As “Asbarez” writes “The Armenian Dramatic Arts Alliance” announced the three finalists and upcoming event for its Third Biennial $10,000 William Saroyan Prize for Playwriting Award.
The finalists are: “Doon,” by Sevan Kaloustian Greene; “Night Over Erzinga,” by Adriana Sevahn Nichols; and “Belonging to the Sky,” by Kelly Stuart.
Sevan Kaloustian Greene is a New York-based Lebanese-Armenian/Pakistani actor and playwright. “Doon” takes the familiar genre of the kitchen sink family drama and focuses it through the lens of four generations of an Armenian family living in Cliffside Park, New Jersey.
Adriana Sevahn Nichols is a native New Yorker and award-winning actress and playwright. She received the 2008 Middle East America Distinguished Playwright Award to research and write “Night Over Erzinga,” inspired by her Armenian grandparent’s survival of the Genocide in 1915.
Kelly Stuart is an American playwright based in New York. She currently teaches in the playwriting program and Columbia University. “Belonging to the Sky” is a lyrical intertwining of two monologues by Sabiha Gökçen and Hrant Dink and their tragic historical connection.
The $10,000 Saroyan grand prize winner will be announced at an invitation-only awards event on Saturday, December 8, 2012, 6pm, at the Pasadena Playhouse VIP Room.
Three finalist plays were selected by a first-round panel of theater professionals, playwright/screenwriter Eduardo Machado, and actress/producer Gates McFadden.
ADAA’s annual Armenian Star Award will also be presented at the event. The award recognizes an individual who has reached high artistic achievement in their career or has assisted Armenians in the arts. This year’s recipient is David Kherdian, the internationally known poet, novelist, and memoirist, whose work has been published in 13 languages, included his acclaimed Root River Cycle. The Road From Home, his renowned biography of his mother who survived the Armenian Genocide, has been in print for over 30 years. He is also the editor of the volume Forgotten Bread: First Generation Armenian American Writers.
ADAA’s William Saroyan Prize for Playwriting, for plays on Armenian themes, is made possible by a grant from the William Saroyan Foundation.
