The Jerry Kaufman Award in Playwriting was established in 2007 by Carol Goldberg to honor her brother, Jerry Kaufman, playwright, publicist and lover of the arts. This award honors American Renaissance Theater playwrights. It is awarded on the basis of excellence in writing full-length work or shorter pieces for the theater that have been developed and presented in the Company’s workshops and represent the high artistic standards of the workshop. Funds that accompany the awards are to be used by the playwright to further his or her artistic endeavors. Mr. Kaufman loved the craft of playwriting and gave generously of his own talent and energies to the American Renaissance Theater Company. The Jerry Kaufman Award in Playwriting continues the important and selfless work that he pursued so passionately during his life and insures that his spirit will continue to inspire the works of future playwrights.
ABOUT JERRY KAUFMAN
Liz Perry and Jerry Kaufman in the Rotunda of the US Capital, June 1996
Jerry Kaufman devoted his life to theater arts and the elevation of the
dramatist. He is remembered for his indefatigable good humor and
relentless energy in promoting theater artists. Having enjoyed a busy
career in public relations, along with writing for radio and television,
Mr. Kaufman joined the American Renaissance Theater Company as a
playwright. A prolific writer, he developed a list of works and his
plays were included in many competitions and festivals including the
Virginia Beach Festival, the 63rd Street Performers, Riant Theater and
the Dramatists Forum. In addition to publicizing other playwrights, he
championed theater organizations such as the Henry Street Settlement and
the work of important authors like Rachel Chenchinsky Roth whose
holocaust memoir Here There is No Why found a strong audience thanks to his efforts. He went to great lengths to promote Sunflower,
a play about the life of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a leading figure of
the women’s suffrage movement, written by ARTC co-founder, Elizabeth
Perry. Pursuing all channels to get the show off the ground, he
contacted the Elizabeth Cady Stanton estate, the Johnstown Historical
Society, and the National Museum of Women’s History, all publicity
channels he had relationships with. He was endlessly diligent in making
sure the play got seen and personally escorted Mrs. Stanton’s great
great granddaughter, Coline Jenkens Sahlin, to a performance of the play
at the New Dramatists. He then brought the museum founders to a
production of Sunflower in New York. As a
consequence, Ms. Perry was asked to deliver Stanton’s famous
“Declaration” at the Dedication of the Suffrage Statue in the Rotunda of
the US Capital.
Jerry Kaufman, The Idea Man by Elizabeth Perry
A paragraph you say Is it possible A paragraph about Jerry? Is that possible? This man who dreams in sagas? Well, he’d say, I’m an Idea Man
Endless spinning, sculpting, supposing… Ideas, imaginings, preposterous, Presumptuous, unrestrained You, Jerry, a paragraph? How do you contain An Idea Man
The tumult of thought Here’s a tip Write this down Make a list Get on the phone In that cub reporter tone
Not so fast, Jerry But I’m an Idea Man
You tossed them out like Rice at a wedding Tickertape on a parade And then swept up like leaves In a gust of autumn They spiraled about you The ideas, damn good ones, As you took off For unknown parts
A paragraph, she asked Oh no this is not, no not A minor tribute to An Idea Man Sometimes a tome Must be condensed to a poem