Christian St. Croix Receives 2024 Dominic Orlando Playwriting Award

The Dominic Orlando Fund, which was created in 2022 following playwright Dominic Orlando's passing in 2021, revealed the second recipient of the Dominic Orlando Playwriting Award: Christian St. Croix. The two other finalists for the award were Aimee Chou of Lynnwood, WA, and Robert Alexander Wray of Charlottesville, VA.

The $10,000 unrestricted Award was created in honor of Orlando's creative spirit and "unconventional career" to recognize playwrights who have forged their own paths by producing their own work, running their own independent companies, and/or artists who have taken artistic risks without finding significant financial or material support from large institutional theaters or philanthropic organizations. The Award is particularly targeted toward writers who, like Orlando, have made a continued commitment to smaller-budget theater companies and ensembles and helped them push the boundaries of what theater and playwriting can be. The award will recognize three playwrights between 2023-2025. The inaugural recipient in 2023 was José Casas.

In the summer of 2023, a select group of smaller-budget and new work-focused theater companies were invited to nominate playwrights for the Award, resulting in a list of 37 nominees. These writers were invited to apply, and an initial evaluation round was conducted by playwrights, directors and long-time collaborators of Orlando. The Fund's Advisory Board then made the final selection of Christian St. Croix. The Advisory Board consists of long-time theater makers and supporters Karin Bowersock, P. Carl, Christopher Casolaro, Hayley Finn, Christina Ham, Cory Hinkle, Melanie Marnich, Adam Peck, Deborah Stein, and Victoria Stewart.

"We found Christian such a compelling talent, and a perfect choice for the award," said Advisory Board Member Karin Bowersock. "The play he submitted was both extremely personal and universal, inhabited by characters that were complex, specific, and relatable but also imbued with that bit of theatrical magic that was so emblematic of Dominic's work. Christian is a writer that I'm eager to hear more from, and hope that this support allows him to continue to create fresh and meaningful work like Monsters of the American Cinema."

St. Croix was initially nominated by Kate Rose Reynolds of Loud Fridge Theatre Group. "Loud Fridge Theatre Group has had the honor of producing three of Christian's works," Reynolds said. "He tackles complex issues such as identity and belonging through lenses of fantasy and horror, play and storytelling, in a way that seems unique in our current theatrical landscape. I had the pleasure of working with Dominic on a number of occasions, and I see in Christian the same joy in making theater, and the same advocacy and commitment to small theaters, that Dominic embodied."

"I am thrilled and deeply honored to receive the Dominic Orlando Playwriting Award," said St. Croix. "Mr. Orlando's remarkable creativity and unique voice, first encountered through his work on "The OA," have been a profound inspiration to me. I am currently seeking a theater to stage the world premiere of my latest play, "We Are the Forgotten Beasts," hoping to create a story that resonates as deeply with audiences as Mr. Orlando's work has with me."

Dominic Orlando began his career in theater, co-running the No-Pants Theatre Company, a small independent company in New York where he wrote, directed, and produced many of his plays. In 2003, he moved to Minneapolis on a Playwrights' Center Jerome Fellowship, where he then stayed for many years, creating work with myriad local theaters, including the company he co-founded, the Workhaus Collective. In 2015, he moved to Los Angeles and began a successful career writing for television, working on numerous series, including "Them," "The OA," "Mindhunter," "Outer Range" and "Nightflyers." Orlando died on November 17, 2021.

The Fund is made up entirely of funds from individual donors. The Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis, an organization that Dominic had a longtime association with, acts as a fiscal sponsor and works in collaboration with the advisory board to administer the award.

The Fund looks forward to awarding a third and final playwright in 2025, with nominations to be solicited later this year. For more information on how to either apply or nominate a candidate, contact Fund Administrator Julia Brown at dominicorlandofund@gmail.com.

ARTIST BIO

Christian St. Croix, celebrated by The San Diego Union-Tribune as one of the nation's fastest-rising playwrights, is a queer, Black visionary based in San Diego, California. Acknowledged for his ability to craft multidimensional characters with wry humor and truth, Christian's unique storytelling transcends boundaries, blending urban and rural slice-of-life narratives with elements of magical realism. His acclaimed works, including the sibling motel fantasy drama, "We Are the Forgotten Beasts" (a 2022 O'Neill Finalist), the '90s teen soap satire, "ZACH," and the haunting, award-winning father-son fable, "Monsters of the American Cinema," showcase his exceptional talent in revealing the depths of human experience. Delve into his world at www.saintscrossing.com.

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