The Jane Chambers Award for Excellence in Feminist Playwriting recognizes plays and performance texts created by women and genderqueer writers that present a feminist perspective and contain significant opportunities for female performers. This annual award, administered by the Women in Theatre Program of ATHE, is given in memory of lesbian playwright Jane Chambers, a major feminist voice in American theatre. This year’s award winner is:

Patty Kim Hamilton, Peeling Oranges

Patty Kim Hamilton is a poet-playwright, dramaturg, director and performance artist, currently in her Masters in Playwriting at the University of the Arts in Berlin. Her work exists at the intersection of the intimate and the political—meditating on bodies, language and memory. Her Play, Peeling Oranges (developed as Playwright-in-Residence at the Shakespeare Academy Stratford and through the Bechdel Group) is the recipient of the Heidelberger Stückemarkt 2021 Radio Play Prize, among other nominations and mentions (Special Mention Autorentheatertage Deutsches Theater Berlin, Semi-Finalist Bay Area Playwrights Award, Semi-Finalist Blue Ink Playwriting Award, Semi-Finalist Ojai Seven Devils Playwrights Festival). Her play Sex Play was invited to the European Theater Convention 2021. Her play when it hurts // this body is just a house was a semi-finalist for the Eugene O'Neill Playwrights Conference in 2020 and part of Cimientos 2021 at IATI Theatre NY. She is currently working on a commissioned play for Ballhaus Ost. Past work includes assistantships for Gob Squad and Netflix, running an underground drag collective, directing immersive performance installations, and dramaturging Christopher Adams-Cohen's Hecate House. She is a graduate of Stanford University. In Germany she is represented by Suhrkamp. More about her can be found on her website or Instagram. 

Acceptance Speech

The committee is also delighted to recognize the following playwrights for their outstanding work:

RUNNER UP

Diana Burbano, The Ghosts of Bogotá

Diana Burbano is a Colombian immigrant and playwright. Geffen’s Writers Lab 2021. Recent commissions: Artists Repertory Theatre, Center Theatre Group, Livermore Shakespeare Festival, Lower Depths. Website

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Angela J. Davis, AGATHE

Angela J. Davis is the author of The Spanish Prayer Book (The Road Theatre Company 2019-20 season); named an L.A. Times Best Bet and “aliterate meditation on art and social responsibility,” as well as a “beautiful, intricate, and important new play” by literary critic and former Pulitzer Prize Jury Chair Steven Leigh Morris), AGATHE (New American Voices Award - The Landing Theatre, SETC Getchell Award for best full-length play, Official Selection: Playhouse on the Square New Works at The Works); Clara and Serra and The Talking Bear (commissioned in 2020 by Antaeus Theatre Company as a radio play and produced in digital format in 2021 by Playhouse Creatures - NYC), among other works.


Carol Mullen, For the People

Carol Mullen’s work has been produced by theaters/festivals, including Los Angeles Women’s Theatre Project, Shelterbelt Theater, Stage Q, Emerging Artists Theater, and Blue Pearl Theatrics.

FINALISTS

• Ai Aida, The True Tale of Princess Kaguya (A Modern Retelling of the Japanese Folktale Kaguya-Hime)
• Jennifer Blackmer, Predictor
• Becca Blackmore, The Thomas Hardy Project
• Kate Douglas, Wonderland
• Diana Grisanti, Bowling for Beginners
• Michaela Jeffery, WROL (without Rule of Law)
• Alexis Kilburn, Gunshot/Doorslam
• Lara Miller, G.R.I.D. or Meditations on Divine Love
• Amy Oestreicher, Hummingbird in the Headlights
• Phanésia Pharel, Black Girl Joy
• Gabrielle Sinclair, The Resolute
• Maggie Wilson, From the Bath

ATHE offers special thanks to the Jane Chambers Award for Excellence in Feminist Playwriting subcommittee for their work this cycle.