Horton Foote Prize Established; Inaugural Award to Be Presented Fall 2010

The Horton Foote Prize has been established in honor of the late playwright, who died last year at the age of 92. The award, which will carry a cash prize of $30,000, will be presented to an American playwright who has written an original work of exceptional quality.

The inaugural prize will be given this coming fall. The award will be presented on a bi-annual basis, and funded by the Austin, Texas-based Greg and Mari Marchbanks Family Foundation. Mari Marchbanks is the Founder of The Horton Foote Prize and will serve as its Executive Director. Shortly before his death, Foote gave his blessing to this eponymous award.

In order to be eligible for the award, a playwright will have to be the author of a minimum of three original full-length plays that have been fully produced by professional theaters. A short list of finalists will be generated by selection committees comprised of nationally represented theater professionals. The winner of the Prize will be chosen from this short list by the four Artistic Directors of the theaters with whom Foote enjoyed a working relationship later in his career — Andre Bishop (Lincoln Center Theater), James Houghton (Signature Theatre Company), Andrew Leynse (Primary Stages), and Michael Wilson (Hartford Stage Company).

Foote’s The Orphans’ Home Cycle is currently being presented at New York’s Signature Theatre in a co-production with Hartford Stage. He was last represented on Broadway by Dividing the Estate, and he won the Pulitzer for The Young Man From Atlanta, which was also nominated for a Tony Award as Best Play.

For more information, visit hortonfooteprize.org.