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.