Jon Kern's MODERN TERRORISM Awarded 2012 Laurents/Hatcher Playwriting Prize

The Laurents/Hatcher Foundation, named for Tony Award winner Arthur Laurents and his longtime partner Tom Hatcher, today announced its second annual recipient as first reported by the New York Times. 

Jon Kern's 'Modern Terrorism' will receive $100,000 for its next staging as well as $50,000 for the playwright. Last year's winning play, Jeff Talbot's 'The Submission,' was staged by MCC Theater in September 2011 and starred Jonathan Groff, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Will Rogers and Rutina Wesley under the direction of Walter Bobbie.

Writer and director Laurents, who founded the prize, passed away in May 2011; Hatcher passed away in October 2006. This is the second annual Laurents/Hatcher prize.

In addition to Modern Terrorism, Kern's full-length works include Do Not Disturb: a hotel experience and Telefonesis: The Art of Mental Murder. His short plays have been performed at Ensemble Studio Theater, The Brick, The Flea and in the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Festival. He's a member of the Ma-Yi Writers Lab, The Civilians R&D Group, The Old Vic New Voices Network, and Ars Nova Play Group, and an alumnus of EST/Youngblood.

Kern received a 2010-2011 Van Lier Fellowship in Playwriting from New Dramatists and a 2010 Alfred P. Sloan Commission and he was a 2010 Heideman Award finalist.

The Laurents/Hatcher prize is given to an un-produced, full-length play of social relevance by an emerging American playwright to be produced at a nonprofit theatre. 

Photo Credit: Kevin Thomas Garcia