THEATER CRITICS HONOR UP-AND-COMING PLAYWRIGHT J.T. ROGERS WITH M. ELIZABETH OSBORN AWARD

For further information contact Rick Pender at rpender@citybeat.com.

The American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA) announced that J.T. Rogers is the winner of its 2004 M. Elizabeth Osborn Award, given each year to an up-andcoming playwright. His play, Madagascar, was staged in November 2004 by Salt Lake Acting Company in Salt Lake City, Utah. The M. Elizabeth Osborn Award was established in 1993 to honor the memory of a distinguished author, script editor and mentor to playwrights. The award, chosen annually by ATCA's New Plays Committee, recognizes a writer whose work has not yet attained national recognition.

Madagascar is about a mysterious disappearance that changes three lives forever. Three Americans — at three different times — find themselves alone, in the same hotel room overlooking the Spanish Steps in Rome. The first is June, a young woman who works as a tour guide of the city's ancient ruins. Next: Lillian, her wealthy and elegant jet-setting mother. Finally, there's Nathan, a rumpled university economist and the best friend of Lillian's famous deceased husband. They each tell the audience their individual stories of why they are here. Their perspectives eventually weave into a single gripping and disquieting tale.

Of the play, Chicago freelance critic Jonathan Abarbanel wrote: "Elegance, sadness, human connectedness, (Madagascar is) a very rich play with fine roles for actors and a chewy task for the director." Rogers is also among six finalists for the 2004 American Theatre Critics/Steinberg New Play Award, which will be announced April 2. With his home in Brooklyn, Rogers, 35, is one of 10 playwrights in the country to receive a 2004-2005 NEA/TCG Theater Residency, through which he is currently playwright-inresidence at the Salt Lake Acting Company. Regionally, his works have been produced at the Philadelphia Theatre Co., New Theatre of Coral Gables (Florida), New Actors Union Theatre (Moscow), and the Road Theatre (Los Angeles).

Rogers has been an artist-in-residence at the Eugene O'Neill Center (September 2004), a guest artist at Truman State University (Missouri), and has lectured at North Carolina School of the Arts, the University of Utah and at the Claremont-McKenna School of Economics. For three seasons he was on faculty at New York University as part of the Creative Arts Team, where he taught conflict resolution through drama in at-risk junior high schools in Brooklyn and the Bronx. His previous plays include White People, Seeing the Elephant, Murmuring in a Dead Tongue and the short play Seven Lies of an Unbeliever. Rogers also received a 2004 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship.

"Even though I'm a New York playwright, I seem to have more work in the regional theater," Rogers said. "The best thing about this award and also being a Steinberg finalist is not only being in such august company, but the recognition. It's nice when they finally know who you are." Madagascar is engaged for two future productions at the Adirondack Theatre Festival in New York and at New Theatre in Coral Gables, Fla.

Rogers is now working on a play about an American family visiting Rwanda before the genocide. "My wife asked me why I don't pick easier things to write about," he said. "I keep saying my next one is going to be a comedy, but I always end up with 800 pages of research. I see playwriting as a great opportunity to learn stuff." Rogers will receive the M. Elizabeth Osborn Award in a ceremony at the Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville in Louisville, Ky. The award comes with a $1,000 cash grant and a commemorative plaque.

The award is funded by the Foundation of the American Theatre Critics Association. The only national association of professional theater critics, ATCA has more than 250 members working for newspapers, magazines, Web sites, radio and television across the United States. It is a section of the International Association of Theatre Critics (IATC), a UNESCO affiliated organization that sponsors congresses on criticism worldwide.