LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder, 27, has won the 2008 M. Elizabeth Osborn New Play Award for an emerging playwright for her “Gee’s Bend,” now being staged through April 19 by the Denver Center Theatre Company.
The award is presented by the American Theatre Critics Association. The announcement was made at the 32nd Humana Festival of New American Plays.
“Gee’s Bend” is a civil rights story told through the lens of two sisters who live Gee’s Bend, Ala., a all-black community largely separated by a river on three sides. Wilder spent a year reseraching the women of Gee’s Bend who rose to international acclaim on the art-musum circuit because of their unique and vibrant quilts.
Orlando Sentinel critic Elizabeth Maupin wrote: ” ‘Gee’s Bend’ is a lovefest — between the characters and the land they live on, between the actors and the characters they’re portraying, between the play and the audience.”
“Gee’s Bend” was commissioned by Denver Center Theatre Company artistic director Kent Thompson in 2006, when he was in charge of the Alabama Shakespeare Festival’s Southern Writers Project. It had a 2006 reading at the SWP’s annual festival of new plays, and received its premiere staging there in January 2007.
The Osborn award recognizes the work of a playwright who has not yet had a significant New York production, been staged in more than a few regional theaters or received other major national awards. Last year’s Osborn Award went to Ken LaZebnik, author of “Vestibular Sense.” In 2001, the award went to S.M. Shephard-Massat for her “Waiting to be Invited,” for the Denver Center Theatre Company.
The Osborn Award was established in 1993 to honor the memory of Theatre Communications Group and American Theatre play editor M. Elizabeth Osborn. It carries a $1,000 prize, funded by the Foundation of the American Theatre Critics Association.
Wilder recently moved back to her native Mobile, Ala. from Los Angeles to concentrate on her playwriting. She has written “The First Day of Hunting Season”; “Fresh Kills,” performed in London; “Jubilee”; “Tales of an Adolescent Fruit Fly,” her first play, which was done at the Ergo Theatre Co.; and “The Theory of Relativity.” She is working on another commission for the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, “The Furniture of Home,” and a play for the Denver Center, “The Bone Orchard.”
Prior Osborn Award recipients
2007: “Vestibular Sense,” Ken LaZebnik, Mixed Blood Theatre Company, Minneapolis, Minn.
2006: “American Fiesta,” Steven Tomlinson, State Theatre Company, Austin, Texas
2005: “Madagascar,” J.T. Rogers, Salt Lake Acting Co., Salt Lake City
2004: “The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow,” Rolin Jones, South Coast Repertory, Costa Mesa, Calif.
2003: “The Dinosaur Within,” John Walch, State Theatre, Austin, Texas
2002: “Chagrin Falls, Mia McCullough,” Stage Left Theatre, Chicago
2001: “Waiting to be Invited,” S.M. Shephard-Massat, Denver Center Theatre Company
2000: “Marked Tree, Coby Goss,” Senachai Theatre, Chicago
1999: “Lamarck, Dan O’Brien,” the Perishable Theatre Company, Providence, R.I.
1998: “The Glory of Living,” Rebecca Gilman
1997: “Thunder Knocking on the Door,” Keith Glover
1996: “Beast on the Moon,” Richard Kalinoski
1995: “Rush Limbaugh in Night School,” Charlie Varon
1994: “Hurricane, Anne Galjour
