Clarence Coo. (Photo by Joey Stocks)
WILLIAMSTOWN, MASS.: Williamstown Theatre Festival has named Clarence Coo the recipient of the 2023 L. Arnold Weissberger New Play Award for his play Chapters of a Floating Life. Coo will obtain a $10,000 award and an accompanying $10,000 Jay Harris Commission to put in writing a brand new play. The play may even obtain a studying on the competition over the summer time as a part of the Fridays@3 new works studying collection.
Chapters of a Floating Life follows two {couples} from China as they attempt to make ends meet in New York City within the wake of the Second World War. One husband and spouse dwell uptown, obsessive about a previous of poetry, portray, and gardens; one other pair face the day-to-day realities of protecting a Chinatown restaurant in enterprise. Their worlds, beforehand separated by class and training, converge when the 2 ladies discover one another in Central Park and fall beneath the spell of the Chinese language.
Clarence Coo was born within the Philippines and grew up in a crowded, multilingual family in Virginia. He writes about language, class, and sexuality. His performs embody On That Day in Amsterdam, The God of Wine, The Birds of Empathy, Beautiful Province (Belle Province), and People Sitting in Darkness. His work has been produced or developed at Primary Stages, Atlantic Theater Company, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, New York Theatre Workshop, and the Bay Area Playwrights Festival. He has obtained fellowships from the Dramatists Guild of America, the Rita Goldberg Playwrights’ Workshop on the Lark, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the Playwrights Realm, and he has been the recipient of
a Whiting Award and the Yale Drama Series Prize. He obtained his MFA in playwriting at Columbia University. He is a member of the Ma-Yi Writers Lab and an alumnus of New Dramatists.
Designed to acknowledge excellence in playwriting, the L. Arnold Weissberger New Play award is known as in honor of a famous theatrical lawyer and avid theatre supporter. Submissions for the award are by invitation solely and are fastidiously evaluated by a group of readers over the course of six months. The 5 finalist performs are then thought-about by a panel of three judges. The panelists for the 2023 award had been Allyson Tucker-Mitchell, Albert Park, and Maggie Burrows. The 2023 finalists had been Jordans by Ife Olujobi, Sperm Donor Wanted (or, The Unnamed Baby Play) by TJ Young, The Door (The Senior Sex Play) by Jessica Dickey, and Trojan Women by Lauren Gunderson.
Williamstown Theatre Festival is a resident summer time theatre competition held within the Berkshires. WTF goals to current distinctive alternatives for artists and viewers alike, by revisiting traditional performs with progressive productions, growing and nurturing daring new performs and musicals, and providing a wealthy array of accompanying cultural occasions. The competition additional seeks to offer a coaching program wherein rising theatre abilities collaborate with completed mentors in a significant, skilled, and academic environment. As of 2020, WTF had an approximate funds of $2.6 million.
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