Hermitage Artist Retreat names theater award winner

The Hermitage Artist Retreat announced that New York playwright Anne Washburn has been selected as the sixth recipient of the Hermitage Major Theater Award.

Established by the Englewood-based arts incubator in 2021 with support from Flora Major and the Kutya Major Foundation, the theater award includes a $35,000 cash prize, a Hermitage residency and a developmental workshop in a major city. It is one of the largest unrestricted nonprofit theater commissions in the U.S.

“I was delighted to receive the Hermitage Major Theater Award and residency,” said Washburn in a statement. “This is a demanding project I've been thinking about for years, and this award with the residency time at the Hermitage (at what looks like a dreamy stretch of this good earth) makes it all possible.”

Photo by Beowulf Sheehan

Washburn was selected by a jury of three theater professionals: Evan Cabnet, artistic director of New York's Second Stage Theater;  Snehal Desai, artistic director of Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles; and Jill Rafson, producing artistic director of Classic Stage Company in New York.

“Amidst four extraordinary and deserving finalists, Anne Washburn confirmed herself to be one of America’s most compelling playwrights as she impressed us all with her inventive and ambitious proposal,” said Hermitage Artistic Director and CEO Andy Sandberg. “We are honored to support Anne as she creates this epic new play, and we can’t wait to see her brilliant work come to fruition." 

Based in New York, Washburn is a graduate of Reed College in Portland, Oregon, and holds an MFA from New York University. Her plays include "Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play," "A Devil at Noon," "10 Out of 12," "Antlia Pneumatica," "The Burning Cauldron of Fiery Fire" and "Shipwreck." 

Washburn’s work has been produced nationally and internationally and has premiered at Cherry Lane Theatre, Playwrights Horizons and the Vineyard Theatre in New York, Actors Theater of Louisville, Studio Theatre in Washington, D.C., and the Almeida and Gate Theatre in London.  

Among her honors are an Alpert Award, a Guggenheim, a PEN/Laura Pels Award and a Whiting Award.