David Charles Horn Foundation-Winners

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 Beginning next spring, a winning playwright will be chosen each year to receive a $10,000 prize for an unpublished, unproduced script in English.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.

ARTS, BRIEFLY By Peter Edidin April 28, 2007

Albee Presents

The playwright Edward Albee inaugurated a new drama award on Thursday, presenting the Yale Drama Series prize for aspiring playwrights to an Irish writer for a play about Siamese twins, Reuters reported. John Austin Connolly, a retired psychologist from Dublin, is the first winner of the new competition for emerging playwrights, with a prize of $10,000. Mr. Albee judged the competition, which drew more than 500 entries, organizers said. Mr. Connolly’s play “The Boys From Siam” is based loosely on the lives of Chang and Eng Bunker, conjoined twins who in the 19th century became the original so-called Siamese twins. The play will be published by Yale University Press.

REUTERS April 26, 2007

U.S. writer Albee presents new playwrights award

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Edward Albee, best known for his play "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?", launched a new drama award on Thursday, 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 $10,000.

Veteran U.S. 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.

THEATRE NEWS By Brian Scott Lipon April 26, 2007

John Austin Connolly Wins Yale's David C. Horn Prize
Irish playwright John Austin Connolly has won the first David C. Horn Prize, presented by the Yale Drama Series, for The Boys from Siam, based loosely on the lives of Siamese twins Chang and Eng Bunker. Pulitzer Prize-winner playwright Edward Albee, who presented Connolly with the award this evening, chose the work from more than 500 selections.

As the winner of the competition, Connolly receives a $10,000 cash prize, publication of the play by Yale University Press, and a staged reading at Yale Repertory Theater. A citizen of Dublin, Connolly is a retired clinical psychologist.

Two runners-up were also named by Albee: Colin McKenna's The Secret Agenda of Trees and Lazarre Seymour Simckes' Open Rehearsal. Albee will also judge next year's competition.

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