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Rattlestick Wins 2007 Ross Wetzsteon Memorial OBIE Award
We are extremely excited to have been honored with the Ross Wetzsteon Memorial OBIE Award. Though not the first OBIE awarded for Rattlestick work, this award is the first to recognize us for our mission: nurturing and producing innovative new plays. It was especially meaningful to have our longtime friend and mentor, Terrence McNally, present the award to us. In case you weren’t there for the festivities, below are Terrence’s introductory remarks as well as those of our Artistic Director, David Van Asselt. And thank thank you to the Village Voice and this year’s judges for your recognition of the value of our work and for the additional $2000 grant, and thank you to all our friends who have already written to congratulate us!
TERRENCE McNALLY:
Take it from a playwright, it is getting harder by the day to produce a new American play in New York City. Long gone are the days when we finished our plays on Friday and they went into rehearsal on Monday. That’s how it felt anyway. So what is a young playwright to do? If he or she is lucky they will find their work scheduled at a theatre company hawkishly devoted to actually producing –and not just reading—new scripts. Since 1995, they have produced 44 new works by playwrights like Lucy Thurber, Adam Bock, Jessica Goldberg, Craig Wright, Harry Kondoleon, Craig Lucas and Gary Bonasorte. Gary was one of the founding playwright bedrocks of this young, vital company and my partner when his voice was stilled by AIDS. So it is with deep personal appreciation that I present this year’s Ross Wetzsteon Award – and a check for $2000—to Rattlestick Playwrights Theater.
DAVID VAN ASSELT:
We’ve had the privilege of working with many talented actors, directors, designers, stage managers and playwrights. This is their award as much as ours. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention a generation of playwrights who gave and continue to give unstintingly back: Edward Albee, Arthur Kopit, Craig Lucas, Terrence McNally, Marsha Norman, to name a few. All have mentored younger playwrights at Rattlestick. Rattlestick was founded 13 years ago by me, but also by a beautiful human being named Gary Bonasorte. If we’ve been successful, it’s due to the wonderful life-affirming spirit with which Gary imbued our theater. If he were still alive today it’d be Gary up here now accepting this award on behalf of me, Lou, and Sandra.
The world premiere production of David Grimm’s
STEVE AND IDI
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