Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award created to aid playwriting: Tony Kushner is first recipient
Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award created to aid playwriting: Tony Kushner is first recipient
#1Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award created to aid playwriting: Tony Kushner is first recipient
Posted: 9/16/08 at 1:05am
'Tony Kushner, the award-winning playwright who has spent much of his time in recent years writing Hollywood scripts, is the first recipient of a newly created $200,000 prize for playwriting, by far the largest theater award in the nation, and one of the biggest cash awards in any of the arts.
The unusually generous prize, named the Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award, will be formally presented on Wednesday. It was created with an eye toward attracting talented playwrights and bolstering the status of their profession...
Surprised and thrilled to be the first recipient of the new prize, Mr. Kushner said, “Playwriting is in a lot of trouble now,” adding that even someone who has “a string of successful plays cannot make a living at it.”
Mr. Kushner pointed to himself as a case in point, since he now divides his time between New York and Hollywood, working on a screenplay about Abraham Lincoln for Steven Spielberg, and another about Woody Guthrie. The screenplay for Mr. Spielberg’s “Munich,” written by Mr. Kushner and Eric Roth, was nominated for an Oscar.
Mr. Kushner said that he planned to put the money away “to buy me time to work on plays,” which he hopes to do full time when he finishes the two films...
The Mimi, as the trophy is nicknamed, was designed by David Rockwell and will be awarded every two years. In the alternating years the trust will issue two $50,000 awards for playwrights who are just starting out; the first is to be presented next year.'
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/16/theater/16kush.html
"Y'know, I think Bertolt Brecht was rolling in his grave."
-Nellie McKay on the 2006 Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera, in which she played Polly Peachum
-Nellie McKay on the 2006 Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera, in which she played Polly Peachum
#2re: Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award created to aid playwriting: To
Posted: 9/16/08 at 1:15am
Kushner really must get back to writing plays. I particularly hope he reunites to write another musical with Jeanine Tesori. I'm thrilled that he won this award.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
Updated On: 9/16/08 at 01:15 AM
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