The 2018 contest has concluded. Please check back in September for information on the 2019 contest.
The 2018 contest has concluded. Please check back in September for information on the 2019 contest.
The Jane Chambers Award
Celebrating
40 Years
in 2024!!!
"The Jane Chambers Prize for Feminist Playwriting has had an outsized impact on the field and artists lives, contributing to more astute reception, and increased production, of myriad of women and genderqueer writers for the stage." ~Maya E. Roth
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To read the ATHE newsletter article celebrating 40 years of the Jane Chambers Award, CLICK HERE.
THE JANE CHAMBERS AWARD recognizes new plays and performance texts created by women writers which present a feminist perspective and that provide significant opportunities for female performers. This annual award, founded in 1984, welcomes experimentations in form and in subject matter. It is given in memory of lesbian playwright Jane Chambers, who through her plays such as A Late Snow, My Blue Heaven, Last Summer at Bluefish Cove, and Kudzu became a major feminist voice in American theater. Sponsored by the Women and Theatre Program with the Association for Theater in Higher Education, the contest understands feminism to cross an array of class, sex, race, national, ethnic, theatrical, and/or geographic perspectives. The Jane Chambers Contest winner receives $1000 and a rehearsed reading at ATHE’s annual summer conference, where she is recognized at ATHE's Awards Ceremony.
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Read more about Jane Chambers and her work at JaneChambers.org.
Please click here or to the right for contest information or to submit your play. The deadline for submissions is February 5, 2024.
Contact our Jane Chambers coordinators Jennifer-Scott Mobley and Maya Roth with questions.
2024 Jane Chambers Award
Jane Chambers Award for Excellence in Feminist Playwriting
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THIS YEAR'S WINNER:
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shadow/land by Erika Dickerson-Despenza
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RUNNERS UP:
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Beautiful Blessed Child by Daria Miyeko Marinelli
The Words of Ants by Xiaoyan Kang
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HONORABLE MENTIONS:
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Amma’s Wit by Sandra A. Daley-Sharif
Traces of Desire by Lina Patel
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This year we had a record number of submissions--450-- read across 4 rounds of adjudication by 36 readers across the country. Thank you to all of our readers and Congratulations and Kudos to our winner, runners up and honorable mentions!
Previous Winners
Curation Notes for Winners and Honorable Mentions can be read by clicking on the year.
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Winner: shadow/land by Erika Dickerson-Despenza
Winner: The Magician's Sister by Jami Brandli
Winner: Mama, I wish I were silver by Amanda L. Andrei
Winner: Peeling Oranges by Patty Kim Hamilton
Winner: How We Survived by Pauline David-Sax
Winner: In the Cervix of Others by Alice Eve Cohen
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Winner: Queens by Martyna Majok
Winner: Never Not Once by Carey Crim
Winner: No Candy by Emma Staunton
Winner: Roe by Lisa Loomer
Winner: Femmes by Gina Young
Winner: Full/Self by Claire Chafee
Winner: Still by Jen Silverman
Winner: Mud Offerings by Natalie Marlena Goodnow
Winner: A Live Dress by Martha Jane Kaufman
Winner: The Siegels of Montauk by Meryl Cohn
Winner: Unspeakable Acts by Mary F. Casey
Winner: Trojan Barbie: A Car-Crash Encounter with Euripides' Trojan Women by Christine Evans