FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: October 19, 2004
Contact: Christa Skiles
Public Relations Director
513-345-2242, ext. 232
CINCINNATI PLAYHOUSE IN THE PARK ANNOUNCES ESTABLISHMENT
OF THE MICKEY KAPLAN NEW AMERICAN PLAY PRIZE
(CINCINNATI) – The Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park is beginning
a new chapter in its longstanding commitment to the nurturing and producing
of new plays. Thanks to the generosity of Dr. Stanley M. Kaplan, the
Playhouse announced today the establishment of the Mickey Kaplan New
American Play Prize.
The Mickey Kaplan New American Play Prize will be awarded to one world premiere
play each season. In addition to a cash prize, the winning playwright will
receive the first full-scale production of his or her play as part of the Playhouse’s
regular subscription season. The prize also allows for the playwright to be
in residence at the theatre during an extended rehearsal process. During this
time, the script is revised further with the participation of the director
and cast.
The prize is named in honor of Dr. Kaplan’s wife, Mickey Kaplan, who
passed away last year. For the past two decades, Dr. and Mrs. Kaplan have been
instrumental to the growth and success of the Playhouse. Dr. Kaplan is a longtime
member of the board of trustees and its executive committee, and he chaired
the theatre’s long-range planning process from 1993 to 1994, laying the
strategic groundwork for the enormously successful capital campaign in 1995
and 1996 and the subsequent renovation of the Playhouse facility. The Kaplans
also match their remarkable service with an equally long tradition of financial
generosity. The Dr. Stanley and Mickey Kaplan Lobby, outside the Thompson Shelterhouse
Theatre, is just one example.
“Mickey Kaplan was a wonderful person and a great friend to the Playhouse,” says
Producing Artistic Director Edward Stern. “Her infectious enthusiasm for
both the theatre and for life in general is sorely missed. We are very grateful
to Stan for his enormous support to us and for his decision to honor his wife
in this way.”
According to Dr. Kaplan, “Mickey and I always felt that the world premiere
productions were some of the best plays at the Playhouse each season. She would
be happy to know that this prize will help to ensure this experience for future
generations of theatergoers in the years ahead.”
The Playhouse has established a long tradition of supporting new works and
of introducing hard-hitting new voices to the American stage. This legacy includes
productions such as The Dead Eye Boy by Angus MacLachlan and Coyote
on a Fence by Bruce Graham, both Playhouse world premieres which have
gone on to entertain audiences off-Broadway and in London, respectively, as
well as at regional theatres across the country.
The first recipient of the Mickey Kaplan New American Play Prize will be John
Yearley, whose play Leap was chosen earlier this fall for a world
premiere production at the Playhouse beginning February 12 and continuing through
March 13. Leap is the story of a man who, faced with the collapse
of his marriage, believes he has lost his identity. One morning he steps out
of a New York City subway and finds himself surrounded by the chaos of the
September 11 attack on the World Trade Center. He throws his wallet into the
debris and prepares to lose himself forever.
Fleeing from his restless soul and his troubling past, the man pretends to
be suffering from amnesia. He stumbles into a diner and upon a young waitress,
who believes her former fiancé has perished in the attack. She takes
pity on the man and brings him back to her home. There he encounters a house
filled with secrets of its own and a family paralyzed by its unsettled history.
John Yearley recently finished a year as playwright-in-residence at Abingdon
Theatre Company in New York, where he received a grant with funding from the
Witter Bynner Foundation to develop Leap, a finalist for the Christopher
Brian Wolk Award. Other recent honors include the Samuel French Award for A
Low-Lying Fog, the John Gassner Award for Ephemera and the Panelists
Choice Award at the Edward Albee Festival for Angel Baby. His play Bruno
Hauptmann Kissed My Forehead was produced by Abingdon in 2002. He also
has written many short plays including Hating Beckett, which debuted
at the Long Wharf Theatre. Mr. Yearley is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College
and the William Esper Studio. He has worked for New Line Cinema as a script
doctor, is a MacDowell Fellow and is a member of the Dramatists Guild and the
Writers Guild of America East.
Tickets to Leap are available now and range from $33-$48, depending
on day and seat location. For reservations or subscription information, call
the Playhouse box office at 513/421-3888 or toll-free in Ohio, Kentucky and
Indiana, 800/582-3208. Call 513/345-2248 for TDD accessibility. Information
and tickets also are available at the Playhouse’s web site, www.cincyplay.com.
Under the leadership of Producing Artistic Director Edward Stern and Executive
Director Buzz Ward, the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park is in its 45th season
as one of the nation’s leading professional regional theatres. Earlier
this year, the Playhouse was honored with the 2004 Regional Theatre Tony Award®.
One of the most coveted awards in the entertainment industry, it honors a nonprofit
professional regional theatre company that has displayed a continuous level
of artistic achievement contributing to the growth of theatre nationally.
Playhouse artists fly to and from Cincinnati on Delta Connection Comair, the
official airline of the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park.
The Playhouse also is supported, in part, by the generosity of the tens of
thousands of individuals and businesses that give to the Fine Arts Fund.
The Ohio Arts Council helps fund the Playhouse with state tax dollars to encourage
economic growth, educational excellence and cultural enrichment for all Ohioans.
The Playhouse also receives funding from the City of Cincinnati.
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