New York Times Awards LeFranc Outstanding Playwright Award

The New York Times Company announced today the winner of the 2010 New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award is Dan LeFranc for his play "Sixty Miles to Silver Lake."  The prize will be presented on May 13 at a ceremony held at TheTimesCenter in Manhattan.

"The judges admired the skill with which Mr. LeFranc mapped out two complicated characters in a difficult relationship." The New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award was created in 2009 to encourage and support an American playwright whose work recently received its professional debut in New York. The first recipient was Tarell Alvin McCraney for his play "The Brothers Size."

"The judges admired the skill with which Mr. LeFranc mapped out two complicated characters in a difficult relationship," said Sylviane Gold, chair of the award selection committee and a frequent contributor to The New York Times. "We also wanted to honor the theatrical imagination he used to transform an everyday situation - a father-son drive - into a highly dramatic one."

In addition to Ms. Gold, the members of the selection committee are Pulitzer Prize-winning playwrights Edward Albee, Richard Greenberg and Lynn Nottage and, from The New York Times, writers and editors Sam Sifton, Scott Heller and Andrea Stevens. The playwright and director James Lapine, who is also a committee member, was unable to participate in this year's judging.

"This play was written from a deeply personal place," Mr. LeFranc said. "I wanted to investigate the peculiar nature of not only my own fragmented upbringing in Southern California, but the upbringings of so many people my age. ‘Sixty Miles' is about a father and son, divorce, betrayal, guy talk, and the inexplicable way time blurs when we're with our parents. But it's also about the emotional minutiae that accumulate to form our complex relationships with family, and how those relationships influence who we become. I am deeply honored and humbled to receive this award, but most of all thankful for the support and guidance of my family and all the incredible people who generously lent their time, talent, and passion to the development of ‘Sixty Miles to Silver Lake.' If not for each and every one of them, this play wouldn't exist."

For more information visit http://www.coterietheatre.org. .