in the American Theatre. Membership is strictly limited to no more than 150 leaders from the professional and academic theatre that serve as a "think tank" dedicated to the continued development of theatre in this country. In addition to awards recognizing and celebrating excellence in the theatre, the NTC has worked actively to promote positive change in the theatre. Last year NTC launched its Women Playwright's Initiative, which has challenged its membership to take part in a three-year program in which their theatres include at least one full production of a play by an American woman in an effort to bring more plays by women to university, community, and professional theatres. 

For information regarding The National Theatre Conference, go to www.nationaltheatreconference.org