Broadway actors Francis Jue and Jason Ma will star in the title roles in a staged reading of John Austin Connolly's The Boys From Siam Oct. 1 in New Haven, CT.

Liz Diamond will direct the free reading of the inaugural winner of the Yale Drama Series competition. The Yale Repertory Theatre event will be performed at 7:30 PM at The New Theater.

Jue (Thoroughly Modern Millie) and Ma (Miss Saigon) take on the roles of the conjoined twins for the tale inspired by the true story of Chang and Eng Bunker (1811-1874). The work earned the playwright the first David C. Horn Prize — "for emerging playwrights in the US, UK, Canada and Republic of Ireland," as a release states.

The cast also includes Ron Nakahara as the twins' older brother Park, Christine Toy Johnson as Mama and Sam Tsoutsouvas as Doc Roberts.

Connolly is an Irish citizen living and writing in Dublin. He is a retired clinical psychologist who received an MA in Script Writing from Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art Design and Technology in 2002. The scribe — along with Edward Albee, who judged the competition — will be on hand for the reading.

Reservations (recommended for the event, which is free and on a first-come, first served basis) for The Boys From Siam at The New Theater (1156 Chapel Street) in New Haven, CT can be made by calling (800) 973-2847. Seating is limited. For more information visit yalerep.org.

VARIETY  By Mark Blankenship   May 7, 2007

Yale presses drama
Playwriting competition launched

NEW YORK -- Long a supporter of undiscovered poets, Yale University Press has now thrown its muscle behind new playwrights, introducing a new competition called the Yale Drama Series. Beginning next spring, a winning playwright will be chosen each year to receive a $10,000 prize for an unpublished, unproduced script in English.

Winners will have their plays published by Yale Press and be guaranteed a staged reading from Yale Repertory Theater. The Repertory, whose mission cites a commitment to new work, also will have the option to mount the world-premiere production of the winning YDS play.

The competition was founded when benefactor Francine Horn -- head of the David C. Horn Foundation, named after her late husband -- approached Yale Press with an offer of ongoing financial support. Senior editor John Kulka explains that drama publishing was the field most obviously in need of the windfall.

"Playwrights, for whatever reason, seem to be not quite part of the literary community," he says. "They have a difficult time getting published, even more so than poets." Kulka hopes the series will help elevate awareness of drama as a branch of literature to be taken as seriously as fiction or poetry.

Thanks to the series' trifecta of honors -- publication, reading and cash award (known formally as the David C. Horn Prize) -- Kulka feels it can become a major competition. It is also notable for allowing British and Irish playwrights to vie with Yanks, a nod to the fact that Horn's husband was a Brit.

Noteworthy names on the YDS advisory board include Joanne Woodward and drama critic Robert Brustein, who founded both Yale Rep. and Boston's American Repertory Theater. Edward Albee has signed a two-year agreement to be the competition's sole judge, selecting a winner from a pool of finalists to be winnowed by a readers' panel.

Ultimately, Kulka says, he wants all these elements to help the series become as venerable as the Yale Series of Younger Poets, which has been launching new bards since 1919, boosting writers like Adrienne Rich.

Submissions for the first year's prize will be accepted July 15-Aug. 15.

ENTERTAINMENT  April 29, 2007

Edward Albee presents new theatre award

Edward Albee, best known for his play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, launched a new drama award, presenting the prize for aspiring playwrights to an Irish author for a play about Siamese twins.

John Austin Connolly, a retired psychologist from Dublin, is the first winner of the newly inaugurated Yale Drama Series competition for emerging playwrights, with a prize of $US10,000. ($A12,118)

Veteran US playwright Albee judged the competition, which drew more than 500 entries, organizers said in a statement.

Connolly's play The Boys from Siam is based loosely on the lives of Chang and Eng Bunker (1811-1874), the original so-called "Siamese twins" joined at the sternum. The play will be published by the Yale University Press.