‘Arsenic’ and New Writers

Every theater award has its stipulations, written or unwritten. To win a Pulitzer Prize for drama, for instance, you would do well to get your play produced in New York. That’s not a formal requirement, but it’s the way it’s always been.

Compare the odd, endearing conditions of the Joseph Kesselring Award. This goes to a new play by a writer who hasn’t had a script produced on Broadway or the West End for seven years.

Who was Joseph Kesselring? The man who wrote “Arsenic and Old Lace.” And never had another hit. He and his wife wanted to do something for new and used playwrights, and they left a bundle to the National Arts Club for this purpose in 1980.

Last year’s Kesselring Award--$10,000, which is a lot more than the Pulitzer ($3,000)--was won by Marlane Meyer for “Etta Jenks,” as produced by the Los Angeles Theatre Center.

This year an LATC script wins a $2,500 runner-up prize. It goes to Jose Rivera for his script about a Latino family living in the potato lands of Long Island, “The Promise.” The other runner-up: Frank Hogan for “Koozy’s Piece” at the Denver Center Theatre Company.

The big winner: Diane Ney, for “The Jeremiah,” produced last year by the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre. It’s nice to see a truly national theater award.

P.S.: Hungry playwrights should not send scripts to the National Arts Club. They aren’t that altruistic. The script first has to be produced by, and then nominated by, a resident theater.

National Public Radio’s Morning Edition ran an enjoyable feature this week on the Steppenwolf Theatre Company of Chicago’s new production of “The Grapes of Wrath,” opening tonight.

But where did NPR--and Steppenwolf--and the production’s corporate sponsor, AT&T--get; the idea that this was the first time John Steinbeck’s novel had ever been put on the stage? Terrence Shank’s Colony/Studio Theatre did it in 1980.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK. Performance artist Karen Finley, in the Drama Review: “I consider good art that which destroys the last generation’s hopes.”