The Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award
Supported by the Kennedy Center Education Department
The Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award, initiated in 1977, is part of the Michael Kanin Playwriting Awards Program. The Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award is presented in the memory of the distinguished dramatist for the best KC/ACTF student-written plays of the subject of the African-American experience. Hansberry was the first African-American playwright, and the youngest of any color, to win the New York Drama Critics Award for her drama, A Raisin in the Sun, which opened on Broadway in 1959. Lorraine Hansberry died in 1965 of cancer, at age thirty-four, at the peak of her career.
The first place award $2,500 and an internship to the National Playwrights Conference at the O'Neill Theater Center.
Dramatic Publishing Company will present the first-place winning playwright with an offer of a contract to publish, license, and market the winning play.
The second place award $1,000
Grants of $750 and $500 will be made to the theater departments of the college or university producing the first- and second-place winners, respectively. Past national judges for the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award include Stephen McKinley Henderson, John Henry Redwood, Jennifer Nelson, Douglas Turner Ward, Robert Hooks, Dr. Endesha Ida Mae Holland, and Ron Himes.
View the list of Past Winners.
Please refer to the Michael Kanin Playwriting Award Rules
and Procedures.
The Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award: An Anthology of Prize-Winning Plays has been published by Clark Publishing, Inc. The anthology was designed as an educational resource text for college students, professors, and all theatre professionals. The Lorraine Hansberry Award is a competition for student plays best expressing the African American experience.
2007
CLICK-BOOM, Nakia Oglesby, University of Nevada-Las Vegas
2006 (co-winners)
One Fell Swoop, Isaac Charles Holter, DePaul University
The Last Black Play, Nathan Louis Jackson, Ebony Theatre Company of Kansas State Univeristy
2005
Hoodoo Love by Katori Hall, Harvard University
2004
Revelations:
The Outtakes by
Christina Anderson, Brown University
2003
The Mancherios by Nathan Louis Jackson, Kansas State University
2002
1st: Familiar, by Kirsten Greenidge, University of Iowa
2nd: Streethawker, by John Adekoje, Humboldt State University,
California
2001
1st: Whiteout by Alan Newton, English Alternative Theatre
of the University of Kansas
2nd: Feeding Beatrice by Kristen Greenidge, University of
Iowa
2000
No Award this year
1999
1st: The Bow Wow Club by Levi "Lee" Simon, Jr.,
University of Iowa, Iowa City
2nd: A Noose for Bettyanne by Javon Johnson, Kuntu Repertory
Theatre of the University of Pittsburgh
1998
Papa's Blues by Javon Johnson, Kuntu Repertory Theatre of the
University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
1st: Miss Nowhere Diner, Kathleen F. Potts, University of Southern Maine, Gorham
2nd: A Preface to the Alien Garden, Robert Alexander, University of Iowa, Iowa City
1996
1st: Moments Above the Underground, Geryll Robinson,
University of Southern Iliinois, Carbondale
2nd: An' Push da Wind Down, Lisa Harper, University
of Southern California, Los Angeles
1995
1st: Make-up Stories, Eric C. Waldemar, Jr., University
of Maryland, College Park
2nd: Sunshine Playlot, Dominic Taylor, Brown University,
Providence, RI
1994
1st: Hedy Understands Anxiety, Angela Counts, University
of Southern California, Los Angeles
2nd: The Miracle Church, Sybil Berry, University
of Pittsburgh, PA, Kuntu Repertory Theatre
1993
Talking Bones, Shay Youngblood, Brown University, Providence,
RI
1992
Strands, Eric Wilson, University of Missouri, Columbia
1991
Union Station, Marta Effinger, University of Pittsburgh,
PA
1990
no winner selected this year
1989
1st: Home, Theresa Love, University of California,
Davis
2nd: City Women, Danna Wilner, University of Portland,
OR
1988
Peabody Duck, Leslie Wade, University of California, Santa
Barbara
1987
1st: Inside/Out, Tom Coash, University of California,
Davis
2nd: Caught in the Middle and No Way Out, Michael
Holland, SUNY, Brockport, NY
1986
1st: The Peacemaker, Arnold Pinnix, North Carolina
A&T State University, Greensboro
2nd: Mournin', Carolyn Cole, University of North
Carolina, Greensboro
1985
no winner selected this year
1984
1st: Eleven Zulu, Patrick Sean Clark, University
of Missouri, Columbia
2nd: Snooks McAllister Lives at My House, Robyn Claire
Williams, Loyola University, Chicago, IL
1983
1st: The Bulldog and the Bear, Richard Gordon, California
State University, Fullerton
2nd: The Silent Warrior, Charles Smith, University
of Iowa, Iowa City
1982
1st: Asaga Kimashita, Velina Houston, U.C.L.A., Los
Angeles, CA
2nd: Enemies, Karen Boettcher, Portland State University,
OR
1981
1st: Big Bucks and Three Piece Suits, 'Til Kingdom Come,
Amen!, Joseph Mitchell, Eastern Washington University, Cheney
2nd: Second Doctor Lady/The Reconstruction of Dossie Hemphill,
Endesha Holland, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
1980
1st: Silent Octaves, Brenda Faye Collie, University
of Iowa, Iowa City
2nd: That's Life, Charley Vance, Louisiana State
University, Baton Rouge
2nd: Nobody, An Evening with Bert Williams, Vincent
D. Smith, University of Maryland, College Park
1979
1st: The American Chalk Circle, Richard Russell,
San Jose State University, CA
1st: Throw Me Something, Mr. God, Daniel DuPlantis,
Nichols State University, Thibodaux, Louisiana
1978
1st: The Ballad of Charley Sweet, Farrell Foreman,
Northern Illinois University, DeKalb
2nd: 227, Christine Houston, Kennedy-King College,
Chicago, IL
1977
1st: A Star Ain't Nothin' But a Hole in Heaven, Judi
Ann Mason, Grambling College, Louisiana
2nd: Oh, Oh Freedom, Irwin Washington, U.C.L.A.,
Los Angeles, CA
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts