Project History
A unique national competition that helps student playwrights make the leap to the world of professional theater, the Kendeda Graduate Playwriting Competition (GPC) was initiated by the Alliance Theatre in 2003. The impulse for the competition was to bridge the often ten year gap between earning an MFA and productions at a leading regional LORT theatre. Results from the Kendeda winners and finalists have been astonishing as these young writers move from the Alliance to national careers and have scattered throughout the United States. It’s an exciting program that is changing the career paths of writers and creating a family of writers who (we hope) consider the Alliance an artistic home from their first year out of school through the rest of their careers.
Each year, students from approximately 30 graduate playwriting programs across the U.S. submit plays to the competition. Alliance’s in-house panel of readers carefully evaluates the scripts and selects finalists, who advance to the next level of the competition. Those finalist manuscripts are sent to three theater artists of national renown, and they, along with leaders of the Alliance Theatre, choose the winner. The grand prize enjoyed by that winner is seeing a professional production of his or her work on the Alliance Theatre’s 200-seat Hertz Stage. During the 2004-05 season, the Competition became the Kendeda Graduate Playwright Competition after a generous grant from the Kendeda Foundation secured the competition’s future at the Alliance.
The inaugural year winning play was Day of the Kings, by Daphne Greaves, and it was produced in the 2004-05 season. …,” said, Said, by Ken Lin, the winner during the contest’s sophomore year, was produced during the 2005-06 season. Darren Canady’s winning play False Creeds had its world premiere in the 2006-07 season. Tarell McCraney’s play In the Red and Brown Water, was produced in February 2008. Of McCraney’s work, a New York Times theater critic wrote, “Listen closely, and you might hear that thrilling sound that is one of the main reasons we go to the theater, that beautiful music of a new voice.” In the Red and Brown Water has gone on to produced at the McCarter Theatre in New Jersey, The Public Theatre in New York, the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago and at the Young Vic in London. In February 2009 the Alliance produced Julia Brownell’s contest winner, Smart Cookie. Brownell wrote the film script of F*cking Engaged and writes for the TV show Hung. The 2010 production of Ismail Khalidi’s Tennis in Nablus met with a warm critical response and we are excited about Khalidi’s future as a distinct and important Arab-American voice.
The Kendeda competition has enjoyed partnership opportunities across the country in support of bringing the work of the Kendeda writers to a national audience. Starting in 2004, the winning Kendeda play has received a workshop with a leading national development center (O’Neill National Playwright Conference, the Playwright’s Center in Minneapolis) or peer theatres committed to new work (The New Group, the Goodman Theatre, Centre Theatre Group).
Starting in 2006, the Alliance launched an annual reading series in New York which is a writer showcase and a chance for the Alliance to partner with New York’s new play development community. Every year, Fox Theatricals has presented a reading of the “most commercial” project to remind the commercial community of the importance of new work and new voices. Our nonprofit partners include Playwrights Horizons, s.p.f., the Public Theater and New York Theatre Workshop. Actors in the Kendeda readings have included Julie White, Mamie Gummer, Veanne Cox, Felix Solis, Daphne Rubin Vega, Quincy Tyler Bernstein, Brenda Wehle and Larry Pine. Directors include Peter Dubois, Jeremy Cohen, Carl Hancock Rux, KJ Sanchez, Lisa Peterson and Leigh Silverman. We are especially proud of our National judge alumni, which includes Jose Rivera, Pearl Cleage, Bob Falls, Curt Columbus, Oskar Eustis, Jim Nicola and the late August Wilson.
Kendeda National Partnerships [PDF]
In the spring of 2011 the Alliance Theatre welcomes Spoon Lake Blues by Kendeda finalist Josh Tobiessen. This production grew directly out of the Alliance Theatre acting program’s Josh Tobiessen festival of workshop productions, produced in the fall of 2009. The acting program regularly gives acting students a chance to work on a Kendeda alumni play still in development. Projects to date include the Tobiessen festival, Small of her Back by Dana Formby and Splinters by Emily Schwend. Learn more about how to participate in these events.
The Alliance is incredibly proud of the number of Kendeda alumni returning for productions in Atlanta. In 2009, Sarah Gubbins’s finalist play Fair Use had its world premiere at Actors Express (http://www.actors-express.com/cgi-bin/MySQLdb?VIEW=/plays/viewone.txt&myplay=128) a production listed in both the AJC and Creative Loafing as one of the top ten productions of 2009. Finalist Megan Gogerty starred in her one woman show for Synchronicity Hilary Clinton Got Me Pregnant (http://www.synchrotheatre.com/plays/showplay.aspx?ID=68). Gogerty’s play Love Jerry was produced by Actor’s Express in 2006. Matt Smart’s The Thirteenth of Paris was produced by Horizon Theatre in 2009.
Past Kendeda Finalists [PDF]
Testimonials From Past Participants [PDF]
Photos: In the Red and Brown Water, 2007-2008 Season
Photos by Greg Mooney