WILLIAMSTOWN THEATRE FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES MIKE LEW AS THE RECIPIENT OF THE 2022 L. ARNOLD WEISSBERGER NEW PLAY AWARD
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, PLEASE
TONY AWARD®-WINNING
WILLIAMSTOWN THEATRE FESTIVAL
ANNOUNCES
MIKE LEW
AS THE RECIPIENT OF THE
2022 L. ARNOLD WEISSBERGER NEW PLAY AWARD
New York, NY (March 31, 2022) – Williamstown Theatre Festival (Jenny Gersten, Interim Artistic Director) is pleased to announce Mike Lew as the recipient of the 2022 L. Arnold Weissberger New Play Award for his play tiny father. Lew will receive the $10,000 award and the accompanying $10,000 Jay Harris Commission to write a new play.
Williamstown Theatre Festival administers the L. Arnold Weissberger New Play Award on behalf of the Anna L. Weissberger Foundation. Championed for the Festival in 1998 by late Trustee Jay Harris, the award honors noted theatrical attorney and avid theater supporter L. Arnold Weissberger, and it is designed to recognize excellence in playwriting. The 2022 finalist judges were Eric Berryman, John McGinty, and Jen SIlverman. The finalists for the award were Amani by a.k. payne, Bust by Zora Howard, Dhaba on Devon Avenue by Madhuri Shekar, and Nick & the Prizefighter by Kamilah Bush.As previously announced, the 2022 WTF summer season, which will run from July 5 – August 14, will begin on the Nikos Stage with Man of God (July 5 – July 16) by Anna Ouyang Moench and directed by Maggie Burrows, the 2018 recipient of WTF’s Boris Sagal Directing Fellowship. Man of God is produced in association with Geffen Playhouse.
Up next on the Main Stage will be Most Happy in Concert (July 13 – August 7), a new production celebrating Frank Loesser’s critically adored score to the musical The Most Happy Fella, directed by Tony Award nominee Daniel Fish and choreographed by Jawole Willa Jo Zollar. Most Happy in Concert is produced in association with Fisher Center at Bard.
The season will conclude on the Nikos Stage with the world premiere of the WTF-commissioned play we are continuous (August 2 – August 14) by Harrison David Rivers and directed by Tyler Thomas, the 2020 recipient of WTF’s Bill Foeller Directing Fellowship.
Complete casting and creative team information will be announced at a later date. Season ticket bundles, which include all three productions, are available now by visiting www.wtfestival.org or calling 413 458 3253. Advance single ticket reservations can be made starting Monday, April 18, by visiting www.wtfestival.org or calling 413 458 3253. For updates, please visit www.wtfestival.org.
For the 2022 Summer Season, WTF has announced their COVID protocols, effective until further notice. All guests must be fully vaccinated and boosted to enter the theater and must present digital or physical proof and photo identification upon entry. Children under 12 and people with a medical condition or closely held religious belief that prevents vaccination may show proof of a recent negative COVID-19 test in lieu of proof of vaccination. All guests must wear a properly fitting mask when inside the theater. For updated policies and to plan your visit, please visit: www.wtfestival.org
If you have additional questions regarding your visit, please contact our Box Office at 413 458 3253 or by email at tickets@wtfestival.org.
For more information about employment and professional training opportunities at the Festival, please visit www.wtfestival.org/work-learn.
BIOGRAPHIES
Mike Lew’s plays include tiny father (Audible); Teenage Dick (Apothetae commission, Ma-Yi/Public, Donmar, Woolly Mammoth, Huntington, Pasadena Playhouse, Seattle Rep); Tiger Style! (Alliance, Olney, Huntington, La Jolla Playhouse, South Coast Rep); Bike America (Ma-Yi, Alliance); and microcrisis (Ma-Yi, InterAct). He and his wife Rehana Lew Mirza are Mellon Foundation Playwrights in Residence at Ma-Yi where they co-wrote The Colonialism Trilogy. They also wrote the book to the musical Bhangin’ It with songs by Sam Willmott (La Jolla Playhouse, upcoming Huntington; Richard Rodgers Award; Project Springboard and Rhinebeck Writers Retreat workshops). Mike is currently adapting Teenage Dick as a screenplay for Semi-Formal productions and, with his wife, writing an animated film project for Dreamworks.
Mike is a Dramatists Guild Council member, Tony voter, and New Dramatists resident. Honors: Guggenheim, Lark Venturous, and NYFA fellowships; Kleban, PEN, Lanford Wilson, Helen Merrill, Heideman, and Kendeda awards. Education: Juilliard, Yale.
ABOUT WILLIAMSTOWN THEATRE FESTIVAL
For seven decades, the Tony Award-winning Williamstown Theatre Festival has brought emerging and professional theatre artists together in the Berkshires to create a thrilling summer festival of diverse, world premiere plays and musicals, bold new revivals, and a rich array of accompanying cultural events.
Artists are drawn to Williamstown Theatre Festival to make great theater in an environment conducive to artistic risk-taking. Matthew Broderick, Audra McDonald, Dominique Morisseau, Mary-Louise Parker, Susan Stroman, Uma Thurman, and Blair Underwood are just a few of the luminous theater artists who have worked at the Festival. Many others, including Sterling K. Brown, Ty Burrell, Charlie Day, Paul Giamatti, Kathryn Hahn, Allison Janney, Brie Larson, Chris Pine, and George C. Wolfe, began their careers at the Festival.
Productions and artists shaped at the Festival fill theaters in New York City and around the world. Recently, Williamstown Theatre Festival was represented on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and regionally by The Sound Inside, Grand Horizons, The Rose Tattoo, The Visit, Fool for Love, The Elephant Man, Seared, Selling Kabul, Unknown Soldier, and Lempicka, to name just a few. Cost of Living, which was developed and premiered at Williamstown Theatre Festival, was awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Learn more about Williamstown Theatre Festival at www.wtfestival.org.
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