Laurents / Hatcher Foundation Selects Jeff Talbott As First Recipient of Award

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.

THE LAURENTS / HATCHER FOUNDATION AWARD
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.

Tom Hatcher, who died in October 2006, began his career as an actor but moved into real estate as a contractor and then as a developer. He created the private park adjoining the house in Quogue, Long Island that was home for the couple.

MCC Theater (Robert LuPone, Bernard Telsey, William Cantler, Artistic Directors; Blake West, Executive Director) is currently celebrating its 25th anniversary season as one of New York City's leading Off Broadway theater companies, committed to presenting New York and world premieres each season. When MCC Theater was founded in 1986, its mission was simple: to bring new theatrical voices to audiences. MCC Theater continues to accomplish this yearly through three programmatic areas: its three-play mainstage season; its Playwrights' Coalition, which actively seeks and develops new and emerging writers and has supported the creation of more than 200 new plays over the last 10 years; and its Education & Outreach Programs, including the Youth Company, which allow more than 1,200 students yearly to increase literacy and discover their own voices through the creation of original theater pieces, and its Classroom Partnership program. Notable MCC Theater highlights include: the 2008 Tony Award-nominated reasons to be pretty by Neil LaBute, last season's The Pride, Fifty Words, the 2004 Tony-winning production of Bryony Lavery's Frozen; Neil LaBute's Fat Pig; Rebecca Gilman's The Glory of Living; Marsha Norman's Trudy Blue; Margaret Edson's Pulitzer Prize-winning Wit; Tim Blake Nelson's The Grey Zone and Alan Bowne's Beirut. Over the years, the dedication to the work of new and emerging artists has earned MCC Theater a variety of awards.

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