Member Awards

May 7, 2018 - American Renaissance Theatre Company, NYC, honored Donna Kaz (aka Aphra Behn) with a Jerry Kaufman Award for her full length play, Waiting, the story of a small town girl, Lucy, who dreams of making it as an actress in New York City. The day Lucy gets off the bus she lands her first job on Broadway - waiting on tables in a restaurant. In an over-the-top parody of Broadway and the restaurant business, Waiting explores the performative aspects of restaurants and asks the question: Can waiters in the Big Apple ever play any other part?

Luminous Genesis was a finalist in Somerville, Massachusetts Theater at First Firstworks competition for a new play.

Fellowship from The National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA). 

Leverhulme Scholarship. 

BBC Alfred Bradley Award.

Lisa Ullman Travelling Scholarship.

Arts Council Awards.

PhD from the University of York.

"Adoption of Grief" has won the OCTA New Works Playwright Competition. Five finalists were selected to present 10 minutes of their respective plays, and the audience voted on their favorite teaser. The winner received a full length workshop to be showcased on July 13th and 14th, 2018. 

For the full press release, please visit OCTA's website. 

Olathe Civic Theatre, Olathe, KS (Kansas City Metro) 

My musical "My Heart is the Drum" (http://www.myheartisthedrum.com) which had its world premiere at Washington's Village Theatre in 2016 was part of The Good To Go Songwriters’ Showcase, presented Saturday, March 10, 2018, at the Times Center in NYC in partnership with the Prospect Theater Company.  (http://www.goodtogofestival.org/)

The Festival provided a sneak peek at seven new musicals that have been developed around the country. The evening was project focused with each writer presenting two songs from their show and then being interviewed.

The showcase concert was born out of the Good to Go Summit, and the supporters are on track with a mission to support and showcase the work of women writers whose work has been developed and is ready for full production.

Jennie Redling

http://www.jennieredling.com

C.J. Ehrlich's full-length noir comedy THE MALTESE BABKA is the Winner of the 2018 Women Are Funny competition, sponsored by Play-Makers Spokane. 

Tagline: Join private investigator Jake Pantograph on a delightfully comic sally into the world of noir, as he tries to track down a missing girl, a blackmailer, a one-of-a-kind black diamond necklace, a hot babka, and some ice for his drink. 

The play came in first of almost 100 entries. It is on the NPX. Production photos at www.CJ-Ehrlich.com

Christine Toy Johnson has received a 2018 Creative Engagement Grant Award from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council in support of her new musical TILL SOON, ANNE (for which she wrote book & lyrics with composer Bobby Cronin).

She also was chosen for an inaugural Sokoloff Arts fellowship in association with Town Stages in NYC, also in support of her musical TILL SOON, ANNE.

Geographics, a one-minute memoir written for radio, was a finalist for Brevity: The Podcast of a Journal of Concise Literary Nonfiction in January 2018.

Covfefe Roi, a five-minute play co-written with Rollie Erickson, had a public reading at the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis, MN as part of Paula Vogel’s National Ubu Roi Bake-Off in February 2018.

Playwright Ruth Zamoyta was one of eight recipients of a 2018 Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. The Individual Artist Fellowships, announced on February 13th, are competitive awards to New Jersey artists granted after independent peer panel assessment of anonymous work samples, focused solely on artistic quality. NJSCA considers artists from 12 different disciplines on a rotating basis, and this year the categories were crafts, photography, and playwriting.

Zamoyta had submitted her play The Caregivers, about the daughter of a woman in the late stages of Alzheimer’s, the full-time aide from Trinidad, and their conflicting perspectives on caregiving and motherhood. 

“No form of art presents the human experience as powerfully as theatre,” said Zamoyta. “We enter a dark theatre, take a seat, and come face-to-face with ourselves and our shortcomings. We leave the theatre moved and inspired. As I have only been writing plays for a few years, the NJSCA fellowship was a validation of my work. It gives me encouragement to continue the important job of playmaking.” 

Laura Ekstrand, Artistic Director of Dreamcatcher Repertory Theatre, said, “We were so excited to hear that Ruth won this award. It's remarkable that it's for her first play, but it was obvious from the reading that we had at Dreamcatcher that the audience responded in a very personal way to the play and Ruth was very open to the input and discussion that resulted. We hope it's the first of many wonderful pieces that she creates!”

Since 2014, Zamoyta has served as Development & Communications Director at New Jersey Theatre Alliance. Previously she was Communications and Projects Manager in the Office of the President at Columbia University, and worked as an independent marketing, strategy, and project consultant.  

For as long as she can remember, Zamoyta has been writing creatively. Her novel clarissa@loveless.comwas published serially on classicnovels.com in 2001, and she self-published ‘Otsu’ and Other Poems in 2006. She co-edited Eating Her Wedding Dress: A Collection of Clothing Poems (Ragged Sky Press) in 2009, and the poetry collection Blanket Stories (Ragged Sky Press) in 2014. She has also published several poems and articles.

Zamoyta holds master’s degrees from Columbia University and New York University, and a bachelor’s degree summa cum laude from St. John’s University. She is a member of The Dramatists Guild and the International Centre for Women Playwrights, and a trustee of Reeves-Reed Arboretum in Summit, NJ. 

MT has been awarded a 2018 Illinois Arts Council grant to fund a Ragdale Residency, where she will continue development of WHEN THEY CAME, a new play based on Debbie Urbanski's short story, "When They Came to Us."