Yale Drama Series Winners
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2022 Winner of The Yale Drama Series competition:
Seayoung Yim’s Jar of Fat
In a historic first, this year’s Prize was decided by a body of six judges—all past winners of the Prize themselves.
2021 Winner of The Yale Drama Series competition:
Rachel Lynett’s Apologies to Lorraine Hansberry (You Too August Wilson)
“[A] taut examination of the impact of racism in a future African American state after the next Civil War in America…. With a metatheatrical playfulness and a direct inclusion of actors and audience alike, Rachel Lynett’s play exposes the many layers to the notion of race in order to awaken us,” said judge Paula Vogel, who chose Apologies to Lorraine Hansberry from over 2,000 submissions from 60 countries.
2019 Winner of The Yale Drama Series competition:
Lily Padilla’s How to Defend Yourself
“It was a year of strong submissions, with a particularly muscular sample of deft, moving plays about the toxic interplay of power and sexuality,” said judge Ayad Akhtar, who chose How to Defend Yourself from over 1,750 submissions from 65 countries.
2018 Winner of The Yale Drama Series competition:
Leah Nanako Winkler’s God Said This
“I was very moved by Leah’s play about a family caught between cultures, set in the final weeks of a mother’s life,” said judge Ayad Akhtar, who chose God Said This from over 1,600 submissions from 50 countries.
2017 Winner of The Yale Drama Series competition:
Jacqueline Goldfinger’s Bottle Fly
“Set in a bar in the Everglades, Jacqueline Goldfinger’s Bottle Fly brings together a rich variety of American classes, cultures, heritages and desires,” said judge Nicholas Wright, who chose Bottle Fly from over 1,000 submissions from 45 countries.
2016 Winner of The Yale Drama Series competition:
Emily Schwend’s Utility
In his second year as judge, distinguished playwright Nicholas Wright announced the 2016 winner of The Yale Drama Series competition.
2015 Winner of The Yale Drama Series competition:
Barbara Seyda’s Celia, A Slave: 26 Characters Testify
In his first year as judge, distinguished playwright Nicholas Wright announced the 2015 winner of The Yale Drama Series competition.
2014 Winner of The Yale Drama Series competition:
Janine Nabers’s Serial Black Face
In her second year as judge, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Marsha Norman announced the 2014 winner of The Yale Drama Series competition.
2013 Winner of The Yale Drama Series competition:
Jen Silverman’s Still
In her first year as judge, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Marsha Norman announced the 2013 winner of The Yale Drama Series competition.
2012 Winner of The Yale Drama Series competition:
Clarence Coo’s Beautiful Province
In his second year as judge, award-winning playwright John Guare announced the
2012 winner of The Yale Drama Series competition.
2011 Winner of The Yale Drama Series competition:
Shannon Murdoch’s New Light Shine
For his first selection as judge, award-winning playwright John Guare announced the 2011 winner of The Yale Drama Series competition.
2010 Winner of The Yale Drama Series competition:
Virginia Grise’s blu
In his second year as contest judge, playwright David Hare has announced the
2010 winner of The Yale Drama Series competition.
2009 Winner of The Yale Drama Series competition:
Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig’s Lidless
Award-winning playwright David Hare has announced the
2009 winner of The Yale Drama Series competition.
2008 Winner of The Yale Drama Series competition:
Neil Wechsler’s Grenadine
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Edward Albee has announced the
2008 winner of The Yale Drama Series competition.
2007 Winner of The Yale Drama Series competition:
John Austin Connolly’s The Boys from Siam
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Edward Albee announced his selection for the first winner of The Yale Drama Series competition at a ceremony held in the Lincoln Center on Thursday, April 26.
John Austin Connolly, in attendance at the ceremony, is an Irish citizen and retired clinical psychologist who resides in Dublin. The Boys from Siam was selected by Edward Albee from more than 500 submissions. The play is based loosely on the lives of Chang and Eng Bunker (1811-1874), the original so-called “Siamese twins” joined at the sternum. Much of the action of the play takes place on the day of the twins’ deaths. In addition, Edward Albee announced that The Secret Agenda of Trees, by Colin McKenna, and Open Rehearsal, by Lazarre Seymour Simckes, had been chosen as runners up for the 2007 competition.
As the winner of the 2007 competition, John Austin Connolly was awarded the David Charles Horn Prize of $10,000, publication of The Boys from Siam by Yale University Press, and a staged reading at Yale Rep.
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