A Background

The Kaufman & Hart Prize for New American Comedy, named for George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart (the pre-eminent comedic team of playwrights during Broadway’s Golden Age), was created to acknowledge and encourage the development of new comedies for the stage.

The Arkansas Repertory Theatre solicits scripts in a nationwide search for an exciting new comedy. Submissions are culled to semi-finalists and then sent to a national panel of judges who choose the winner and two finalists. The winning playwright receives $10,000 for the playwright, a staged reading of the new script and a possible world premiere staging of the play at The Rep. Two finalists receive $1,000 and a staged reading.

Submissions

This program is currently on hiatus. Scripts are not being accepted at this time.

Types of Material: Full-Length Plays
Frequency: Biennial
Remuneration: $10,000 Prize, Staged Reading (and Transportation) and Possible Production for Winner; $1,000 and Staged Reading for Additional Finalists
Guidelines: U.S. Citizen, Comedy Not Previously Published or Produced, Minimum 65 Pages, Cast Limit of 12, No Musicals or Plays for Young Audiences, One Submission Limit
Submission Procedure: Agent Submission or Script with Recommendation for Theatre Professional Only.

The Recipients

Acclaimed new playwright Ian Cohen recently won the third Kaufman & Hart Prize for his script, Bertrand Priest. Dreams, fate, chance, spirituality and hints of magic swirl together when a sexy, python-loving artist, her young protege, an actor and a tough, no-nonsense businessman collide in this in this dark, cutting edge comedy. Bertrand Priest premiered on The Rep's MainStage April 27-May 13, 2007. Cohen is an artistic associate at the Lark Play Development Center in Manhattan. His playwrighting credits include Lenny & Lou, Vattago, God’s Creatures, Going, and Fantasy.

The 2004 Kaufman & Hart Prize was awarded to Catherine Butterfield for her script The Sleeper. The Rep produced the play in the fall of 2005. This contemporary work is a zany look at American life in a post-9/11 world. A suburban housewife’s affair with her son’s tutor leads to a bizarre series of events that change the lives of all around her. The Sleeper is published by Dramatists Play Service and played at The Laguna Playhouse in Laguna, California, in February 2006 and at Hippodrome State Theatre in Gainesville, Florida, in April 2006. Butterfield, who lives in Los Angeles, has numerous regional theatre, television and film credits and awards, including New York Newsday’s Oppenheimer Award and the Kennedy Center-American Express Roger L. Stevens Award for outstanding promise as a playwright. She is a writer for CBS' Ghost Whisperer.

Friends Like These by Tom Dulack, winner of the 2002 Kaufman & Hart Prize, reveals the nuances of long term relationships with sly vision and an acid tongue. The Rep produced Friends Like These in spring of 2003. Dulack, a novelist and professor of English at the University of Connecticut, enjoyed critical success with his play Breaking Legs, which played at New York’s Promenade Theatre in New York City for 447 performances before embarking on a nine-month national tour. Dulack has several regional theatre and Off-Broadway credits and won a Kennedy Center Award for New American Plays for his post-World War II drama, Incommunicado.

Help from Our Friends

Benefits for the Kaufman & Hart Prize have drawn support from Anne Kaufman Schneider, Kaufman’s daughter; Kitty Carlisle Hart, Hart’s widow and grand dame of theatre, opera and television; Julie Andrews, whom Hart directed in Broadway performances of My Fair Lady and Camelot, and Al Franken, famed political satirist and Saturday Night Live alumnus.