2010 RECIPIENTS
The 20/20 New Play Commission Program
Now in its third year, InterAct Theatre Company’s 20/20 New Play Commission program is an ambitious initiative that was established with the goal of awarding twenty new play commissions over a period of six seasons to playwrights who are addressing the issues society will face over the next twenty years. The program was developed with the goal of supporting the creation of new work that fits into InterAct’s mission of producing plays that explore the social, political, and cultural issues of our time. Awards range from $2,500 developmental grants, which are given to works already in progress, to $5,000 - $10,000 new play commissions, which go to new, previously (or substantially) unwritten plays.
If you are interested in donating to the 20/20 New Play Commission program, please contact Managing Director Anneliese Van Arsdale via email or at 215.568.8077.
The 2010 Awardees
Laura Jacqmin | THE BUDDY SYSTEM
In the middle of Mirabel A.'s dissertation defense on the evolution of the shopping mall in the United Arab Emirates, three boys - one American, one Emirati, and one of whom is currently bleeding after being assaulted in the desert - suddenly appear, claiming that they need to use this mall bathroom to hide in, and by the way, does she know where they can buy bandages? The boys' cell phones are ringing and Mirabel A.'s thesis advisor has had just about enough, and what are any of them supposed to do here, anyway? A play about Arab-American relations and the marriage of Western culture and Islamic law that asks the question: can America and the U.A.E. ever truly be "buddies," or is it a doomed partnership?
About Laura Jacqmin
Laura Jacqmin was the winner of the 2008 Wasserstein Prize, a $25,000 award to recognize an emerging female playwright. Her plays include LOOK, WE ARE BREATHING (2010 Sundance Theatre Lab on Governors Island, dir. Mark Brokaw), JANUARY JOINER (P73's 2010 summer Yale residency, dir. May Adrales), MILVOTCHKEE, VISCONSIN (to be workshopped at the Lark Theatre's 2010 Playwrights Week, dir. Christian Parker) and SKI DUBAI (Steppenwolf Theatre Company's 5th Annual First Look Repertory of New Work). Her play I AM FRIGHTENED OF MY BODY will premiere in Ars Nova's ANT Fest fall 2010.
Other plays include FOLK SONG, DENTAL SOCIETY MIDWINTER MEETING (which enjoyed a sold-out run in Chicago summer 2010), AND WHEN WE AWOKE THERE WAS LIGHT AND LIGHT, and DO-GOODER (nominated for the 2011 Cherry Lane Theatre Mentor Project). Her work has been produced and developed by the Goodman Theatre, Ars Nova, Icicle Creek Theatre Festival, Joe's Pub, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Victory Gardens Theater, Chicago Dramatists, The 24 Hour Plays Off-Broadway, the Contemporary American Theatre Festival and more. Laura lives in Chicago where she is currently working on commissions from the Goodman Theatre, Arden Theatre Company, InterAct Theatre Company and Ensemble Studio Theatre/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Science & Technology Project. She is a member of the Goodman Theatre's 2010-2011 playwrights unit. Laura holds a BA from Yale University and an MFA from Ohio University. For more information, visit www.laurajacqmin.com.
Adriano Shaplin | Untitled New Play
A transgendered graduate student living in the year 2033 accidentally melts the Circuitry of Time when he writes a bad paper about the Pharaoh Akhenaten. This foray into the ancient past sparks a troubling exploration of gender in an imagined American future.
About Adriano Shaplin
Adriano Shaplin is a playwright and co-artistic director of the the Riot Group, an ensemble he co-founded in 1997. He has written nine plays for the Riot Group, including: WRECK THE AIRLINE BARRIER, VICTORY AT THE DIRT PALACE, PUGILIST SPECIALIST, SWITCH TRIPTYCH and HEARTS OF MAN. In 2004 he joined Pig Iron Theater Company to create HELL MEETS HENRY HALFWAY, an OBIE award-winning adaptation of THE POSSESSED by Witold Gombrowicz. In 2006 Adriano became the first International Playwright-in-Residence with the Royal Shakespeare Company and his first play for the RSC, THE TRAGEDY OF THOMAS HOBBES, debuted at Wilton's Music Hall in London, 2008. He is a four-time recipient of the Scotsman Fringe First Award and has been commissioned as a playwright by Pig Iron Theatre Company, the Sloan Foundation, Playwrights Horizons, Soho Theatre (London), the RSC, InterAct Theatre Company, and New Paradise Laboratories.
|
