Ucross and The Blank Theatre today announced the five finalists for the second annual Ucross + The Blank Theatre - Future of Playwriting Prize, a one-of-a-kind award for young playwrights nationwide. Ucross and The Blank are partnering to showcase the importance of emerging artists across the country and to celebrate the innovative work that is asking questions and evolving theater as we know it.
In alphabetical order, the five finalists are Jeesun Choi, Katherine Gwynn, Onyekachi Iwu, Andrew Siañez-De La O, and Gage Tarlton.
The grant jury, in alphabetical order, is Tamadhur Al-Aqeel (playwright, leader of Company of Angels and Vagrancy Theatre playwrights' groups); Boni B. Alvarez (producer/playwright/actor);
Ryan Bergmann (director specializing in new play development, Mixed eMotion Theatrix Executive Director); Beth Bigler (playwright/teacher, director of Blank Theatre Youth Academy, Blank Theatre board member); Jose Casas (playwright/director/actor, Assistant Director of Playwriting at University of Michigan); Michelle Flowers-Taylor (actor/anthropologist, Doctorate in Educational Leadership for Social Justice, producer of Black Women: State of the Union); Prince Gomolvilas (playwright, winner of PEN Center USA Literary Award for Drama, former Assistant Professor of Writing at USC);
Daniel Henning (actor/director/voiceover artist, founding artistic director of The Blank Theatre); Sigrid Hilmer (playwright, winner of Map Fund Creative Exploration Grant and
James Irving Foundation Fellowship); Prize Program Director
Kila Kitu (actor/director, Black Women: State of the Union, producer of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette);
Joshua Lamont (actor/producer/teaching artist);
Amir Levi (actor/director/producer); Penelope Lowder (playwright/screenwriter/novelist, recipient of Marvin Miller Screenwriting Fellowship and LA Theatre Center Playwrights Residency); Annie McGrath (producer/creative executive); Angela Oh (actor/director, Blank Theatre board member);
Bree Pavey (actor/director/producer, producing director of The Blank Theatre, managing director of Loft Ensemble); Zander Pryor (playwright, two-time YPF winner); Vasanti Saxena (playwright);
Lee Sherman (actor/teacher, former Company of Angels associate artistic director); Tamika Simpkins (actress/editor/writer/producer); Cece Tio (producer at Moving Arts and Playwrights Union); Jamila Webb (actor); Jennie Webb (playwright/dramaturg, LAFPI co-founder); and
Betsy Zajko (actor/journalist, Jeff and Ovation Award nominee, Women in Journalism Award-winner for producing and reporting for CBS and NPR).
The five finalists will now receive an online personal interview with the administrative body of the jury, including representatives from Ucross. The winner will be announced on April 1 and the cash award and residency at Ucross will follow.
The chosen playwright will receive a $5,000 cash award, a professionally produced staged reading in The Blank Theatre's Living Room Series (a new play development program), and a two-week residency at Ucross's 20,000-acre ranch at the foothills of the Bighorn Mountains (including transportation). Two additional finalists will each be awarded $500 cash prizes.
At Ucross, artists in residence experience an inspiring combination of solitude and community, with expansive time for private work, as well as lively exchanges at group dinners with fellow artists. Facilities include four visual arts studios, four writers' studios, and two composers' studios, and a large loft space suitable for dance and theatre collaborations.
Ucross was founded in 1981. Since its founding, Ucross has provided more than 2,500 residencies to established and emerging artists. Ucross provides a platform that nurtures and supports artists, many on the eve of major career breakouts. Ucross has been home to 10 Pulitzer Prize winners, eight MacArthur "genius" grantees, seven Tony Award winners, six National Book Award winners, and two Academy Award winners. Alumni include
Billy Porter, Colson Whitehead, Yaa Gyasi, Annie Proulx, Terry Tempest Williams,
Elizabeth Gilbert,
Ann Patchett,
Ricky Ian Gordon, and
Adam Guettel.
The Blank was founded in 1990 by
Daniel Henning and the theatre's over 70 mainstage productions have won 13 LA Drama Critics Circle Awards, eight LA Weekly Awards, five LA
Stage Alliance Ovation Awards, four NAACP Awards, 20 Back Stage Garland Awards, four BroadwayWorld Awards, and received hundreds of other nominations. Named "One of the Best Theatre Companies in America" by the Drama League, The Blank was honored by the LA City Council and won the Hollywood Arts Council's Award "for pursuing artistic excellence and nurturing the next generation of playwrights."
The Ucross + The Blank Theatre - Future of Playwriting Prize is made possible by Deb and Ed Koehler and the Raymond Plank Philanthropy Fund.
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