Emerging playwrights honored
Antoinette Nwandu and Audrey Cefaly are the 2017 winners of Marin Theatre Company’s two annual playwriting prizes, the company announced Thursday, April 26.
Nwandu’s “Pass Over,” which premiered at Steppenwolf in Chicago in 2017, combines the Book of Exodus and Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot,” transposing both to an urban street corner, where two African American men kibitz, hop- ing for something better from life. The script wins MTC’s 2017 Sky Cooper New American Play Prize, which comes with a $10,000 purse, a developmental workshop and consideration for a full MTC production in a future season.
Cefaly’s “Alabaster” follows the instant, charged connection between an unknown folk artist and the eminent photographer sent to shoot images of her. It takes home MTC’s 2017 David Calicchio Emerging American Playwright Prize, which goes to a writer who has never had a professional production. The award includes a $2,500 purse as well as two staged readings in MTC’s New Play Reading Series.
Both prizes were created by Norton J. “Sky” Cooper in 2007 to celebrate outstanding playwriting and support new talent in the field.