BLUE INK PLAYWRITING AWARD

THE 2012 BLUE INK PLAYWRITING AWARD ACCEPTS SUBMISSIONS JULY 1, 2011 – OCTOBER 31, 2011.

The 2011 Blue Ink Playwriting Award deadline was Dec. 15, 2010. We received 542 submissions from all over the country. The winner was awarded a cash prize of $500.00 and receive a staged-reading of her manuscript. The winning play was chosen by a selection committee comprised of ABT Ensemble members, most notably Emmy award-winner and ABT Founder Rick Cleveland (Nurse Jackie, Mad Men, Six Feet Under, West Wing).

Congratulations to STEPHANIE WALKER (Chicago, IL) for winning the 1st annual Blue Ink Playwriting Award for her script “American Home.” Finalists were Cody Daigle (Scott, LA) for his submission “Providence” and Matthew Stephen Smith (Brooklyn, NY) for his submission “7 Ways to Mourn the Dead”.

ABout the Winners

Stephanie Walker (“American Home”) is a playwright born and raised on the friendly streets of suburban Chicago and a new mom who neglects the cries of her baby as she tries to write this bio.

Stephanie’s most popular play is a ten-minute comedy titled The Chocolate Affair, which has been anthologized and produced around the world. In 2008 Stephanie faced foreclosure and lived to tell the tale on her blog Love In the Time of Foreclosure which has been called “A heartbreaking work of staggering acceptance” and has been featured on the front page of the Los Angeles Times, The Story with Dick Gordon, Chicago Magazine and The Huffington Post. Her latest play American Home (a 2010 semi-finalist for the Princess Grace Award) is based on her experience fighting foreclosure.
After eight years in L.A. and ten months on San Juan Island, Stephanie again makes Chicago home with her husband, Bob, newborn, Malcolm and Pug dog, Pablo.

Cody Daigle (“Providence”) is a playwright and journalist living in south Louisiana. His plays include PROVIDENCE (Off-Off Broadway workshop, 2008, MTWorks), A HOME ACROSS THE OCEAN (Off-Off Broadway, 2010, MTWorks), WHY WE FALL, (NYC staged reading, On the Square Productions, 2011) and WILLIAM AND JUDITH (commissioned by the Playhouse Theatre in Tulsa). His works have also been seen at Augusta State University, University of Northern Iowa, Festival International (Lafayette, LA) and The New York International Fringe Festival.

Matthew Stephen Smith (“7 Ways To Mourn The Dead”) is a member of Panoply Performance Laboratory, The Dramatists Guild, and MCC’s Playwrights’ Coalition. His work has been performed or developed through MCC Theater (NYC), Old Globe (San Diego), IRT Theater (NYC) Primary Stages (NYC), The Flea Theater (NYC), Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Prospect Theater (NYC), and Remy Bumppo Theater (Chicago), among others. Recent honors include a residency at IRT Theater where he developed Four Women at the Edge of the Desert, and a nomination for an NEA Development Grant by MCC Theater for his comedy 7 Ways to Mourn the Dead. Current projects include a collaborative piece with the experimental music group th1ngNY that will be performed at The Brick (NYC) in May, and a solo-play titled A Gathering of Very Articulate Individuals that will be performed in the Fall of 2011. He received his MFA in playwriting from Northwestern University.