Playwright Aleshea Harris Wins the 2023 Kesselring Prize for Playwriting

The National Arts Club has announced its 2023 Kesselring Prize for Playwriting has been awarded to Aleshea Harris, who was nominated by the New York Theater Workshop for her play On Sugarland. 

As the Kesselring Prize winner, Harris will receive $25,000 plus the opportunity to develop her work and reside for two weeks in the historic landmark Tilden Mansion, the home of the National Arts Club adjacent to Gramercy Park.  

Harris will receive the prize at an award presentation dinner at the National Arts Club on Monday, May 20th, 2024 at 7pm.

“In selecting Aleshea, our judges found that her impactful work stood out among the many exceptional nominated playwrights they read for its distinctive voice and staging, as well as how it truly draws you into the world of its characters and holds you from start to finish,” said David Glanstein, vice president of the NAC Board of Governors and chair of the Kesselring Committee. “We hope the Kesselring Prize helps propel Aleshea's already very promising career along with recent winners Lucas Hnath, James, Ijames, Lauren Yee and last year's Kesselring Prize winner Candrice Jones."  

“It is a tremendous honor to receive an award that has been presented to a number of esteemed artists I've admired over the years,” said Harris. “I cannot express how affirming it is to be recognized by fellow theater practitioners for my most ambitious play to date. Thank you to the judges and the National Arts Club for this wonderful recognition."

The Kesselring Prize for Playwriting

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, Candrice Jones received the 2022 Kesselring Prize for her play Flex, which was produced last summer at Lincoln Center Theater. 

This year's Kesselring Prize Jury consists of 2015 Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis, best known for his plays Between Riverside and Crazy and Jesus Hopped the ‘A' Train, Sonia Fernandez, Dramaturg and Director of New Work at the Woolly Mammoth Theater Company, and Ralph B. Pena, noted director, playwright, and founding member and current artistic director of the award winning Ma-Yi Theater Company in New York City.

About Aleshea Harris: 

Aleshea Harris's Is God Is won the Relentless Award, an OBIE for playwriting and the Helen Merrill Playwriting Award. What to Send Up When It Goes Down was featured in American Theatre Magazine and received a special commendation from the Blackburn Prize. The play was subsequently re-mounted at Woolly Mammoth, A.R.T., BAM and Playwrights Horizons. On Sugarland premiered at New York Theatre Workshop in 2022 and was a Pulitzer Prize Finalist. Awards: Windham-Campbell Literary Prize, Mimi Steinberg Playwriting Award, Hermitage Greenfield Prize, Horton Foote Playwriting Award, Arts and Letters Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Alpert Award. Harris is a two-time MacDowell Fellow and has enjoyed residencies at the Hermitage Artist Retreat, Hedgebrook, and Casa Ecco on Lake Como via the Hawthornden Foundation.

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, and lectures and readings, attracting an audience of more than 30,000 members of the general public. Featured programs focus on all disciplines of the arts.

For a full list of events or to learn more, please visit nationalartsclub.org.

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