Kate Mulgrew & Anne-Cecilie Engell Speyer Host Vineyard Theatre's 2015 Emerging Artists Luncheon Today

Kate Mulgrew and Anne-Cecilie Engell Speyer host Vineyard Theatre's Annual Emerging Artists Luncheon today, September 30, from noon-2pm at the National Arts Club (15 Gramercy Park South) in Manhattan. Chaired by members of the Vineyard Council, the event will feature the presentation of the 2015 Paula Vogel Playwriting Award to Boo Killebrew (MILLER, MISSISSIPPI). Clare Barron (YOU GOT OLDER), Vineyard's 2014 Paula Vogel Playwriting Award winner, will also be recognized at the luncheon.

Ms. Barron and Ms. Killebrew are the seventh and eighth recipients of Vineyard Theatre's Paula Vogel Playwriting Award, named in honor of playwright and teacher Paula Vogel, whose plays HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE (Pulitzer Prize for Drama) and THE LONG CHRISTMAS RIDE HOME premiered at The Vineyard. The residency-based award is given each year to an emerging writer of exceptional promise and comes with a cash prize and artistic development support. Previous recipients of the award include Christopher Chen (2013), Erika Sheffer (2012), Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (2011), Kara Lee Corthron (2010), Rajiv Joseph (2009), and Tarell Alvin McCraney (2008).

Boo Killebrew is a playwright, actress and co-founder of CollaborationTown Theatre Company. Boo is a Lila Acheson Playwriting Fellow at The Juilliard School, a member of the Primary Stages Writers Group, an alumni of the 2013 Emerging Writers Group at The Public, a recipient of the 2013 NYFA Fellowship, an alumni of TerraNova's Groundbreakers, and an Affiliated Artist and Kitchen Cabinet Member with New Georges. She is a writer for "Longmire" (A & E, Netflix) and "Aim High" (Sundance, pilot). Her plays include MILLER, MISSISSIPPI (recipient of the 2015 Leah Ryan Prize); ROMANCE NOVELS FOR DUMMIES, DAYS LIKE DIAMONDS, THE PLAY ABOUT MY DAD, and THE MOMENTUM (NYC Fringe Festival Excellence Award for Overall Production of a Play; GLAAD Media Award Nominee). Her work has been presented at The Roundabout Theatre, The Public Theater, Williamstown Theater Festival, The Atlantic, New York Theater Workshop, New Georges, Clubbed Thumb, The Huntington Theatre Co., 59e59 Theatres, The New Ohio, The Labyrinth, and Boston Playwright's Theatre. Boo was an Edward F. Albee Foundation Fellow, an Artist in Residence at NYFA, Robert Wilson's Watermill Center, The New York Theater Workshop, The MacDowell Colony, Williamstown Theater Festival, JAW at Portland Center Stage, New York Stage and Film, Perry Mansfield, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and a member of The Working Farm (Space at Ryder Farm). Boo has received two New York Innovative Theater Awards for acting and has been nominated multiple times for both playwriting and acting. She is the recipient of The Leah Ryan Prize, two Fringe Excellence Awards and The Bette Davis Foundation Award. Boo is a teaching artist with The Roundabout Theatre Company.

Clare Barron is a playwright and performer from Wenatchee, Washington. Her plays include YOU GOT OLDER (2015 OBIE Award for Playwriting; nominee for 2015 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding New Play; finalist for the 2015 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize), which received its world premiere last fall with Page 73, directed by Anne Kauffman; BABY SCREAMS MIRACLE (Clubbed Thumb Summerworks); SOLARE PLEXUS (EST's Marathon of One-Act Plays); and DIRTY CRUSTY. She is the recipient of the 2014 Page 73 Playwriting Fellowship and Sloan commissions from EST and MTC for new plays about science. She is a member of Youngblood, an Affiliated Artist with Target Margin, an alum of the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, and is currently pursuing her MFA at Brooklyn College. As an actor, Clare appeared in the world premiere of Heidi Schreck's THE CONSULTANT (Long Wharf) and traveled to Beirut to play Mae in an Arabic-English production of María Irene Fornés' MUD.

The Vineyard's Paula Vogel Playwriting Award is made possible through the generosity of The Tournesol Project.

Paula Vogel's long and cherished relationship with the Vineyard began with the theatre's acclaimed production of HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE, directed by Mark Brokaw; the play won the Pulitzer Prize, Lucille Lortel, Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk Awards for Best Play, and was revived with its original cast at a one-night-only reading presented as part of The Vineyard's 30th anniversary season. Ms. Vogel's play THE LONG CHRISTMAS RIDE HOME, also directed by Mark Brokaw, premiered at The Vineyard in 2001. Her other plays include THE BALTIMORE WALTZ, THE MINEOLA TWINS, THE OLDEST PROFESSION, HOT 'N' THROBBING and A CIVIL WAR CHRISTMAS.

The Vineyard Theatre (located at 108 East 15 Street) has been one of the nation's leading non-profit theatre companies for over 30 years. Dedicated to the creation and production of daring new plays and musicals, The Vineyard has consistently premiered provocative, groundbreaking works, including Nicky Silver's THE LYONS; Marx, Lopez and Whitty's Tony Award-winning musical AVENUE Q; Kander and Ebb's THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS; Bell and Bowen's [title of show]; Paula Vogel's HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE (1998 Pulitzer Prize); Edward Albee's THREE TALL WOMEN (1994 Pulitzer Prize); Tarell Alvin McCraney's WIG OUT!; Will Eno's MIDDLETOWN; and many more. Vineyard's productions have been honored with two Pulitzer Prizes, three Tony Awards, and numerous Drama Desk, OBIE, Outer Critics Circle and Lucille Lortel Awards.

This season, The Vineyard will produce the world premiere of the musical GIGANTIC (previews November 11, opening December 3) by Randy Blair, Tim Drucker and Matthew roi Berger, choreographed by Chase Brock and directed by Scott Schwartz; and the New York premieres of Coleman Domingo's DOT, directed by Susan Stroman and Paula Vogel's INDECENT, directed by Rebecca Taichman.

The Vineyard Theatre's leadership includes Artistic Directors Douglas Aibel and Sarah Stern and Executive Producer Jennifer Garvey-Blackwell.

For more information about the Emerging Artists Luncheon or Vineyard Theatre, visit www.vineyardtheatre.org. To purchase tickets call 212-353-3366 x 227 or email development@vineyardtheatre.org.