Playwright Candrice Jones Awarded $25,000 Kesselring Prize by the National Arts Club

The National Arts Club's Kesselring Prize for Playwriting has been awarded to Candrice Jones, who was nominated by TheatreSquared in Fayetteville, Arkansas, for her play Flex.

As Kesselring Prize winner, Jones shall receive $25,000 plus the opportunity to develop her work and reside for two weeks in the historic landmark Tilden Mansion, which is the home of the National Arts Club.

Jones will receive the Prize at an award presentation dinner at the National Arts Club on May 22. Soon thereafter, in June, Flex will preview its New York City opening at Lincoln Center Theater.

"We congratulate Candrice Jones on this significant honor from her theatrical peers," said David Doty, President of the National Arts Club. "The Kesselring Prize has earned a reputation for spotting talent early, and this recognition confirms that Jones, already now seeing her work produced in the nation's capital of theater, is and will be an important, strong playwriting voice."

The Kesselring Prize for Playwriting was established at the National Arts Club in 1980 by Charlotte Kesselring - widow of the playwright Joseph Kesselring best known for Arsenic and Old Lace - to honor and support emerging and newly recognized playwrights with an honorarium and indirect support towards development of their work.

Its past recipients are a Who's Who of contemporary theater: Tony Kushner, Anna Deavere Smith, Rajiv Joseph, Lucas Hnath, Lauren Yee, and 2022 Pulitzer Prize winner for Drama James Ijames, who along with Yee is a member of the Kesselring Prize Advisory Board.

The Kesselring Prize Jury consists of 2015 Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis, best known for his play Between Riverside and Crazy which was recently revived on Broadway with a cast including actors Stephen McKinley Henderson and Common; Sonia Fernandez, the Dramaturg and Director of New Work at the Woolly Mammoth Theater Company in Washington, D.C.; and noted playwright Philip Kan Gotanda, a past Kesselring Prize Winner and Guggenheim Fellow who is a Professor of Theater Studies at the University of California, Berkeley.

ABOUT THE NATIONAL ARTS CLUB

Founded in 1898, The National Arts Club is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with a mission to stimulate, foster, and promote public interest in the arts and to educate the American people in the fine arts. Annually, the Club offers more than 150 free programs to the public, including exhibitions, theatrical and musical performances, lectures and readings, attracting an audience of over 25,000 members and guests. Feature programs focus on all disciplines of the arts.

Since 2019, the Club has been undergoing a renaissance. New initiatives-such as an artist fellowship, an outdoor concert series, and online programming-have attracted new audiences. At the NAC's landmark clubhouse, the former Samuel Tilden Mansion, efforts have been made to reimagine, renovate, and preserve the building's galleries and historic spaces.

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