The Armenian Dramatic Arts Alliance (ADAA) and the William Saroyan Foundation are pleased to announce the Honorary Jury for the Third Biennial William Saroyan Prize for Playwriting Award competition: actress/producer Gates McFadden, playwright Catherine Filloux and playwright/screenwriter Eduardo Machado, according to The Armenian Reporter.
Director, choreographer and actress Gates McFadden is Artistic Director of Ensemble Studio Theatre in Los Angeles. She has been Assistant Professor at Brandeis University, Lecturer at University of Pittsburgh, and Adjunct Lecturer at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts (five years,) Harvard University, and Brooklyn College. She has served as guest lecturer or artist at many schools across the U.S. and Europe.
Catherine Filloux is an award-winning playwright who has been writing about human rights and social justice for the past twenty years. Her new play Luz will premiere September 27, 2012 to October 14, 2012 at La MaMa in New York City, where she is an Artist in Residence. Filloux's commissioned libretto, New Arrivals, for Houston Grand Opera, Song of Houston, will premiere in June 2012, composed by John Glover.
Mr. Machado wrote and directed the film Exiles in New York, which played at the A.F.I. Film Festival and numerous other festivals. Mr. Machado is currently the Artistic Director of INTAR Theatre in New York City, and is Head of Playwriting in the Goldberg Department of Dramatic Writing at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. This past year, he was a Story Editor on the HBO Show Hung.
The Honorary Jury will evaluate the three finalist plays, which will be announced next month and selected from a pool of script submissions from around the world. The grand prize winner of $10,000 will be announced in late 2012.
ADAA's William Saroyan Prize for Playwriting for plays on Armenian themes is made possible by a grant from the William Saroyan Foundation, which has underwritten the Saroyan Prize since its inception in 2007.
