Playwright Charles Smith Awarded $25,000 Kesselring Prize By The National Arts Club

The National Arts Club has announced its 2024 Kesselring Prize for Playwriting has been awarded to Charles Smith, who was nominated by the Cleveland Playhouse for his play The Price of the Ticket.

As the Kesselring Prize winner, Smith will receive $25,000 plus the opportunity to develop his work and reside for two weeks in the historic landmark Tilden Mansion, the home of the National Arts Club adjacent to Gramercy Park. The award presentation dinner will take place on Monday, May 19 at 7 p.m. at the landmarked Tilden Mansion, the home of the NAC, at 15 Gramercy Park South, New York City. 

“In selecting Charles, our judges were captivated by his profound storytelling and the depth of historical and cultural insight in The Price of the Ticket,” said David Glanstein, Chair of the NAC's Kesselring Prize Committee. “His work embodies the power of theater to challenge, inspire, and engage audiences, and we are thrilled to support his continued artistic journey.”

Charles Smith said; “I am deeply honored that my work has been recognized by this prestigious award. I am grateful to the Cleveland Play House and its artistic staff for their confidence and support, as well as to Roe Green and The Roe Green Fund for New American Plays for the sponsorship that helped make this work possible.” 

The Kesselring Prize for Playwriting was established at the National Arts Club in 1980 by Charlotte Kesselring – widow of the playwright Joseph Kesselring, who is best known for Arsenic and Old Lace – to honor and support emerging playwrights with an honorarium and indirect support towards development of their work. Past recipients include notables of contemporary theater like Pulitzer Prize winners James Ijames and Tony Kushner, as well as Pulitzer Prize nominee Rajiv Joseph. Most recently, Aleshea Harris received the 2023 Kesselring Prize for her play On Sugarland, which was nominated by the New York Theater Workshop. 

Speakers will be announced shortly. 

Charles Smith's plays have been produced Off-Broadway and from coast to coast by theaters such as Indiana Repertory Theatre, Goodman Theatre, New Federal Theatre, The Acting Company, People's Light & Theatre Company, Penumbra, Ensemble Theatre in Cleveland, Crossroads Theatre Company, Penguin Repertory Theatre, Ujima Theatre Company, The Colony Theatre, St. Louis Black Rep, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Jubilee Theatre, Ensemble Theatre in Houston, The Robey Theater Company, and Berkeley Repertory Theater. 

Nine of his plays received their world premiere productions at Victory Gardens Theatre in Chicago. His play, The Reclamation of Madison Hemings, was commissioned by Goodman and produced by Indiana Repertory Theater and America Blues Theater in Chicago. Three of his plays, The Gospel According to James, Sister Carrie, and Les Trois Dumas, were all commissioned and produced by Indiana Repertory Theatre. Les Trois Dumas has also been produced by People's Light & Theatre and by Independent Theatre in Adelaide, South Australia, and his play The Gospel According to James was also produced by Victory Gardens Theater. His play, Denmark, was the inaugural production to celebrate the reopening of Victory Gardens Theater at the Biograph, and his play Pudd'nhead Wilson, was commissioned and produced by The Acting Company, and enjoyed a twenty-two-city national tour before being produced Off Broadway. His play Knock Me a Kiss was produced for the National Black Theater Festival and off-Broadway, directed by Chuck Smith and featuring André De Shields. His play, Golden Leaf Ragtime Blues, was developed by the HBO New Writers Project and produced by Ensemble Theater in Cleveland and by Shakespeare and Company in Lenox, MA. His work has also been produced for the International Children's Theater Festival in Seattle. His most recent work, The Price of the Ticket, was commissioned by Cleveland Play House. 

His other plays include, Objects in the Mirror, produced by Goodman, Freefall, The Sutherland, Black Star Line, Jelly Belly, Young Richard, Cane, and Free Man of Color, which was also produced in Australia, New York, Los Angeles, and around the United States. Free Man of Color was also produced off-Broadway and was awarded the Joseph Jefferson Award and a John W. Schmid Award, both for Outstanding New Work. He has also received two Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Awards, Illinois Arts Council Governors Award, Princess Grace Fellowship, the Cornerstone National Playwriting Award, the Joyce Award, The National Black Theatre Festival's August Wilson Playwriting Award, the Theodore Ward National Playwriting Award, two Black Theatre Alliance Awards for New Work, the NBC New Voices Award, and numerous other AUDELCO, Jeff, NAACP, and Black Theatre Alliance award nominations. He is also author of two Emmy Award-winning teleplays, Fast Break to Glory and Pequito. 

As alumnus playwright of New Dramatists, graduate of the University of Iowa Playwrights Workshop, and one of the founding members of the Playwrights Ensemble at the Tony Award-winning Victory Gardens Theatre in Chicago, he has taught playwriting at Northwestern University, for the Prague Summer Program in Creative Writing in the Czech Republic, and for the Center for Dramatic Art in Groznjan, Croatia. He is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Ohio University and Artistic Affiliate at America Blues Theater in Chicago.