The Dramatists Guild of America has announced the first recipients of its 2022 awards. Awards for the 2021 and 2022 winners will be presented at Joe’s Pub on Monday, July 25, 2022.
The Flora Roberts Prize, administered by the Dramatists Guild Foundation, is given to a playwright in recognition of outstanding work in theater and to encourage the continuation of that work. This year’s recipient of the award is Kirsten Childs.
The Hull-Warriner Prize is the only award given by playwrights to playwrights; it is presented annually by the Dramatists Guild Council to an author or team of authors in recognition of their play dealing with controversial subjects involving the realms of political, religious or social mores of the time. This year’s Hull-Warriner Prize winner is Martyna Majok for her play Sanctuary City.
This year’s Hull-Warriner Award finalists are Where We Stand by Donnetta Lavinia Grays; All CA Johnson’s Natalie Portman; Selling Kabul by Sylvia Khoury; Suicide Forest by Haruna Lee and Endlings by Céline Song.
Recipients of other Dramatists Guild awards including the Horton Foote Award, Frederick Loewe Award, DLDF Defender Award and Lanford Wilson Award will be announced at a later date.
This year’s ceremony will take place on the evening of Monday, July 25 at Joe’s Pub. In addition to celebrating the 2022 winners of the Dramatists Guild’s Awards, the winners of the 2021 awards will also be honored.
The winners of the 2021 Dramatists Guild Awards are: Sharai Bohannon received the DLDF Defender Award; William S. Yellow Robe, Jr. received the Flora Roberts Award; and Mariam Bazeed and Rhiana Yazzie received the Lanford Wilson Award. The Horton Foote Award was shared by Carla Ching, Kia Corthron, Aleshea Harris, Donja R. Love and Mfoniso Udofia. The Dramatists Guild also presented a Lifetime Achievement Award to Adrienne Kennedy.
The Horton Foote Prize, sponsored by the Richenthal Foundation, is given to a playwright whose work seeks to probe the ineffable nature of being human.
The Frederick Loewe Award, given by the Frederick Loewe Foundation and presented each year by the Dramatists Guild Council to a composer, rewards the realization of a theatrical score presented in New York during the previous theatrical season.
The DLDF Defender Award is presented by the Board of Directors of the Dramatists Legal Defense Fund to recognize an individual or group’s efforts in support of free expression in the dramatic arts.
The Lanford Wilson Award was established by the Estate of Lanford Wilson and is presented by the Council of the Playwrights Guild to a playwright based primarily on their work as an early career playwright.
Since its inception in 1919, the Dramatists Guild of America has been the professional association of playwrights, librettists, lyricists and composers writing for the American stage. With over 8,000 members worldwide, the Guild is guided by a board of writers who each give their time, interest and support to advance the rights of playwrights everywhere, including the right of playwrights to own and control their own copyrighted work. The Guild’s advocacy, programs, events, publications, and other services provide playwrights with the resources, community, and support they need to protect their assets, livelihoods, and unique voices in American theater. .
Kirsten Childs is the award-winning musicals of The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin, Miracle Brothers, Fly (with Rajiv Joseph and Bill Sherman), Funked Up Fairy Tales and Bella: An American Tall Tale. For her work, Kirsten has received Obie, Kleban, Larson, Richard Rodgers, Audelco, Frederick Loewe, and Gilman/Gonzalez-Falla awards, as well as Lortel and Drama Desk nominations. Kirsten has written for Disney Theatricals, The American Songbook Series at Lincoln Center, The New Electric Company, City Center Encores!, Works and Process @ Guggenheim Museum, and Premieres/Inner Voices under Paulette Haupt, Artistic Director of The O’Conference National Musical Theater of Neill. She is an assistant professor in NYU’s Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program and a member of the Dramatists Guild Council.
Martyna Majok was born in Bytom, Poland and grew up in Jersey and Chicago. She received the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play Cost of Living. Other plays include Sanctuary City, Queens and Ironbound, which have been produced on US and international stages. Her other awards include the Benjamin Hadley Danks Award from the Academy of Arts and Letters for Outstanding Playwriting, the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding New Play, the Greenfield Award, as the first female recipient in theatre, the New York City Mayor’s Office Champions of Change. , Francesca Primus Prize, two Jane Chambers Playwriting Awards, Lanford Wilson Prize, Lilly Award’s Stacey Mindich Prize, Helen Merrill Emerging Playwright Award, Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding Original New Play from The Helen Hayes Awards, Jean Kennedy Smith Playwriting Award, ANPF Women’s Invitational Award, David Calicchio Award, Global Age Project Award, NYTW 2050 Fellowship, NNPN Smith Award for Political Playwriting, and Merage Foundation Fellowship for the American Dream . Martyna studied at Yale School of Drama, Juilliard, University of Chicago and Jersey Public Schools. She was 2012-2013 NNPN Playwright-in-Residence, 2015-2016 PoNY Fellow at Lark Play Development Center, and 2018-2019 Hodder Fellow at Princeton University.