Kirsten Childs and Martyna Majok Win Dramatists Guild's Flora Roberts Award and Hull-Warriner Award

The Dramatists Guild of America has announced the first recipients of their 2022 Awards. The Awards for both 2021 and 2022 recipients will be presented at Joe's Pub on Monday, July 25, 2022.

The Flora Roberts Award, administered by the Dramatists Guild Foundation, is presented to a dramatist in recognition of distinguished work in the theater and to encourage the continuation of that work. The recipient of this year's award is Kirsten Childs.

The Hull-Warriner Award is the only award given by dramatists to dramatists; it is presented annually by the Dramatists Guild Council to an author or team of authors in recognition of their play dealing with controversial subjects involving the fields of political, religious, or social mores of the times. This year's Hull-Warriner Award recipient is Martyna Majok for her play Sanctuary City.

The finalists for this year's Hull-Warriner Award are Where We Stand by Donnetta Lavinia Grays; All the Natalie Portmans by C.A. Johnson; Selling Kabul by Sylvia Khoury; Suicide Forest by Haruna Lee and Endlings by Celine Song.

Recipients for the Dramatists Guild's other awards, including The Horton Foote Award, The Frederick Loewe Award, the DLDF Defender Award and The Lanford Wilson Award will be announced at a later date.

This year's ceremony will take place in the evening on Monday, July 25, at Joe's Pub. In addition to celebrating the 2022 recipients of the Dramatists Guild's Awards, the recipients of the 2021 awards will also be honored.

The 2021 Dramatists Guild Awards recipients include the following: Sharai Bohannon received the DLDF Defender Award; William S. Yellow Robe, Jr. received the Flora Roberts Award; and Mariam Bazeed and Rhiana Yazzie received the Lanford Wilson Prize. The Horton Foote Award was shared by Carla Ching, Kia Corthron, Aleshea Harris, Donja R. Love and Mfoniso Udofia. The Dramatists Guild also gave out a Lifetime Achievement Award to Adrienne Kennedy.

The Horton Foote Award, sponsored by the Richenthal Foundation, is presented to a dramatist whose work seeks to plumb the ineffable nature of being human.

The Frederick Loewe Award, given by the Frederick Loewe Foundation and presented annually by the Dramatists Guild Council to a composer recognizes achievement in a theatrical score presented in New York during the previous theatrical season.

The DLDF Defender Award is presented by the Dramatists Legal Defense Fund's board to recognize an individual or group's efforts in support of free expression in the dramatic arts.

The Lanford Wilson Award was established by the estate of Lanford Wilson and is presented by the Dramatists Guild Council to a dramatist based primarily on their work as an early career playwright.

Since its inception in 1919, The Dramatists Guild of America has been the professional association for playwrights, librettists, lyricists and composers writing for the American stage. With over 8,000 members around the world, The Guild is guided by a governing council of writers who each give their time, interest and support to advance the rights of dramatists everywhere, including the right for dramatists to own and control their own copyrighted work. The Guild's advocacy, programs, events, publications and other services provide dramatists with the resources, the community and the support they require to protect their property, their livelihoods, and their unique voices in the American theatre.

Kirsten Childs is the award-winning writer of the musicals The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin, Miracle Brothers, Fly (with Rajiv Joseph and Bill Sherman), Funked Up Fairy Tales, and Bella: An American Tall Tale. For her work, Kirsten's received Obie, Kleban, Larson, Richard Rodgers, Audelco, Frederick Loewe, and Gilman/Gonzalez-Falla awards, as well as Lortel and Drama Desk nominations. Kirsten has written for Disney Theatricals, the American Songbook series at Lincoln Center, the New Electric Company, City Center Encores!, Works and Process @ Guggenheim Museum, and Premieres/Inner Voices under the producership of Paulette Haupt, Artistic Director of the O'Neill National Music Theater Conference. She's an adjunct professor in NYU's Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program, and a member of the Dramatists Guild Council.

Martyna Majok was born in Bytom, Poland and raised in Jersey and Chicago. She was awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play, Cost of Living. Other plays include Sanctuary City, queens, and Ironbound, which have been produced across American and international stages. Her other awards include The Academy of Arts and Letters' Benjamin Hadley Danks Award for Exceptional Playwriting, The Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding New Play, The Greenfield Prize, as the first female recipient in drama, The Champions of Change Award from the NYC Mayor's Office, The Francesca Primus Prize, two Jane Chambers Playwriting Awards, The Lanford Wilson Prize, The Lilly Award's Stacey Mindich Prize, Helen Merrill Emerging Playwright Award, Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding Original New Play from The Helen Hayes Awards, Jean Kennedy Smith Playwriting Award, ANPF Women's Invitational Prize, David Calicchio Prize, Global Age Project Prize, NYTW 2050 Fellowship, NNPN Smith Prize for Political Playwriting, and Merage Foundation Fellowship for The American Dream. Martyna studied at Yale School of Drama, Juilliard, University of Chicago, and Jersey public schools. She was a 2012-2013 NNPN playwright-in-residence, the 2015-2016 PoNY Fellow at the Lark Play Development Center, and a 2018-2019 Hodder Fellow at Princeton University.