New York, NY (November 20, 2023) – The Entertainment Community Fund and Playwrights Horizons announced today that New York City playwright Dustin H. Chinn is the 2023 recipient of The Mark O’Donnell Prize, an annual prize presented to an emerging theater artist in recognition of their talent and promise.
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“In collaboration with Playwrights Horizons, we are honored to help carry on Mark O’Donnell’s legacy with Dustin Chinn, this year’s Mark O’Donnell Prize recipient,” said Joe Benincasa, President and CEO of the Entertainment Community Fund. “Dustin embodies the drive and spirit that Mark wished to foster in emerging artists, and we can’t wait to see what’s to come on his creative journey.”
Inspired by the singular mind of Mark O’Donnell, The Mark O’Donnell Prize is bestowed upon “America’s most anomalous, singular and curious emerging writers, composers, directors and designers.” The award includes a cash prize of $20,000; use of The Mark O’Donnell Theater at the Entertainment Community Fund Arts Center, located at The Schermerhorn in Downtown Brooklyn, for one week to develop a reading of a new work; as well as counseling from the Entertainment Community Fund on two of the major challenges faced by emerging artists: how to apply for affordable housing and obtaining health insurance. The Mark O’Donnell Prize is funded by the Entertainment Community Fund, a human services organization serving everyone in entertainment and the performing arts and is made possible by a gift from Stephen O’Donnell in memory of his brother Mark.
The Schermerhorn, an award-winning 216-unit supportive housing development for low-income New Yorkers, continues to serve as home to The Mark O’Donnell Theater. The Theater serves as a resource for Brooklyn-based artists and arts groups to aid in the development and sharing of their work, as well as a venue for integrating the residents of The Schermerhorn with the surrounding community through the arts. The building is operated by the Entertainment Community Fund in collaboration with Breaking Ground, a non-profit developer that provides permanent affordable housing for individuals and families who are experiencing homelessness or at risk of becoming homeless.
After a career of critical acclaim, Mark O'Donnell achieved commercial success when he co-wrote the book of the musical Hairspray, based on the John Waters film, with Thomas Meehan. The production earned the pair the 2003 Tony Award and a celebrated seven-year run on Broadway, followed by the 2007 musical film adaptation. The writers went on to adapt the Tony-nominated musical Cry Baby for Broadway in 2008, based on a Waters film of the same name.
Mark O’Donnell’s Playwrights Horizons credits were That’s It, Folks!, Fables for Friends and The Nice and the Nasty. His other plays include Strangers on Earth, Vertigo Park, and the musical Tots in Tinseltown. He collaborated with Bill Irwin on an adaptation of Moliere's Scapin and co-authored a translation of Georges Feydeau's A Flea in Her Ear. He also adapted Feydeau's Private Fittings for the La Jolla Playhouse and a symphonic version of Pyramus and Thisbe for the Kennedy Center.
Mr. O'Donnell published two collections of comic stories Elementary Education and Vertigo Park and Other TALL Tales as well as two novels, Getting Over Homer and Let Nothing You Dismay. His humor, cartoons and poetry have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Atlantic and Esquire. He has received a Guggenheim Fellowship and the George S. Kaufman Award.
The Mark O’Donnell Theater at the Entertainment Community Fund Arts Center is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and by Council Member Stephen Levin.