Douglas Williams Wins ATCA's Osborn New Play Award For SHIP
The Osborn Award carries a $1,000 cash prize.by Alexa Criscitiello
Douglas Williams has won the American Theatre Critics Association's 2021 M. Elizabeth Osborn Award for his play "SHIP." Given by ATCA in memory of critic, director, educator and new play advocate M. Elizabeth "Betty" Osborn (1941-1993), the prize recognizes the work of a playwright who has not yet received a major production, such as a Broadway or Off-Broadway engagement, or received any other major national awards.
"SHIP" had its world premiere at Azuka Theatre in Philadelphia, where Williams is playwright in residence. In the play, a young woman returns from rehab to her seaside Connecticut hometown intent on scoring the most coveted job available: as tour guide at the local maritime museum. She also nurses an infatuation with a former classmate who once attempted to grow the world's longest fingernails.