Blessing, Rapp and Wilson Chosen as Winners of ACTA Awards
By: BWW News Desk Apr. 03, 2006
On April 1st, the American Theatre Critics Association announced that Lee Blessing, Adam Rapp and the late August Wilson were the winner of ACTA Awards at the renowned Humana Festival in Louisville, KY.Blessing
received the top Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association New
Play Award--as well as a grant of $25,000 for his play A Body of Water,
which concerns a man and a woman who wake up one morning to find their
memories have vanished. A Body of Water was most recently seen at San
Diego's Old Globe Theatre.Both Rapp and Wilson (who passed away
on October 2nd, 2005) were announced as recipients of the $7,500
award. Rapp's Red Light Winter, currently playing off-Broadway's
Barrow Street Theatre, is a sexually charged drama involving two men
and the woman they meet in New Amsterdam. Wilson's Radio Golf, with
which he completed his 10-play chronicle of the African-American
experience in the 20th century, premiered at the Seattle Rep and is
Broadway-bound. The play involves a pair of real estate entrepreneurs
faced with a dilemma of a house's demolishment in 1990s Pittsburgh.
"Since the inception of ATCA's New
Play Award in 1977, the list of honorees has included Lanford Wilson, Marsha
Norman, Jane Martin, Arthur Miller, Mac Wellman, Adrienne Kennedy, Donald
Margulies, Lynn Nottage, Craig Lucas and Horton Foote," state press notes.The awards are funded by a
generous annual grant of $40,000 from the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable
Trust. Created in 1986 by Harold Steinberg on behalf of himself and his late
wife, the primary mission of the Steinberg Charitable Trust is to support the
American theater. The trust has provided numerous grants totaling millions of
dollars to support new productions of American plays and educational programs
for those who may not ordinarily get to experience live theater in this
country."The American Theatre Critics Association, founded in 1974, works
to raise critical standards and public awareness of a critic's duties and
responsibilities. It is the only national association of professional theater
critics and has several hundred members working for newspapers, magazines, radio
and television stations across the United States. ATCA is a national section of
the International Association of Theatre Critics (IATC), a UNESCO-affiliated
organization that sponsors seminars and congresses worldwide."
For more information, visit www.americantheatrecritics.org.
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