Lisa D'Amour, Melissa James Gibson Win Steinberg Playwright Awards

The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust today announced that Lisa D'Amour and Melissa James Gibson will each be presented with the Steinberg Playwright Award at the 4th Annual Steinberg Playwright "Mimi" Awards. The Mimi Awards promote theater as a vital part of our culture by nurturing American playwrights and encouraging the development and production of new American plays.

The Steinberg Playwright Awards will be given on Monday, November 14th at the Lincoln Center Theater in New York City. The Steinberg Playwright Awards are presented biennially, and are uniquely positioned to honor the accomplishments of some of the most gifted up-and-coming American playwrights, and to recognize the promise they hold for the future of American theater.

"We're honored to support the artistic excellence of these two outstanding playwrights," said Jim Steinberg. "We hope that the recognition they garner from these awards will continue to propel their work forward and allow it to be seen by an even broader audience. We are pleased that in the past few years there has been a substantial increase in support for and recognition of emerging and mid- career playwrights and the vital role they play in the American theatre."

In 2008, the Board of Directors of The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust established an Advisory Committee of prominent theater professionals responsible for establishing the criteria for the Steinberg Playwright Awards, as well as the nomination and selection processes. The 2011 Advisory Committee is comprised of Susan Booth, Artistic Director of the Alliance Theater; Polly Carl, Director, American Voices New Play Institute; Jeremy Cohen, Producing Artistic Director, The Playwrights' Center; David Emmes, Producing Artistic Director, South Coast Repertory; Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director, The Public Theater; Todd London, Artistic Director of New Dramatists; and Lynne Meadow, Artistic Director, Manhattan Theater Club.

The Committee has elected to honor playwrights Lisa D'Amour and Melissa James Gibson for their extraordinary artistic achievement. Both playwrights will be presented with a cash award of $50,000 along with "The Mimi," a statuette designed by Tony Award-nominated scenic designer and architect David Rockwell.

"Our choice of these two writers reflects a commitment to not only celebrate this moment in their careers, but to ensure they continue sharing their unique, powerful and distinctly theatrical voices with audiences for many years to come," said Advisory Board Member Jeremy Cohen, The Playwrights' Center. "By supporting them, the Steinberg Trust is honoring their achievement, expressing confidence in their future, and making the world a better place for working playwrights," continued Advisory Board Member, Oskar Eustis.

Lisa D'Amour is a playwright and interdisciplinary artist. Lisa's plays have been produced by theatres across the country, including The Women's Project, Clubbed Thumb, Theatre of a Two-Headed Calf, New Georges, Salvage Vanguard Theatre and Children's Theatre Company. She has received commissions from Playwrights' Horizons, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, The Guthrie and a Sloan Commission from Manhattan Theatre Club. Lisa's latest play, Detroit, premiered at Steppenwolf Theatre in 2010, directed by Austin Pendleton, and will open on Broadway in the 2011/12 season, produced by Jeffrey Richards, Jerry Frankel and Debbie Bisno in association with Steppenwolf Theatre. Detroit was a finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in Drama and the 2011 Susan Smith Blackburn prize. In 2008, D'Amour was awarded the Alpert Award for the Arts in theatre. As a playwright, Lisa has received fellowships from the Jerome and McKnight Foundations through the Playwrights' Center, an independent artist commission from NYSCA (for Stanley 2006, created with her brother Todd D'Amour) and an NEA/TCG Playwrights' Residency. With Katie Pearl, she is co-artistic director of PearlDamour, a company that makes collaborative, often site-specific performances. PearlDamour's work has been presented by PS122, HERE Arts Center and the Walker Arts Center, among others, and their latest performance installation How to Build a Forest premiered at The Kitchen in New York City in June.With PearlDamour, she is a three-time recipient of project funding from the Rockefeller MAP Fund and a 2009 Creative Capital grantee. Lisa received her M.F.A. in playwriting from the University of Texas at Austin and her B.A. in English and Theatre from Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi. Lisa is a New Dramatists alumni.

Melissa James Gibson's plays include THIS (Susan Smith Blackburn Prize finalist); [sic] (OBIE Award for playwriting, Kesselring Prize, The Best Plays of 2001-02); SUITCASE or, those that resemble flies from a distance (NEA/TCG Theatre Residency Program for Playwrights); BROOKLYN BRIDGE, with a song by Barbara Brousal (AT&T Onstage award); and CURRENT NOBODY (Susan Smith Blackburn Prize finalist). Her work has been produced and/ or developed at Playwrights Horizons, Center Theatre Group, Soho Rep, La Jolla Playhouse, The Children's Theatre Company, Steppenwolf, ATF, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Seattle Rep and the Sundance Institute Theatre Lab, among others, regionally and internationally. Current commissions: Atlantic Theater Company; Manhattan Theater Club (Sloan Foundation); Second Stage Theatre. Honors: Jerome Fellow; MacDowell Colony Fellow; Whiting Writers Award; Lucille Lortel Foundation Playwrights' Fellowship; Guggenheim Fellowship; LILLY Award. MFA: Yale School of Drama; graduate of New Dramatists. Teaching: Lecturer in the Program in Theater at Princeton University, spring semester 2011. THIS and Other Plays is forthcoming from TCG.

The Steinberg Playwright Awards and the Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Awards are presented in alternate years. Past recipients are:

• Lynn Nottage, Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award, 2010
• David Adjmi, Tarell Alvin McCraney and Bruce Norris, Steinberg Playwright Awards, 2009
• Tony Kushner, Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award, 2008

The Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award honors the artistic achievement of a playwright whose work has made a significant impact on American theater. The Steinberg Playwright Award is awarded to playwrights who exhibit exceptional talent and tremendous promise in earlier stages of their careers.

The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust was created by Harold Steinberg in 1986 in the names of himself and his late wife Miriam, sometimes known as "Mimi." The Trust's primary mission is to support and promote the American theater as a vital part of our culture by nurturing American playwrights, encouraging the development and production of new American plays, and providing significant support to theater companies across the country.

Since its inception, the Trust has given in excess of $50 million to more than one hundred not-for-profit theater organizations. These gifts have funded countless productions, as well as the commissioning of playwrights, playwriting programs and arts-in-education outreach programs for thousands of children in an effort to create and educate new generations of theatergoers.

The Trust also collaborated with the American Theater Critics Association to create and fund the Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award. The award is presented annually during the Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theater of Louisville. Recent winners of this award include Craig Lucas, Lynn Nottage, Lee Blessing and Nilo Cruz.

The members of the Board of Directors of The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust are Carole A. Krumland, James D. Steinberg, Michael A. Steinberg, Seth M. Weingarten and William D. Zabel.

 

 

 

 

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