The 1998 Daryl Roth Creative Spirit Award, which annually honors gifted theatre artists, has been given to two theatres to help fuel the residencies of three separate talents. One award goes to playwright Sybille Pearson, who is in residency at the Off-Broadway Vineyard Theatre. The second goes to playwright Sinan Unel and director Steven Williford, both in residency at the Lark Theatre Company. Unel is a Turkish-American dramatist currently represented Off-Broadway by Pera Palas, a Lark Theatre Company production directed by Williford. Pearson penned the book to the musical Baby, for which she received a Tony nomination. Her other works include Sally and Marsha and Unfinished Stories.

The award carries a cash prize which will help fund an on-going relationship between the artist and the theatre throughout the season. Daryl Roth is a producer whose credits include Defying Gravity, How I Learned to Drive, Old Wicked Songs, and Three Tall Women. The Daryl Roth Theatre, an Off-Broadway house which she fashioned out of an old Union Square bank, recently opened with the De La Guarda production of Villa Villa.

-- By Robert Simonson