2008 SMITH PRIZE WINNER ANNOUNCED ...and LA is Burning by Y York

NNPN, the national alliance of leading theaters dedicated to the development, production and continued life of new plays, announces the selection of Y York’s play ...and LA is Burning as the winner of the 2008 Smith Prize. Following its fall 2008 premiere at Houston's Main Street Theatre, the play received its NNPN premiere at Florida Studio Theatre in March 2009. York shares the $5,000 award with Florida Studio Theatre.

A dark comedy set in Seattle during the 1992 Rodney King trial and subsequent riots, York's play mines the charged territory of racism in America with humor, sensitivity and pathos. York's three very different characters - a white EPA office worker, her black colleague, and her new neighbor (an East Coaster researching a book on prejudice in America) - present a smartly-crafted portrait of well-intentioned liberalism in the waning days of the 20th century.

Y York has been writing plays since the early 1980s. Her work has been recognized with the 2004 Hawaii Award for Literature, the 1997 Berilla Kerr Award, and New Dramatists' 1992 Joe Calloway Award. Her plays have been featured at theaters and new works festivals across the country, including the Provincetown Playhouse, the Kennedy Center, Arena Stage, the Mark Taper Forum, and the Sundance Playwrights Lab. Her work has been supported by grants from TCG/Pew Charitable Trust, AT&T onstage, and various arts councils and commissions. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild and an alumna member of New Dramatists. She lives in Cincinnati.

Awarded annually to the best new play focusing on American politics, the Smith Prize is funded by a gift from novelist and playwright Timothy Smith. Since 2006, the Prize has been administered by NNPN, and is awarded to a play that asks: Who are Americans as a people? What are we becoming? What are our global responsibilities?
Previous Prizewinners are Seth Rozin’s satire on Big Oil, Black Gold, and Peter Gil-Sheridan's Topsy Turvy Mouse.