The National Student Playwriting Award

The National Student Playwriting Award, initiated in 1974, is part of the Michael Kanin Playwriting Awards Program. This awards program is a series of awards given to student writers whose plays are produced as part of the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF). The purpose of the program is to encourage college students to write for the stage by providing the opportunity for them to collaborate with actors, directors, and others through all stages of production, including rehearsals and performances. Please refer to the Rules and Procedures.  The playwright and/or institution chosen for the National Student Playwriting Award may receive the following:

• Production of the play at the Kennedy Center as part of the KCACTF national festival, with all expenses paid for the production and the playwright.
• The Kennedy Center will award the playwright a cash prize of $2500.
• Dramatists Guild Award.  The Dramatists Guild Award provides the playwright with Active membership in the Guild.
• Samuel French Award.  Samuel French, Inc. may offer the playwright a contract for publication of the play, and will send the playwright royalties received for productions of the play worldwide.
• Sundance Theater Laboratory Fellowship.  The Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival will provide the winner with an all-expenses paid fellowship to the Sundance Theater Lab. The Sundance Theater Laboratory will arrange for the playwright to meet in a mentoring situation with the Sundance resource directors, playwrights, and dramaturgs.
• The Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) Award.  ATHE will present an award of $100 to each theater department producing an original student-written, full-length play at each of the eight KCACTF Regional Festivals. Additionally, ATHE will present a cash award of up to $1000 to the theater department of the school producing the National Student Playwriting Award-winner in a public ceremony during the KCACTF National Festival.

For other questions, refer to Rules and Procedures for the Michael Kanin Playwriting Awards Program" above.

The National Student Playwriting Award Winners

2008

House of Several Stories by A. John Boulanger, Texas State University

Runner-up - Dearborn Americana by Christian Krauspe, Arizona State University, produced by Western Illinois University

2007

House Full of Letters by Kit Steinkellner, UCLA

2006

In the Sawtooths by Dano Madden, Rutgers University, produced by Boise State University

Runner-up - Song of Miriam by Gabrielle Orcha, Boston University

2005

Social Darwinism by Angela Gant, Playwrights' Theatre of Texas Tech University

2004

Jasper Lake by John Kuntz, Playwrights' Theatre of Boston University

2003

Good Morning Athens! A Rock Musical, Book, Music and Lyrics by Sean Keogh, University of Wyoming

2002

Training Wisteria by Molly Smith Metzler, Playwrights’ Theatre of Boston University

2001

The Lepers of Baile Baiste, by Ronan Noone, Boston Playwrights’ Theatre at Boston University

2000

it is no desert by Dan Stroeh, Wittenberg University

1999

Lot's Daughters by Rebecca Basham, University of New Orleans, Louisiana

1998

Onionheads by Jesse Miller, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia

1997

Carriage by Jerome Hairston, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, Virginia

1996

The Last Supper Restoration, Dan O'Brien, Middlebury College, VT

1995

An' Push da Wind Down, Lisa Harper, University of Southern California

1994

Father's Prize Poland China, Shirley Sergent, University of New Orleans, LA

1993

Prisoner, James A. Bell, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT

1992

All That He Was, Larry Johnson and Cindy O'Connor, California State University-Fullerton

1991

A Warring Absence, Jody Duncan, California State University, San Bernadino

1990

The Art of Waiting, Rob Shin, Brown University, Providence, RI

1989

The Lower Rooms, Eliza Anderson, Brown Unviersity, Providence, RI

1988

Blue Collar Blues, Denise Kay Dillard, University of Minnesota, Duluth

1987

no winner selected this year

1986

Nijinsky: God's Mad Clown, Glenn Blumstein, University of Iowa, Iowa City

1985

Dancers, Michael Grady, University of Arizona, Tuscon

1984

Excursion Fare, Dennis Smith, University of Oregon, Eugene

1983

Eleven Zulu, Patrick Sean Clark, University of Missouri, Columbia

1982

The Bulldog and the Bear, Richard Gordon, California State University, Fullerton

1981

The Cashier, Glen Merzer, Indiana University, Bloomington

1980

Going On!, Glenn Treibitz, William Paterson College, Wayne, NJ

1979

The Diviners, James Leonard, Jr., Hanover College, IN

1978

The Authentic Life of Billy the Kid, Lee Blessing, University of Iowa, Iowa City

1977

Sideshow, Rick Smith, Angelo State University, San Angelo, TX

1976

Meg, Paula Vogel, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

1975

Conpersonas, Paul Stephen Lim, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KA

1974

Medea: A Noh Cycle Based on the Greek Myth, Carol Sorgenfrei, University of California, Santa Barbara

1973

The Soft Touch, Neil Cuthbert, Douglass College, New Brunswick, NJ