Darren M. Canady’s Brothers of the Dust Wins M. Elizabeth Osborn New Play Award
Darren M. Canady has won The American Theatre Critics Association’s 2012 M. Elizabeth Osborn New Play Award for an emerging playwright, in recognition of his play, Brothers of the Dust. The award will be presented to him at ATCA’s June conference in Chicago.
Brothers of the Dust looks at a farm family in 1958 Arkansas: the brother who stayed to work the land and is discouraging his son from attending college, the wastrel whose entrepreneurial dreams imploded, and the poet pursuing a writing career in Chicago. As secrets emerge, the potential for discovery of oil on the family homestead pits each against the other in a clash of values.
The play premiered in May 2011 at Congo Square Theatre Company in Chicago, directed by Daniel Bryant.
The Osborn Award is designed to recognize the work of an author who has not yet achieved national stature. It was established in 1993 to honor the memory of Theatre Communications Group and American Theatre play editor M. Elizabeth Osborn. The $1,000 prize is funded by the Foundation of the American Theatre Critics Association.
