Playwrights Jocelyn Bioh, Ngozi Anyanwu, and Madhuri Shekar are among this year's Steinberg Playwright Award winners. The $200,000 prize from the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust will be split 20 ways to help multiple playwrights during the COVID-19 shutdown, with each recipient getting $10,000.
“These 20 playwrights write with a bold, vital urgency and a common eye towards equity and social justice,” said Snehal Desai, a member of the Trust’s 2020 advisory committee and artistic director of East West Players. “Individually, their work has called us to bear witness in unforgettable ways, and moving forward, their voices are going to be essential in helping us make sense of all that has transpired this year, and to heal. Collectively, they are a formidable cohort; one that shows us the future of the American theater is in good hands.”
Rounding out the winners are Lucas Baisch, Christopher Chen, Jordan E. Cooper, Nathan Alan Davis, Guadalís Del Carmen, Steph Del Rosso, Erika Dickerson-Despenza, Miranda Rose Hall, Aleshea Harris, James Ijames, Candrice Jones, Hansol Jung, Anna Moench, Diana Oh, Sanaz Toossi, Leah Nanako Winkler, and Rhiana Yazzie.
The 2020 Advisory Committee is comprised of Emerson College’s Senior Distinguished Artist-In-Residence P. Carl, Playwrights’ Center Producing Artistic Director Jeremy B. Cohen, East West Players Artistic Director Snehal Desai, Public Theater Artistic Director Oskar Eustis, Woolly Mammoth Artistic Director Maria Manuela Goyanes, Young Vic Theatre Artistic Director Kwame Kwei-Armah, dramaturg Sarah Lunnie, Atlantic Theater Company Artistic Director Neil Pepe, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis Artistic Director Hana S. Sharif, and director Chay Yew.
The Board of Trustees of the organization includes Carole A. Krumland, Susan C. Frunzi, James D. Steinberg, Michael A. Steinberg, Seth M. Weingarten, and William D. Zabel.
