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THREE PLAYWRIGHTS NOMINATED FOR SAROYAN PRIZE
http://www.reporter.am/go/article/2012-08-06-three-playwrights-nominated-for-saroyan-prize-
Published: Monday August 06, 2012
>From left: Kelly Stuart, Sevan Greene and Adriana Nichols.
Los Angeles - The Armenian Dramatic Arts Alliance (ADAA) has announced
the three finalists and upcoming event for its Third Biennial $10,000
William Saroyan Prize for Playwriting Award.
The finalists are: "Doon," by Sevan Kaloustian Greene; "Night Over
Erzinga," by Adriana Sevahn Nichols; and "Belonging to the Sky,"
by Kelly Stuart.
Sevan Kaloustian Greene is a New York-based Lebanese?Armenian/Pakistani
actor and playwright. He is a member of The Public Theater's 2011
Emerging Writers Group, Rising Circle Theatre Collective's 2010 InkTANK
Writer's Lab, a NYTW 2011/2012 Teaching Artist at the Khalil Gibran
Academy, and a previous William Saroyan Playwriting Prize Finalist in
2010. "Doon" takes the familiar genre of the kitchen sink family drama
and focuses it through the lens of four generations of an Armenian
family living in Cliffside Park, New Jersey.
Adriana Sevahn Nichols is a native New Yorker and award-winning actress
and playwright. She received the 2008 Middle East America Distinguished
Playwright Award to research and write "Night Over Erzinga," inspired
by her Armenian grandparent's survival of the Genocide in 1915. The
play has been produced by The Lark Play Development Center in New
York, Silk Road Theatre Project in Chicago, and Golden Thread in
San Francisco. Her one-woman show about friendship and 9/11, "Taking
Flight," had its world premiere in May 2006 by Center Theater Group in
Los Angeles, and she has performed it at several theaters nationwide.
Kelly Stuart is an American playwright based in New York. She currently
teaches in the playwriting program and Columbia University.
Her plays include "Shadow Language," (Oberon Press), which was
presented by Theatre 503 in London and originally commissioned by the
Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis; "Mayhem," which played at Manchester's
Royal Exchange in the U.K. as well as The Evidence Room in Los Angeles
(with Megan Mullally), and "Demonology" at Playwrights Horizons in
New York and the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. "Belonging to the
Sky" is a lyrical intertwining of two monologues by Sabiha Gokcen
and Hrant Dink and their tragic historical connection.
The $10,000 Saroyan grand prize winner will be announced at an
invitation-only awards event on Saturday, December 8, 2012, 6pm,
at the Pasadena Playhouse VIP Room.
Three finalist plays were selected by a first-round panel of theater
professionals, from a pool of submissions from around the world. The
winner will be selected by this year's Honorary Jury of renowned
theater artists: playwright Catherine Filloux, playwright/screenwriter
Eduardo Machado, and actress/producer Gates McFadden.
ADAA's annual Armenian Star Award will also be presented at the event.
The award recognizes an individual who has reached high artistic
achievement in their career or has assisted Armenians in the arts.
This year's recipient is David Kherdian, the internationally known
poet, novelist, and memoirist, whose work has been published in 13
languages, included his acclaimed Root River Cycle. The Road From
Home, his renowned biography of his mother who survived the Armenian
Genocide, has been in print for over 30 years. He is also the editor of
the volume Forgotten Bread: First Generation Armenian American Writers.
ADAA's William Saroyan Prize for Playwriting, for plays on Armenian
themes, is made possible by a grant from the William Saroyan
Foundation, which established the award at ADAA in 2007-08 in
conjunction with the William Saroyan Centennial. The Foundation's
Chairman is Haig Mardikian. Additional funding for the Prize was
provided by Gagosian Galleries.
ADAA's mission is to project the Armenian Voice on the world stage
through the arts of theater and film. It accomplishes this through two
writing contests, playreadings, the Boston Armenian Film Festival,
various networking events, and the pre-eminent Armenian performing
arts website in the world, www.armeniandrama.org.
