Playwright Darcie Dennigan Awarded Howard Foundation Fellowship

The Wilbury Theatre Group has announced that Darcie Dennigan, Playwright-in-Residence with the Group since 2019, has been named as a recipient of a fellowship from the George A. and Eliza Gardner Howard Foundation, an independent organization administered by Brown University.

The $35,000 fellowship was one of nine awarded by the Howard Foundation for the 2020/21 academic year. Through a competitive selection process, Fellowships were awarded to mid-career individuals of significant accomplishment in the fields of poetry, fiction, theatre studies, and playwriting.

"I'm no more deserving of this than any other writer out there," says Darcie Dennigan, "and that knowledge frees me to use this miraculous award to write a wild, unsafe, dirty, dumb, messy protestation of a play. It will have beheadings and Artemesia Gentileschi, and it will be ready for all the impossibilities of theatre-making in 2023."

"As a singularly talented playwright, Darcie's work to stretch theatrical boundaries and challenge the notion of the conventional theatre are an inspiration to artists everywhere," adds Wilbury Artistic Director Josh Short. "All of us at the Wilbury Group are incredibly proud to have her working with us, and we couldn't be happier to see her receive this recognition and support for her work."

Playwright Darcie Dennigan

An award-winning poet in addition to a playwright, Darcie Dennigan was named Resident Playwright with The Wilbury Theatre Group in February 2019. Previous productions developed and produced with the Group include The Pleiades, The Happy End, and RESCUE! Or, The Fish. In 2019 Dennigan was co-creator of The Olneyville Expo: A Celebration of Olneyville Past, Present, and Future with Jesse Hawley and James Stanley. Her latest work, Chernobyl Babies, received a staged-reading as part of The Wilbury Group's Streaming series in March 2020, and is slated to receive its world premiere production in the Wilbury Group's 2020/21 Season.

In addition to playwright Darcie Dennigan, 2020 Fellowship Awardees who may be familiar to Wilbury audiences include Mary Kim Arnold (poetry) and Christine Evans (playwriting). See the full list of Awardees.

The George A. and Eliza Gardner Howard Foundation was established in 1952 by Nicea Howard in memory of her grandparents; she had a special interest in furthering the personal development of promising individuals at the crucial middle stages of their careers in the liberal and creative arts.

Administered by Brown University, the Howard Foundation is an independent agency. About The Howard Foundation.

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