NATIONAL NEW PLAY NETWORK ANNOUNCES 2010 SMITH PRIZE-WINNING PLAYS
Washington, DC - The NATIONAL NEW PLAY NETWORK (NNPN), the country’s leading alliance of non-profit theaters that champions the development, production, and continued life of new plays, proudly announces the winners of the 2010 Smith Prize for a new play on American political themes: Sean Christopher Lewis' Killadelphia: Mixtape of a City, a one-man tour-de-force about lifers in a Philadelphia prison, and Martín Zimmerman's White Tie Ball, an explosive story of two Latino brothers set against the backdrop of Southwest politics. This is the first year since the Prize's inception in 2006 that more than one winner has been selected; Lewis and Zimmerman will share in the $5,000 cash prize.
ABOUT THE SMITH PRIZE
Awarded annually to the best new play focusing on American politics, The Smith Prize is funded by a gift from screenwriter, novelist and playwright Timothy Jay Smith and a number of other socially-conscious donors. 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 Y York's take on the Rodney King riots, ...And LA Is Burning; Seth Rozin's satire on Big Oil, Black Gold; and Peter Gil-Sheridan's Topsy Turvy Mouse.
ABOUT THE PLAYS: Killadelphia: Mixtape of a City
Determined to take an unflinching look at the causes of Philadelphia's high murder rate and its effect on the community, playwright Sean Christopher Lewis introduces us to the inmates of Graterford Prison - men employed to beautify the city even as they serve out life sentences – in Killadelphia: Mixtape of a City. The voices of the prisoners, their victims, Mayor Nutter, local rappers, conservative talk show hosts, trauma surgeons, and the citizens of the City of Brotherly Love crowd the stage to say their piece. The solo play has been performed by Lewis in theaters all over the country since 2009, including Philadelphia's InterAct Theatre, Baltimore's CENTERSTAGE, the Lawrence Arts Center in Kansas, as well as in prisons and juvenile detention centers in the Philadelphia area.
ABOUT THE PLAYS: White Tie Ball
After being elected the first Latino Pima County Attorney in half a century, Edward Moreno's bond with his brother Beto is the strongest it has been in years. But when one of Beto's former friends kills an on-duty police officer as she breaks into the friend's home without identifying herself, Edward has to prosecute the case. The decisions Edward faces about what charges to pursue not only put his career in jeopardy; they also re-ignite long-suppressed tensions between Edward and Beto, who share the same parents but not the same skin color. White Tie Ball received a workshop directed by Brian Mertes at The University of Texas at Austin in April 2009. The play then received a subsequent workshop at the Kennedy Center (directed by Aimée Hayes and dramaturged by Aaron Carter) as part of the National New Play Network's MFA Playwrights Workshop in July 2010. Most recently, the play received a workshop production at the University of Texas at Austin directed by Steve Moulds in February 2010.
ABOUT THE WRITERS
Sean Christopher Lewis is the inaugural recipient of the Kennedy Center's Rosa Parks Award for Social Justice in Playwriting, the William Inge Fellowship and an NNPN Emerging Playwright Residency at InterAct Theatre. His plays (including Killadelphia, I Will Make You Orphans, The Aperture, Goodness and Militant Language) have been produced and developed at Know Theatre, Cleveland Public Theatre, Interact Theatre, Baltimore CENTERSTAGE, the York, Theatre for the New City, Hyde Park, Adirondack Theatre Festival, Intrepid Theatre, Available Light, Halcyon Theatre, PlayPenn New Play Conference, the Lark and Orlando Shakespeare Festival's PLAYFEST!
Martín Zimmerman is a multi-ethnic, bilingual playwright in his final year in the MFA Playwriting Program at the University of Texas at Austin. His play White Tie Ball is a finalist in the Alliance Theatre's Kendeda Competition, and was workshopped at The Kennedy Center. Seven Spots on the Sun received a Core Apprentice Workshop at The Playwrights’ Center and was a finalist for the Bay Area Playwrights Festival. His ten-minute play Foreign Tongue was a finalist for the Heideman Award, and will be produced this summer in the Source Festival in Washington, DC. B.A. Theater Studies, B.S. Economics: Duke University.
