| Writer/Director Radha Blank Announced as Inaugural Recipient of Hermitage Major Theater Award | |
| Posted by: Official_Press_Release 04:16 pm EST 12/14/21 | |
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| The Hermitage Artist Retreat Announces Writer and Director Radha Blank as the Inaugural Recipient of the $35,000 Hermitage Major Theater Award The Hermitage Major Theater Award recognizes a playwright or theater artist with a commission of $35,000 to create an original work, in addition to providing a residency at the Hermitage and an inaugural workshop of the newly created play, anticipated for the fall of 2022 in New York. "In a theatrical landscape hobbled by COVID, the Hermitage has done something heroic; they have instituted a brand new, financially generous commission for a playwright of demonstrable achievement to draft a new work. It is one of the premier commissions of its kind and could not come at a more auspicious, even urgent time." -Doug Wright, Hermitage Major Theater Award Committee (December 14, 2021) Andy Sandberg, Artistic Director and CEO of the Hermitage Artist Retreat, announced today that playwright and director Radha Blank has been selected as the inaugural recipient of the Hermitage Major Theater Award. This national jury-selected prize, newly established by the Hermitage earlier this year with generous support from the Kutya Major Foundation, offers one of the largest non-profit theater commissions in the country. Blank will receive a cash prize of $35,000, as well as a residency at the Hermitage (Sarasota County, Florida) and a developmental workshop in New York. Blank's critically acclaimed debut feature film, The Forty-Year-Old Version (Netflix), was awarded the 2020 Sundance Film Festival's Vanguard Award and the U.S. Dramatic Directing Award. Blank's play Seed received a Helen Merrill Award, and she has written for the television series Empire (Fox) and Spike Lee's She's Gotta Have It (Netflix). Blank is also known to many audiences as RadhaMUSprime, performing her unique brand of hip-hop comedy performance around the world. "I am thrilled to receive this kind of support from the theater-making community, and honored to be the first recipient of this awesome award," said Radha Blank on receiving the Hermitage Major Theater Award. "This recognition is very affirming. This commission answers the question: how can I continue to do my work and not jump into a system that is constantly asking me to conform and change who I am? Having a destination and an actual place and community to create is a gift. I don't take it lightly. I really appreciate this." The Hermitage Major Theater Award (HMTA) was established this year to recognize a playwright or theater artist with a $35,000 commission to create a new, original, and impactful piece of theater. HMTA winners are nominated and selected by a jury of nationally recognized arts leaders in the field of theater. The inaugural HMTA Award Committee included Doug Wright, Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning playwright, and past president of the Dramatists Guild of America; Leigh Silverman, Tony Award nominee and Obie Award-winning director; and Liesl Tommy, Tony Award nominee and Obie Award-Winning stage and screen director. |
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