Local playwright Chandler Hubbard is a finalist for national recognition. His play Animal Control, which premiered last season, is one of 6 finalists for this year’s American Theatre Critics Association Harold and Mimi Steinberg / ATCA New Play Award.

 

It was actually produced by Firehouse Theatre two times with a slightly reworked cast. Here’s my review of the first production and here’s the 2nd.

 

About the honor, Hubbard responded”

“In the past weeks and months I’ve been experiencing an overwhelming maelstrom of emotions, exacerbated by the fact that I couldn’t tell anyone until the finalists were announced. I’m simultaneously grateful and honored but also really anxious – I was supposed to go to the ATCA conference in April, be a part of a new works panel and attend the award ceremony, but that, of course, has been postponed. 

More than anything else, really, I’m shocked and blown away. I’m a small town kid, this is the first play I’ve written, and the show has really taken on a life of its own in the past two years or so.

Looking at the list of past Steinberg winners and finalists, I’m definitely a small fish in an enormous pond. Some of the past honorees include August Wilson, Arthur Miller, Lanford Wilson and Moises Kaufman. So many of the finalists have gone on to win other major national awards or be produced on Broadway. To be thought of in the same vein is astounding. I just hope and pray I’m not a one hit wonder!”

 

The ATCA has been administering this award since 1977, honoring the best new work premiering outside New York City. The top award of $25,000 and two citations with $7,500 each is funded by the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust. The award was to be presented during ATCA’s conference at the Pacific Playwrights Festival in Costa Mesa, but the COVID-9 intervened. A new date will be announced at a later time.

 

Here’s the list of finalists:

– Animal Control by Chandler Hubbard (Firehouse Theatre of Richmond VA)

– The Coast Starlight by Keith Bunin (La Jolla Playhouse)

– The First Deep Breath by Lee Edward Colston II (Victory Gardens Theatre, Chicago)

– How the Light Gets In by E.M. Lewis (Boston Court, Pasadena CA

– Nonsense and Beauty by Scott C. Sickles (Repertory Theatre of St. Louis) – Sheepdog by Kevin Artigue (South Coast Repertory, Costa Mesa CA)

 

Thx to local member of the ATCA Susie Haubenstock for the heads up.