NNPN to Receive The Washington Post Award for Innovative Leadership in the Theatre Community

Washington, D.C. - The National New Play Network will receive The Washington Post Award for Innovative Leadership in the Theatre Community at the 2015 Helen Hayes Award, to be held on April 6 at the Lincoln Theatre in Washington, D.C. The award recognizes pioneering organizations and individuals who give back to the theatre community, and, this year, NNPN’s leadership efforts in revolutionizing theatre arts in communities across the county.

National New Play Network is honored to be recognized for its work within the region by The Washington Post.  NNPN Executive Director, Nan Barnett noted that “DC based founding Core Member, Woolly Mammoth Theater Company, and area Associate Members - Forum Theater Company, Olney Theatre Center, Theatre Alliance, Theatre J, and Round House Theatre  - serve as shining examples of NNPN's mission in action, as each has a dedication to the development, production, and continued life of new works, as well as the innovation and implementation of ideas and programs that revolutionize the way theaters collaborate to support new plays and those who create them."

National New Play Network is proud to support the work of these and the more than 75 additional Core and Associate Members and the 200-plus Affiliated Artists who are alumni of our many programs. The organization is especially proud of the region's recent NNPN Rolling World Premieres of Colossal by Andrew Hinderacker, I and You by Lauren Gunderson, Pluto by Steve Yockey, and The Totalitarians by Peter Sinn Nachtreib, as well as its upcoming supported productions of Lights Rise on Grace by Chad Beckim and Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea by Nathan Alan Davis - and thanks the area's hundreds of theater-makers and thousands of audience members that have helped shape and strengthen these works so they can be shared with the nation and the world.

2015 Helen Hayes Best New Play Award nominees include the NNPN Rolling World Premiere productions of Colossal and I and You (both at Olney Theatre Center), Forum Theatre’s production of Pluto, and The Totalitarians at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, in addition to Associate Member Theatre J's production of The Admission by Motti Lerner.

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