John Guare Announced as 2011 Greenfield Prize Winner

Hermitage Artist Retreat and the Greenfield Foundation are pleased to announce that the winner of the 2011 Greenfield Prize has been awarded this year in Drama to Playwright John Guare. The award will be presented at a Celebration dinner on Sunday, March 27th at Michael's on East in Sarasota. Oskar Eustis, Tony-award winning artistic director of New York's Public Theatre, will be the keynote speaker.

"Our prestigious jury has done it again," remarked Bruce Rodgers, executive director of the Hermitage Artist Retreat. "John Guare is one of America's great playwrights. We are thrilled that over the next two years, he will be working on a new play for American theaters that will be created at the Hermitage Artist Retreat and have its first public introduction in Sarasota in 2013."

John Guare is an award-winning playwright well known to many regular theater-goers. Among his most recognized plays are Lydie Breeze; A Free Man of Color; Bosoms and Neglect; and The House of Blue Leaves, which won an Obie and NY Drama Critics Circle Award for the Best American Play of 1970-71 and four Tonys in its 1986 Lincoln Center revival. Six Degrees of Separation received the NY Drama Critics Circle Award in 1991 for its LCT production and the Olivier Best Play Award in 1993. Additionally, Guare wrote the lyrics and co-authored the book for the 1972 Tony-winning Best Musical, Two Gentlemen of Verona. His screenplay for Louis Malle's Atlantic City earned him an Oscar nomination. In 2003 he won the PEN/Laura Pels Master Dramatist Award; in 2004, the Gold Medal in Drama from the American Academy of Arts and Letters; in 2005 the Obie for sustained excellence. He is a council member of the Dramatists Guild and co-editor of The Lincoln Center Theater Review.

The Greenfield Prize winner is selected each year by a panel of experts in the arts discipline for that year's award, which rotates annually through three arts areas, drama, music, and an open "wild card" year. This year's category was drama, making John Guare the second playwright to receive the Greenfield Prize. Guare was selected from a pool of over 30 playwrights, nominated by a prestigious jury, three voting and three non-voting. Voting jurors were Michael Bigelow Dixon, chair and current assistant professor of theater at Goucher College, former literary manager at the Guthrie Theatre and Actors Theatre of Louisville; Carey Perloff, artistic director of the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco; and Eduardo Machado, playwright currently writing for HBO television, and past artistic director of INTAR in New York City. Non-voting members included Bruce E. Rodgers, executive director of the Hermitage Artist Retreat, Joni Greenfield, representing the Greenfield Foundation and Michael D. Edwards, producing artistic director of Asolo Rep.

"We are grateful to the Greenfield Foundation for making it possible to inspire new works of art from America's most important artists," Rodgers continued. "The Greenfield Prize is contributing to the artistic legacy of America at this time and will continue to contribute into the future. The Hermitage Artist Retreat is proud to play a central role in this process."

The Greenfield Prize was established in 2009 by longtime Sarasota residents Bob and Louise Greenfield through the Philadelphia-based Greenfield Foundation. The prize is a means by which a groundbreaking, enduring work of art will be created each year at the Hermitage Artist Retreat. The Prize consists of a $30,000 commission of an original work of art, a residency at the Hermitage, and a partnership with a professional arts organization to develop the work, and assistance in moving the work forward into the American arts world. A distinguished six-person panel consisting of some of the most highly respected authorities in American art select each Greenfield Prize recipient. Three voting members on each jury are joined by representatives of the producing partner, the Greenfield Foundation and the Hermitage Artist Retreat. Since its inception, past prize winners include playwright Craig Lucus, composer Eve Beglarian and visual artist Sanford Biggers.

For more information on the Greenfield Prize, visit the website at www.greenfieldprize.org. For more information on the Hermitage Artist Retreat, visit the website at www.HermitageArtistRetreat.org or contact Executive Director Bruce E. Rodgers at 941-475-2098.

About the Greenfield Prize: The Greenfield Prize at the Hermitage Artist Retreat is a groundbreaking partnership between the Philadelphia-based Greenfield Foundation and the Hermitage Artist Retreat. Pursuing the mission "to bring into the world works of art that will have a significant impact on the broader or artistic culture," the prize seeks to identify individuals whose past work and future prospects position them to achieve this lofty and ambitious goal. The prize is awarded annually and includes a $30,000 commission for a new piece of work to be created within a two-year time frame. A residency at the Hermitage Artist Retreat on Manasota Key in Englewood, FL, ensures time and space in which to do the work. The Greenfield Prize rotates each year among three artistic areas; drama, music, and a "wild card." In the "wild card" years, the prize may be awarded to artists in any field or combination of fields, or themes in an effort to accommodate new forms, fields, technologies, and the blending of traditional disciplines. For more information visit the website www.greenfieldprize.org.

About the Hermitage Artist Retreat: The Hermitage is a not-for-profit artist retreat located on Manasota Key. It brings mid-career painters, sculptors, writers, playwrights, poets, composers and other artists from all over the world for extended stays on its 8.5 acre campus. Each artist is asked to contribute two services to the community during their stay. So far, Hermitage artists have touched over 7,000 Sarasota County children and adults with their unique and inspiring programs. For more information about the Hermitage, visit the webisite www.HermitageArtistRetreat.org or call Bruce Rodgers, Executive Director at (941) 475-2098.

About the Greenfield Foundation: The Greenfield Foundation is based in Philadelphia, PA, but funds charitable initiatives across the country. Its president and most of its trustees are members of the family of Louise and Bob Greenfield of Sarasota, Florida. Its net income, which exceeds $500,000 a year, is devoted to improving quality of life through contributions to not-for-profit institutions in the arts, education, health care and other services. The foundation originates and participates in innovative projects, which have a ripple effect beyond the immediate impact of the expenditures.