2013 Recipients

Kallie by Stuart D'Ver
First Prize for Excellence in Playwriting
Stuart D'Ver accepting his award from Carol Goldberg
Kallie bravely journeys through a world where reality and fantasy collide, searching for the father who might save her from her delusions. Her surreal encounters along the way are filled with menace, absurdity and humor; but her final confrontation with her father leads this tale of madness, love and family to a shattering conclusion.
Angry, F#*cking, Hostile Idiot by Mark Levine
Citation for Excellence in Playwriting
Arthur Goldberg, Carol Goldberg and Mark Levine
In the midst of a gravediggers’ strike, Kevin O’Brien is hired to dig graves by Mario Fazzio, the elderly cemetery manager.  Jobs are hard to come by for a young high school grad.  Albert Clark, senior gravedigger, union rep, and Vietnam Vet acts as Kevin’s on-the-job-trainer and mentor.  The play asks what is the cost of compromising one’s integrity? How important is it to be true to one’s self, one’s community and colleagues? Is such a thing possible in this day and age?  Or does personal survival trump everything? 
Other Peoples Gardens by Lauren Robert
Citation for Excellence in Playwriting
Lauren Robert
The truth of one's own life, as well as the the lives of others, is a complex, transient, ungraspable reality. This mystery has always compelled my interest in the details of peoples conversations, private moments, inner thoughts and yearnings. It is often the space "in between" moments of living, that I find worth examining and reporting about through my dramas. Each story in "Other People's Gardens" takes a deep look at the mucking around in my characters' realities, the challenges of "just" living, and how my and "their" observations inform the outcome of their unique tales.