National Latine Playwrights Award
Established in 1995, the Arizona Theatre Company’s National Latine Playwrights Award (NLPA) is unique in its longevity and prescience. Under the leadership of ATC Playwright-in-Residence Elaine Romero, the award continues to create a greater awareness of under-represented Latine writers’ stories. It has honored many outstanding works by Latine playwrights who have achieved remarkable success throughout the country. Now after over 25 years, we are happy to announce that in addition to the cash prize, the winner will receive a public reading at the National Latine Playwrights Festival, which will take place June 14 at Tempe Center for the Arts.
Submissions for the National Latine Playwrights Award are closed at this time.
Latine playwrights residing in the United States, its territories or Mexico are encouraged to submit scripts for the award. Each script will be read and evaluated by a culturally diverse panel of theatre artists; finalists will be judged by ATC artistic staff.
Eligibility
- The award is open to all Latine playwrights currently residing in the United States, its territories, or Mexico.
- Scripts may be in English, Spanish, or a combination of the two (Spanish scripts must be accompanied by an English translation).
- Plays must be unpublished, professionally unproduced, and not currently under option at the time of submission.
- Full-length and one-act plays, with a minimum length of 50 pages, on any subject will be accepted.
Scripts
The physical scripts become the property of Arizona Theatre Company and will not be returned. In this case, “property” means the physical property of the theatre, not the intellectual property or any rights to the play.
Application requirements include:
- Submissions of a single script can be sent via email to NLPA@atc.org.
- Include a cover letter of no more than one page describing the play’s developmental history and how the play fits into the playwright’s broader career trajectory.
For more information contact Elaine Romero, ATC Playwright-in Residence.
Previous recipients include Kristoffer Diaz (Pulitzer Prize Finalist), Marisela Treviño Orta (Pen Center USA Literary Award recipient), Caridad Svich (2012 Obie Award winner), Carlos Murillo (National Playwright Residency Program Mellon Foundation), Octavio Solis (NEA Fellowship), Karen Zacarías (Helen Hayes Award recipient) and Luis Alfaro (MacArthur Fellowship or “genius” grant recipient). Of the past 26 recipients, only two have not yet gone on to productions across the United States and around the world. ATC’s long history of recognizing Latine voices is echoed in its embrace of new work that does not neatly comport to genre, form, or subject.
Notable recent winners include, Charise Castro Smith, co-writer of Disney hit “Encanto” (Golden Globe, Winner, Best Motion Picture, Animated) which was also the only animated title nominated in the Globes music categories, Benjamin Benne for “Alma,” a world premiere in production at the Center Theatre Group, and Eliana Pipes for “Dream Hou$e,” which also won the Leah Ryan’s FEWW playwriting prize in 2019 and the KCACTF The Harold & Mimi Steinberg Award in 2020.
David A. Tucker II Wins ATC’s 2023 National Latine Playwrights Award
Arizona Theatre Company is delighted to announce the winner of the 2023 National Latine Playwrights Award. Chicano playwright, David A. Tucker II, has won the award for his black comedy, The Nude, for which he will receive $2500 and a professional workshop and a public reading of the play to launch a National Latine Playwrights Festival, slated for June 2024.
The Nude follows a struggling artist, his investment-savvy girlfriend, a rival painter, and an ambitious gallery owner as they find their lives and work intertwined in more ways than one in this dark art-world comedy. Max is an emerging painter who struggles to gain traction in the elite art world. His girlfriend, Stephanie, is a successful associate in a global investment firm that takes her everywhere but where she really wants to be. Ernst’s artistic labors-of-love adorn hotel lobbies and restaurant bathrooms when what he dreams of is an actual gallery show. And gallery owner, Marty, needs nothing more than to discover the Next Big Thing.
David A. Tucker II has had several plays developed at theaters across the nation. His theatrical works include Smoke (2018 O’Neill Theater Conference Finalist and 2018 AITAF Bridge Award Finalist), Veils, Persistence of Vision, Baghdad (about his experiences commanding a military unit in Iraq), Under the Skin and North Wind Blowin’ (Chicago Dramatists’ 2006 Many Voices Project).
Growing up in a Mexican-Anglo family, Tucker’s plays often explore collisions of race, culture and political systems. Since 2008, he has been teaching creative writing to wounded military veterans and their caregivers through the Writers Guild Initiative.
The National Latine Playwrights Festival reading will take place on June 14 at Tempe Center for the Arts.