ADAA announces jury for annual Saroyan award for playwriting

Published: Tuesday June 19, 2012

Jury members, L-R: McFadden, Filloux and Machado.

Los Angeles - 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.

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.

In addition to her many New York acting credits, Ms. McFadden is known also for her portrayal of Dr. Beverly Crusher in the TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation and the four Star Trek: The Next Generation films. Other films include Taking Care of Business, The Hunt for Red October, and the Muppets Take Manhattan. She enjoyed a recurring role on Mad About You, and was a series regular on Marker for its initial season on UPN.

She has done many guest appearances on television, acted in regional theater as well as done the narrations for various documentary films, symphonies and books. She is currently an adjunct member of the USC Department of Theatre where she was given the George Burns Teaching Fellowship.

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.

Filloux's more than twenty plays have been produced in New York and around the world, with numerous awards including the Voice Award for Artistic Works (Voices of Women), New Generations-Future Collaborations Award (Mellon Foundation/TCG), PeaceWriting Award (Omni Center for Peace), Roger L. Stevens Award (Kennedy Center), Eric Kocher Playwrights Award (O'Neill), MAP Fund and the Callaway Award (New Dramatists). Filloux is a co-founder of Theatre Without Borders and has served as a speaker for playwriting and human rights organizations around the world.

Eduardo Machado was born in Cuba and came to the United States when he was nine. He grew up in Los Angeles. He is the author of over forty plays. They include The Floating Island Plays, Once Removed, Stevie Wants To Play The Blues, A Burning Beach, Havana Is Waiting, and The Cook. They have been produced at many major regional theaters, as well as in Europe and Off-Broadway, including The Actors Theater of Louisville, The Mark Taper Forum, Seattle Repertory Theatre, the Goodman Theatre, Hartford Stage, The Long Wharf Theater, The Williamstown Theater Festival, The Cherry Lane Theater, INTAR, America Place Theater and Hampstead Theatre in London.

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. The Chairman of the William Saroyan Foundation is Haig Mardikian. ADAA and the William Saroyan Foundation have partnered for the last three cycles of the competition to give greater exposure to talented playwrights passionate about telling the Armenian story to the world, and it has succeeded. Additional funding for the prize also includes Mr. Larry Gagosian of Gagosian Galleries.

ADAA's mission is to project the Armenian Voice on the world stage through the arts of theater and film. It accomplishes this through two writing contests, playreadings, the Boston Armenian Film Festival, various networking events, and the pre-eminent Armenian performing arts website in the world, www.armeniandrama.org.