Restoration Comedy and Radio Golf Among ATCA Finalists

The American Theatre Critics Association has named six finalists in its annual new play competition; among those were Amy Freed's Restoration Comedy, which made its world premiere at Seattle Repertory Theatre last December, and August Wilson's Radio Golf, which was part of Seattle Rep's season, closing February 18. The awards will be announced April 1, 2006 at the Humana Festival of New American Plays in Louisville, Ky. The first-place playwright in the Harold and Mimi Steinberg /American Theatre Critics Association New Play Awards will receive $25,000, the largest monetary prize for a national playwriting award. Two additional playwrights will each receive citations worth $7,500.

This year's finalists were selected from 25 eligible scripts submitted by ATCA members. All plays have premiered outside New York City in the previous calendar year. Chaired by Elizabeth Maupin of The Orlando Sentinel, a play-reading committee of 12 theater critics from around the U.S. evaluated the scripts. "What impressed me this year was the breadth of the selections, from realism to existentialism and from political drama to froth," Maupin said. "If anybody tries to tell you that American playwriting is just one thing, they're as wrong as they can be."

Since the inception of ATCA's New Play Award in 1977, the list of honorees has included Lanford Wilson, Marsha Norman, August Wilson, Jane Martin, Arthur Miller, Mac Wellman, Adrienne Kennedy, Donald Margulies, Lee Blessing, Lynn Nottage and Horton Foote. The awards are supported by a generous annual grant of $40,000 from the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust.

The American Theatre Critics Association was founded in 1974 and works to raise critical standards and public awareness of a critic's duties and responsibilities. It is the only national association of professional theater critics and has several hundred members working for newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations across the United States. ATCA is a national section of the International Association of Theatre Critics, a UNESCO-affiliated organization that sponsors seminars and congresses worldwide.

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