MTC Playwrights Lauren Gunderson and Martin Zimmerman Are 2014 Harold and Mimi Steinberg Award Finalists

Marin Theatre Company's artistic director Jasson Minadakis has announced that Lauren Gunderson's I and You, which premiered at Marin Theatre Company in October with support from the National New Play Network's Continued Life of New Plays Fund, and Martín Zimmerman's Seven Spots on the Sun, which won MTC's 2012 Sky Cooper New American Play Prize and received a public staged reading at MTC in June 2013, have been selected as finalists for the 2014 Harold and Mimi Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award.

The 2014 Harold and Mimi Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award recognizes playwrights for the best scripts that premiered professionally outside New York City during 2013. Funded at $40,000 by the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, this is the largest national new play award of its kind. The top award of $25,000, two citations of $7,500 each and commemorative plaques will be presented April 5 at Actors Theatre of Louisville, during the Humana Festival of New American Plays. The other four 2014 award finalists include: Fear Up Harsh by Christopher Demos-Brown; Smokefall by Noah Haidle; H20 by Jane Martin and Stupid F**king Bird by Aaron Posner. The finalists were chosen from a pool of 28 eligible scripts.

Previously, 9 Circles by Bill Cain, which premiered at MTC in October 2010, won the 2011 Harold and Mimi Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award.

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHTS:

Lauren Gunderson (I and You) is an award-winning playwright living in San Francisco. With I and You, she made her mainstage debut at MTC, which previously produced public staged readings of her plays Silent Sky (2011) and Rock Hill: Southern Gothic (2009) as part of its New Play Reading Series and traveling productions of her adaptation of Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything (2008, 2009) for its theater for young audiences School Tour program. Gunderson's work has been produced and developed at companies across the US including Emilie: La Marquise Du Châtelet Defends Her Life Tonight and Silent Sky at South Coast Rep, The Amazing Adventures of Dr. Wonderful And Her Dog! at the Kennedy Center and more at Berkeley Rep, TheatreWorks, Crowded Fire Theatre, SF Playhouse, Magic Theatre, Actor's Express, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Portland Center Stage, Second Stage Theatre, Playwrights Foundation, Impact Theatre, Lark Play Development Center and the O'Neill. Emilie is published with Sam French; the first and second plays in her Shakespeare Cycle, Exit, Pursued By A Bear and Toil and Trouble, are published with Playscripts, Inc.; and her first Dr. Wonderful children's book will appear next year. She is a playwright in residence at the Playwrights Foundation and a member of Dramatists Guild. LaurenGunderson.com | @LalaTellsAStory

Martin Zimmerman (Seven Spots on the Sun, 2012 Sky Cooper New American Play Prize) is a multi-ethnic, bilingual playwright whose plays include White Tie Ball, The Making of a Modern Folk Hero, Seven Spots on the Sun and The Solid Sand Below. His plays have been produced or developed at the Kennedy Center, Goodman Theatre, Victory Gardens Theater, the Playwrights' Center, Alliance Theatre, PlayPenn, American Theater Company, the Theatre @ Boston Court, Chicago Dramatists, Primary Stages, Teatro Vista, Seven Devils Playwrights Conference, the City of Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs, Theatre Row, Illinois Shakespeare Festival, Borderlands Theater, Source Festival, the Gift, Red Tape, the University of Texas at Austin and Duke University, with upcoming projects at Icicle Creek Theatre Festival and A.C.T. A recipient of The Jerome Fellowship, the Carl Djerassi Playwriting Fellowship, National New Play Network's Smith Prize and a Core Apprenticeship at The Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis, Zimmerman was a member of the 2011-12 Playwrights' Unit at Goodman Theatre, where he is currently under commission. He is a Resident Playwright at Chicago Dramatists and has been a finalist for the Kendeda Competition and Heideman Award. He has an MFA in Playwriting from the University of Texas at Austin and a BA in Theater Studies and BS in Economics from Duke University.

ABOUT MTC: Founded in 1966, Marin Theatre Company is the Bay Area's premier mid-sized theater and the leading professional theater in the North Bay. We produce a six-show season of provocative plays by passionate playwrights from the 20th century and today in our 231-seat main stage theater, as well as a five-show Theater Series for Young Audiences in partnership with the Bay Area Children's Theatre in our 99-seat studio theater. We are committed to the development and production of new plays by American playwrights, with a comprehensive New Play Program that includes productions of world premieres, two nationally recognized annual playwriting awards, readings and workshops by the nation's best emerging playwrights and membership in the National New Play Network. Our numerous education programs serve more than 6,000 students from over 40 Bay Area schools each year. MTC is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization.

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