2018 Kesselring Prize & Gala
 
 
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2018 KESSELRING PRIZE AWARD CEREMONY
   and RECEPTION Honoring Playwright
James Ijames


Monday, November 5, 2018

Reading + Awards 7:00 PM
Award Cocktail Reception to follow 8:30 PM               

The Kesselring Committee has selected James Ijames for the 2018 Kesselring Prize for playwriting, for his play Kill Move Paradise about four black men in a cosmic waiting room that was inspired by the growing number of shootings of unarmed black men and women. As this year’s Kesselring Prize winner, James shall receive $25,000 from the Club’s Kesselring Fund plus the opportunity to reside for two (2) weeks in our historic landmark clubhouse in order to develop his work.     
    In 2015 Ijames was the Kesselring Honorable Mention prize winner for his play The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington.  He was a 2015 Pew Fellow for Playwriting and the 2015 winner of the Terrence McNally New Play Award for WHITE.  He is a founding member of the playwright producing collective Orbiter 3 and an Assistant Professor of Theater at Villanova University.   
     The Kesselring Prize was established in 1980 by Charlotte Kesselring – widow of noted playwright and Club member Joseph Kesselring – to honor and support as yet not nationally recognized playwrights with an honorarium and indirect support towards development of their work. Among its past recipients are Lucas Hnath, Tony Kushner, Nicky Silver and Anna Deavere Smith. The 2018 Kesselring Prize Jury included John Guare, best known as the author of The House of Blue Leaves and Six Degrees of Separation; Lincoln Center Theater Dramaturg Anne Cattaneo; and  two-time Pulitzer Prize winning playwright and screenwriter Lynn Nottage whose plays include 2017 Pulitzer Prize winner Sweat.     
     This year’s Kesselring Prize shall be presented at an awards ceremony on November 5, 2018, at 7:00 PM.  It shall include staged readings of selected scenes of James’s plays directed by Kesselring Prize Artistic Advisor Michael Parva of The Directors Company. A reception shall follow the awards ceremony at 8:30 PM. 

There is no charge for the 7:00 PM awards ceremony and reading.
RSVP: [email protected]

An award cocktail reception follows the awards ceremony and reading, featuring wine and prosecco, passed hors d’oeuvres, an antipasto display, featuring sliced meats, assorted cheeses and crudités, as well as a Chef’s display of decadent desserts.

$70 (all inclusive) for NAC members and their guests.
RSVP: 212-477-2389 or [email protected]

Non-members and guests may purchase tickets via Eventbrite. Click here.


**There is a 48-hour cancellation policy for this event and please note that the bar and dining room will be closed, except for attendees of the Kesselring Ceremony.


2018 Kesselring Prize & Gala
Monday, November 5, 2018 7:00 PM