Gardley gets a Glickman
Oakland playwright Marcus Gardley (right, photo by Jared Oates) is the winner of the Will Glickman Award for the best new play to have its premiere in the Bay Area in 2014. The play is The House that will not Stand, loosely based on Federico Garcìa Lorca's The House of Bernarda Alba, which had its premiere at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in February of 2014. Read my review of the show here.
The award, administered by Theatre Bay Area comes with a $4,000 cash award for the writer and a plaque for the producing theater. Gardley told TBA: "“I’m thrilled to be accepting this award. I’m extremely proud of The House that will not Stand’s world premiere at Berkeley Rep and eternally grateful to have participated in The Ground Floor, which provided the creative space and artistic support to develop the play. The play has been enthusiastically received at Yale Rep and Tricycle Theatre in London. But this recognition from the Bay Area theatre community where I have deep roots is truly an honor.”
This year's winner was chosen by a judging panel comprising Bay Area theater critics Robert Hurwitt of the San Francisco Chronicle, Robert Avila of the San Francisco Bay Guardian, Karen D’Souza of the San Jose Mercury News, Chad Jones of TheaterDogs.net and Sam Hurwitt of KQED Arts and the Marin Independent Journal. The Glickman Award-winning play is usually published each year in the July/August issue of Theatre Bay Area magazine.
This year's judges cited three other strong local premieres as runners-up: Hir by Taylor Mac (Magic Theatre); Hundred Days by Abigail Bengson, Shaun Bengson and Kate E. Ryan (Z Space) and The Scion by Brian Copeland (The Marsh).
Gardley and Berkeley Rep will receive their awards at Theatre Bay Area’s Annual Conference on April 13, which happens to be taking place at Berkeley Rep.
Photo above: Petronia Paley (as Marie Josephine) and Harriett D. Foy (as Makeda, background), starred in Berkeley Rep’s world premiere of Marcus Gardley’s The House that will not Stand, a comedic drama about free women of color in 1836 New Orleans. Photo courtesy of kevinberne.com
Here’s a complete list of Glickman Award winners (the award is made in the year following the show's premiere):
2014 Ideation, Aaron Loeb (San Francisco Playhouse)2013 The Hundred Flowers Project, Christopher Chen (Crowded Fire/Playwrights Foundation)2012 The North Pool, Rajiv Joseph (TheatreWorks)2011 Oedipus el Rey, Luis Alfaro (Magic)2010 In the Next Room, Sarah Ruhl (Berkeley Rep)2009 Beowulf, Jason Craig (Shotgun Players)2008 Tings Dey Happen, Dan Hoyle (Marsh)2007 Hunter Gatherers, Peter Sinn Nachtrieb (Killing My Lobster)2006 The People’s Temple, Leigh Fondakowski et al (Berkeley Rep)2005 Dog Act, Liz Duffy Adams (Shotgun)2004 Soul of a Whore, Denis Johnson (Campo Santo)2003 Five Flights, Adam Bock (Encore)2002 Dominant Looking Males, Brighde Mullins (Thick Description)2001 Everything’s Ducky, Bill Russell & Jeffrey Hatcher (TheatreWorks)2000 The Trail of Her Inner Thigh, Erin Cressida Wilson (Campo Santo)1999 Combat!, John Fisher (Rhino)1998 Civil Sex, Brian Freeman (Marsh)1997 Hurricane/Mauvais Temps, Anne Galjour (Berkeley Rep)1996 Medea, the Musical, John Fisher (Sassy Mouth)1995 Rush Limbaugh in Night School, Charlie Varon (Marsh)1994 Santos & Santos, Octavio Solis (Thick Description)1993 Heroes and Saints, Cherrie Moraga (Brava)1992 Angels in America: Millennium Approaches, Tony Kushner (Eureka)1991 Political Wife, Bill Talen (Life on the Water)1990 Pick Up Ax, Anthony Clarvoe (Eureka)1989 Yankee Dawg You Die, Philip Kan Gotanda (Berkeley Rep)1988 Webster Street Blues, Warren Kubota (Asian American)1987 Life of the Party, Doug Holsclaw (Rhino)1986 Deer Rose, Tony Pelligrino (Theatre on the Square)1985 The Couch, Lynne Kaufman (Magic)1984 Private Scenes, Joel Homer (Magic)