Laurents / Hatcher Foundation Selects Jeff Talbott As First Recipient of Award
By: Gabrielle Sierra Feb. 16, 2011
The Trustees of The Laurents/Hatcher Foundation, Inc. are pleased to announce that THE SUBMISSION by Jeff Talbott has been selected for the 2011 LAURENTS / HATCHER FOUNDATION AWARD. The foundation will provide a $50,000 cash award to Mr. Talbott and a grant of $100,000 to go directly towards the production costs of the play's premiere at Manhattan Class Company next season. This is the inaugural award for the foundation.
Jeff Talbott graduated with honors from the Yale School of Drama and has written three full- length plays and two one-acts. His plays have been in the final round of consideration for the 2010 New Play Summit at the Denver Center as well as The 2010 O'Neill Playwrights Conference and have received developmental readings in both NYC and regionally. He is the co-author of Critical Moment (with Stephen Kunken), which was a semi-finalist for the New Play Festival at Denver Center Theatre; a section of that play was a finalist for the Heideman Award for best 10-minute play at the Humana Festival at Actors Theatre of Louisville. His one-acts For Nate and Molly and Tender were both given world premiere productions by the Yale Cabaret. His writing has been informed by his work as a NYC-based actor, both on- and off-Broadway, and in regional theatres across the country. He is currently working on a new play loosely based on Shakespeare's Iago.Established in 2010, The LAURENTS / HATCHER FOUNDATION AWARD is an annual prize to be given for an un-produced, full-length play of social relevance by an emerging American playwright. In addition to being one of the country's largest grants for new work, The Laurents / Hatcher Foundation Award is the first major award for playwrighting to be named in honor of a gay couple: Tony Award winning playwright and director Arthur Laurents and his partner of 52 years, Tom Hatcher. Most recently represented on Broadway with the smash hit revival of West Side Story, Arthur Laurents' career as a writer for the stage and screen spans over 65 years, beginning with his play The Home of the Brave, which premiered on Broadway in 1945. Known for having written the books for musicals such as Gypsy and West Side Story as well as the screenplays for The Way We Were, The Turning Point and Alfred Hitchcock's Rope, Mr. Laurents (who is currently 93) continues to write new plays -- many of which have premiered at New Jersey's George Street Playhouse, including his most recent, Come Back, Come Back, Wherever You Are.
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