Yale Bulletin and Calendar

May 11, 2007|Volume 35, Number 28|Two-Week Issue

Irish writer's play about Siamese twins
wins Yale Drama Series award

"The Boys from Siam," a play by Irish writer John Austin Connolly, has been chosen as the first winner of the Yale Drama Series competition.

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Edward Albee chose the winning play from more than 500 submissions. He announced his selection at a ceremony, attended by Connolly, at Lincoln Center on April 26. The Yale Drama Series competition is a major new annual award for emerging playwrights in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland.

"The Boys from Siam" is based loosely on the lives of Chang and Eng Bunker (1811-1874), the original so-called "Siamese twins," who were joined at the sternum. Much of the action of the play takes place on the day of the twins' death.

The Yale Drama Series, jointly sponsored by Yale University Press and Yale Repertory Theatre, is funded by the David Charles Horn Foundation. As the winner of the 2007 competition, Connolly was awarded the David Charles Horn Prize of $10,000. In addition, "The Boys of Siam" will be published by Yale University Press, and there will be a staged reading at the Yale Repertory Theatre. Connolly is a retired clinical psychologist who resides in Dublin.

The runners-up for this year's competition are "The Secret Agenda of Trees" by Colin McKenna and "Open Rehearsal" by Lazarre Seymour Simckes.

The rules of the competition stipulate that submissions must be original full-length plays written in English and must not have been previously published or produced. Albee's appointment as judge extends for two years. Future judges of the competition will include both distinguished playwrights and directors. The Yale Drama Series advisory board includes Harold Bloom, Robert Brustein, James Bundy, John Donatich, Alfred Goldfield, Annie Keefe and Joanne Woodward.

Submissions for the 2008 Yale Drama Series competition must be postmarked no earlier than July 15, 2007 and no later than Aug. 15, 2007.

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