Deb Margolin Awarded the National Arts Club's 2005 Kesselring Prize for Playwriting

Deb Margolin is the recipient of the National Arts Club's 2005 Kesselring Prize for Playwriting. The organization also saluted Tanya Barfield with an Honorable Mention.

Each year the National Arts Club invites theaters across the country to nominate playwrights who show exceptional promise but have not yet achieved national recognition for the Kesselring Prize. John Guare, Eric Bogosian and Lincoln Center's dramaturg Anne Cattaneo judged the submissions. First prize comes with a $15,000 prize. Previous winners include David Auburn, Doug Wright, Tony Kushner, Anna Deavere Smith, Jose Rivera, David Lindsay-Abaire, Melissa James Gibson and Tracey Scott Wilson.

Margolin was nominated for the Kesselring by the Cleveland Public Theatre for her play Three Seconds in the Key which originally ran at New York's PS 122. She is the author of seven full-length solo performance pieces that she has toured throughout the United States. Margolin was the recipient of a 1999-2000 Obie Award for Sustained Excellence of Performance. Her other works include Bringing the Fisherman Home and Rock Scissors Paper.

Barfield was nominated by Seattle Repertory for her play Blue Door. Her other plays include Dent, The Quick, 121 West, Pecan Tan and The Houdini Act. Barfield was previously honored with the Helen Merrill Emerging Playwrights Award. She will receive $5,000 for her Honorable Mention.

Margolin and Barfield will be presented with their prizes on November 20 at a ceremony at the National Arts Club. The festivities will also feature a staged reading of a new play by Margolin, directed by Michael Parva, artistic director of The Director's Company in New York.