Playwrights Antoinette Nwandu, Hansol Jung, and Nathan Alan Davis have been named the winners of the 2018 Whiting Award in the Drama category. The award is given annually to ten emerging writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama, with each recipient awarded $50,000.
Davis' plays include Nat Turner in Jerusalem, which was staged at New York Theatre Workshop, Dontrell Who Kissed the Sea (NNPN Rolling World Premiere), and The Wind and the Breeze, which will premiere at the Cygnet Theatre in San Diego this spring.
Nwandu’s plays include Pass Over, which received a critically acclaimed premiere at Chicago’s Steppenwolf last season and will debut Off-Broadway this summer in a production from LCT3/Lincoln Center Theater helmed by queens director Danya Taymor (who also directed the world premiere). Nwandu’s play Breach: a manifesto on race in America through the eyes of a black girl recovering from self-hate received its world premiere at Chicago’s Victory Gardens in February.
Jung's plays include Among the Dead, which was produced by Ma-Yi Theater Company; Cardboard Piano, which debuted at the Actors Theatre of Louisville and was recently seen at the Park Square Theatre Company in Saint Paul, Minnesota; and Wild Goose Dreams, which debuted last year at La Jolla Playhouse.
The Whiting Award was established in 1985 by the Whiting Foundation. The awards are based on early accomplishment and the promise of great work to come. For more information visit Whiting.org.