From: Baghdasarian
http://www.reporter.am/go/article/2012-08-06-three-playwrights-nominated-for-saroyan-prize-
Published: Monday August 06, 2012
>From left: Kelly Stuart, Sevan Greene and Adriana Nichols.
Los Angeles - The Armenian Dramatic Arts Alliance (ADAA) has announced
the three finalists and upcoming event for its Third Biennial $10,000
William Saroyan Prize for Playwriting Award.
The finalists are: "Doon," by Sevan Kaloustian Greene; "Night Over
Erzinga," by Adriana Sevahn Nichols; and "Belonging to the Sky,"
by Kelly Stuart.
Sevan Kaloustian Greene is a New York-based Lebanese?Armenian/Pakistani
actor and playwright. He is a member of The Public Theater's 2011
Emerging Writers Group, Rising Circle Theatre Collective's 2010 InkTANK
Writer's Lab, a NYTW 2011/2012 Teaching Artist at the Khalil Gibran
Academy, and a previous William Saroyan Playwriting Prize Finalist in
2010. "Doon" takes the familiar genre of the kitchen sink family drama
and focuses it through the lens of four generations of an Armenian
family living in Cliffside Park, New Jersey.
Adriana Sevahn Nichols is a native New Yorker and award-winning actress
and playwright. She received the 2008 Middle East America Distinguished
Playwright Award to research and write "Night Over Erzinga," inspired
by her Armenian grandparent's survival of the Genocide in 1915. The
play has been produced by The Lark Play Development Center in New
York, Silk Road Theatre Project in Chicago, and Golden Thread in
San Francisco. Her one-woman show about friendship and 9/11, "Taking
Flight," had its world premiere in May 2006 by Center Theater Group in
Los Angeles, and she has performed it at several theaters nationwide.
Kelly Stuart is an American playwright based in New York. She currently
teaches in the playwriting program and Columbia University.
Her plays include "Shadow Language," (Oberon Press), which was
presented by Theatre 503 in London and originally commissioned by the
Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis; "Mayhem," which played at Manchester's
Royal Exchange in the U.K. as well as The Evidence Room in Los Angeles
(with Megan Mullally), and "Demonology" at Playwrights Horizons in
New York and the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. "Belonging to the
Sky" is a lyrical intertwining of two monologues by Sabiha Gokcen
and Hrant Dink and their tragic historical connection.
The $10,000 Saroyan grand prize winner will be announced at an
invitation-only awards event on Saturday, December 8, 2012, 6pm,
at the Pasadena Playhouse VIP Room.
Three finalist plays were selected by a first-round panel of theater
professionals, from a pool of submissions from around the world. The
winner will be selected by this year's Honorary Jury of renowned
theater artists: playwright Catherine Filloux, playwright/screenwriter
Eduardo Machado, and actress/producer Gates McFadden.
ADAA's annual Armenian Star Award will also be presented at the event.
The award recognizes an individual who has reached high artistic
achievement in their career or has assisted Armenians in the arts.
This year's recipient is David Kherdian, the internationally known
poet, novelist, and memoirist, whose work has been published in 13
languages, included his acclaimed Root River Cycle. The Road From
Home, his renowned biography of his mother who survived the Armenian
Genocide, has been in print for over 30 years. He is also the editor of
the volume Forgotten Bread: First Generation Armenian American Writers.
ADAA's William Saroyan Prize for Playwriting, for plays on Armenian
themes, is made possible by a grant from the William Saroyan
Foundation, which established the award at ADAA in 2007-08 in
conjunction with the William Saroyan Centennial. The Foundation's
Chairman is Haig Mardikian. Additional funding for the Prize was
provided by Gagosian Galleries.
ADAA's mission is to project the Armenian Voice on the world stage
through the arts of theater and film. It accomplishes this through two
writing contests, playreadings, the Boston Armenian Film Festival,
various networking events, and the pre-eminent Armenian performing
arts website in the world, www.armeniandrama.org.
From: Baghdasarian