The 2017 Yale Drama Series Prize will be given to Jacqueline Goldfinger for her play Bottle Fly at an upcoming ceremony in London. The award recipient was chosen by playwright Nicholas Wright (Vincent in Brixton, Mrs. Klein), and the play will receive a staged reading in November at the National Theatre Studio.
This year鈥檚 runners-up were Andrew Rosendorf for Cottontail and Carla Grauls for Natives.
The Yale Drama Series Prize, now in its 11th year, is given annually for a play by an emerging playwright, selected by a distinguished playwright. The winner receives the David Charles Horn Prize of $10,000, publication of the winning play by Yale University Press, and a staged reading.
Previous winners include John Austin Connolly鈥檚 The Boys From Siam (selected by Edward Albee in 2007), Neil Wechsler鈥檚 Grenadine (selected by Albee in 2008), Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig鈥檚 Lidless (selected by David Hare in 2009), Virginia Grise鈥檚 blu (selected by Hare in 2010), Shannon Murdoch鈥檚 New Light Shine (selected by John Guare in 2011), Clarence Coo鈥檚 Beautiful Province (selected by Guare in 2012), Jen Silverman鈥檚 Still (selected by Marsha Norman in 2013), Janine Nabers鈥檚 Serial Black Face (selected by Norman in 2014), Barbara Seyda鈥檚 Celia, a Slave: 26 Characters Testify (selected by Wright in 2015), and Emily Schwend鈥檚 Utility (selected by Wright in 2016).
Bottle Fly is described as a 鈥渕ulti-generational family drama about the masks we wear at home with our family, those we wear out in the world, and the struggle between them. It鈥檚 a dinged up, stripped down homage to Mr. Wittgenstein and his poor fly.鈥�
鈥淪et in a bar in the Everglades, Jacqueline Goldfinger鈥檚 Bottle Fly brings together a rich variety of American classes, cultures, heritages and desires,鈥� said judge Wright, who chose the play from over 1,000 submissions from 45 countries, in a statement. 鈥淚ts voice is passionate and straight-from-the-heart; the world it shows us is earthy, cruel and hilarious; the story at its core is one of profound and reckless love.鈥�
Francine Horn, president of the David Charles Horn Foundation, added, 鈥淪pending my winters now in Florida not far from the Everglades it was surprising that we would have a winner and a runner-up, Bottle Fly and Cottontail, both writing on its dying cultures, bleakness and the need to escape this wilderness.鈥�
Goldfinger鈥檚 play The Arsonists is having a National New Play Network (NNPN) Rolling World Premiere in 2017-2018.
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