HONORS DRAMATURG BRIAN QUIRT

WITH ELLIOTt HAYES AWARD

At its recent annual conference, The Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA) recognized the extraordinary achievement of dramaturg Brian Quirt. For his long-term collaboration with playwright Ned Dickens on the epic seven-play cycle City of Wine, Quirt was named the recipient of the eleventh annual LMDA Prize in Dramaturgy: The Elliott Hayes Award. The Award was announced at the celebration concluding the conference, held this year in Washington, D.C., from July 16–19.

The LMDA Prize in Dramaturgy is named in honor of Elliott Hayes, the late literary manager and dramaturg at The Stratford Festival in Canada. The Elliott Hayes Award, which is accompanied by a $500 prize, is presented annually in recognition of dramaturgical contributions to the conception, development, and / or production of specific theatre projects; for recent writing or other publications about dramaturgy or theatre in general; for contributions to an institution or theatre season; for significant accomplishments in advocacy for the field of dramaturgy; or for exemplary educational projects.

This year the Award honors dramaturg Brian Quirt, artistic director of the Toronto company Nightswimming, and his work on City of Wine. Quirt is the first two-time winner of the Elliott Hayes Award, having previously received it in 2003.

Brian Quirt and playwright Ned Dickens began their extraordinary fifteen-year collaboration on City of Wine in 1994. The cycle comprises seven full-length plays – Harmonia, Pentheus, Laius, Jocasta, Oedipus, Creon and Seven – that tell the story of the ancient Greek city of Thebes, birthplace of wine and home of the mythical Oedipus. Quirt served as dramaturg on the first play of the cycle, and then, from his position as artistic director of Nightswimming, he began to work to secure commissions, workshops, and eventually full productions of all seven plays. In the last three years, Nightswimming has spearheaded an innovative partnership with educators and more than 150 students at eight theatre training institutions across Canada. Says Quirt: “The primary goal of these partnerships has been to generate the means to commission, workshop, refine, rehearse and present the seven plays in such a way that the dramaturgy of each individual play, and of the seven-play cycle as a whole, can be tested prior to professional production. In addition, the process of working with the students, the national scope of the project, and the culminating festival that will bring all seven productions together in May 2009, has raised the profile of the cycle and thus contributed to our eventual plans to secure premiere productions at Canadian theatres.”

Heading the panel of judges LMDA Vice President of Programs, Louise McKay, described Quirt’s work as an ideal example of what the Elliott Hayes Award was designed to honor. McKay said: “As a dramaturg, Brian has been involved at every level of this project, from conception to production, and his role has been not simply helping to create a play or even a seven-play cycle, but a nation-wide community. It is difficult to imagine a wider-reaching or more ambitious project, and Brian's vision, patience, and creativity have been equal to the task.”

Introducing the award at the LMDA banquet, LMDA President Shelley Orr praised Quirt’s tireless dedication to the project and to the vital role of the dramaturg as collaborator, artist, and advocate: “Brian was chosen because his involvement in the project required not only highly skilled artistry, not just longstanding commitment, but consummate advocacy. […] There were at least two points during this long collaboration at which the project might not have continued, but Brian was undaunted. Innovative thinking about how to bring this huge project to fruition was a major part of the dramaturg’s role here.”

Playwright Ned Dickens described Quirt’s influence on his work and his artistic life this way: “As a large public building cannot be built without extensive professional engineering consultation, this project, I am convinced, could not have been written without the brilliant dramaturgical research and analysis which nourish and sustain it. The ultimate impact remains to be assessed, but City of Wine has already changed forever the face of professional theatre education in Canada, if nothing else. Brian Quirt is a paragon of professional ethics: more than trusting him with my life, I have trusted him with my life’s major work.”

With this award, Quirt joins the select group of previous Elliott Hayes Award recipients: Michele Volansky and Lue Morgan Douthit (1999), Rebecca Rugg and Lynn Thomson (2000), Judith Rudakoff (2001), Megan Monaghan and Freddie Ashley (2002), Brian Quirt and Mallory Cattlett (2003), Scott Horstein (2004), Lee Devin (2005), Amy Steele and Melinda C. Finberg (2007), Ed Sobel (2008), and Ilana Brownstein (2009).

LMDA presents the Elliott Hayes Award in line with its core organizational objectives: to affirm, support, and broaden the roles that literary managers and dramaturgs play in the theatre; to promote the exchange of information about the function, practice, and value of literary management and dramaturgy, both within our membership and with theatre professionals, scholars, and the general public; to encourage cooperation among theatre professionals and their academic counterparts; and to expand the boundaries of the field to include other literary and performance media and institutions.

Like dramaturgy itself, the Elliott Hayes Award rests on the philosophy that creative inspiration and thoughtful analysis lead to theatrical productions and dramaturgical projects that achieve the highest artistic, social, and spiritual goals.

For more information about Brian Quirt, the Elliott Hayes Awards, or any item mentioned in this release, contact Danielle Mages Amato, LMDA’s Vice President of Communications:  dmagesamato@gmail.com. Information is also available on our website for the Elliott Hayes Award: http://www.lmda.org/blog/LMDASponsoredPrograms. For more information about The Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas, visit our website at http://www.lmda.org/. Or contact our administrative offices at lmdanyc@gmail.com.

# # #