Big-name actors hit close to home

 
Joanne Woodward and the late Paul Newman’s influences as renowned, established actors will be felt next year when the Bloomington Playwrights Project presents the first Woodward/Newman Drama Award, which will be given for the best dramatic play from submissions sent to the theater company. 

“This is a specific genre award to let audience members know what to expect,” said Chad Rabinovitz, the producing artistic director for the BPP.

The winning playwright will be awarded $3,000 and his or her play will be added to the BPP’s 2010-11 main stage season. 

The plays, due by March 1, must not have been produced and performed in any large, regional theater before submission.

“The performance here is intended to be a world premiere,” BPP managing director Gabe Gloden said.

The award, Rabinovitz said, was named in honor of Woodward and Newman to honor the dramatic work the couple performed and created together.

Rabinovitz, who worked with Woodward at the Westport Country Playhouse in Connecticut before coming to Bloomington, said he talked to Woodward and received her approval to create the award.

“When I told her my idea, she said it sounded like a lot of fun,” Rabinovitz said. “She’s very supportive.”

As the artistic director, Rabinovitz will ultimately choose the winning play. To help in the selection, the plays are read by a group of “readers” who rank and comment on each play before Rabinovitz looks them over. 

Sonja Johnson, literary manager for the BPP, along with several others, is in charge of choosing and managing the readers.

“Not everyone who reads a play is a playwright,” Johnson said. “They represent a wide range of people with different artistic interests.”

The group of readers, Johnson said, is comprised of about 30 people who read each play and rate them on a one-to-five scale. The readers are also asked to write several comments about their ranking to explain what they enjoyed or disliked about a particular play.

“It’s great because no play will be immediately chucked out,” Gloden said. “Each one is going to be looked at more then once.”

This rating process is also used to select plays for the theater company’s other playwright’s award, the Reva Shiner Comedy Award, which, due to the creation of the Woodward/Newman Drama Award, was changed to honor a
comedic play specifically.

Both awards, Rabinovitz said, will be presented each year and are open to any play that meets the specific criteria.

“We take submissions from all over,” Rabinovitz said. “We just recently got submissions from Greece, New Zealand and Canada.”

The theater company said they encourage anyone, including students at IU, to propose and submit their original dramatic play for the award.

“We highly recommend students and local playwrights submit a play,” Rabinovitz said.
Johnson said she believes, given the fame of Woodward and Newman, that the BPP will receive many more submissions than they usually do and are excited to present their final choice.

“We are very serious about selecting the best new drama in the country,” Johnson said.