Karissa Murrell Myers’ BLACK BEAR ISLAND wins 2023 Mazumdar Award for New Play

Buffalo’s Alleyway Theatre has announced the winner of the 2023 Maxim Mazumdar New Play Award. Playwright Karissa Murrell Myers will receive the annual award for her play, BLACK BEAR ISLAND. The award comes with a cash prize, as well as a full production of Alleyway’s 24/25 season.

“The Mazumdar Award recognizes original plays by established or emerging writers at the peak of their powers,” says Artistic Director Chris J Handley. “For thirty-four years, the Mazumdar has honored plays that are highly theatrical in style, contemporary in dialogue, and ambitious in scope. Alleyway’s work is about developing and celebrating the American theater of tomorrow today, and Karissa’s play embodies that perfectly.”

The Mazumdar Award has been presented annually since 1989 in memory of Canadian actor and playwright Maxim Mazumdar, whose many contributions to the early growth of Alleyway Theatre were of inestimable artistic value. In 2020, the application fee was waived, opening up access to the annual competition as part of the company’s latest strategic plan. This has led to an increase in the number of applications, totalling 953 this season.

Over the past year, a group of 80 volunteer theater artists from Western New York and around the country came together to read and set these all-original stage scripts to music. Over two rounds, the team narrowed the field to 22 semifinalists, from which the artistic team selected three finalists and one overall winner. BLACK BEAR ISLAND will have its world premiere, directed by Daniel F. Lendzian, and will play on the Alleyway’s main stage beginning in February 2025.

Recent winners include T. Adamson’s THE NATURAL HORSE (2022), Deborah Yarchun’s THE ALEPH COMPLEX (2020), and Bruce Walsh’s BERSERKER (2019). Due to the health crisis, no awards were presented in 2021.

BLACK BEAR ISLAND is a 2024 O’Neill National Playwrights Conference finalist and a Blue Ink Awards semi-finalist.

“Receiving the Mazumdar Award for my play BLACK BEAR ISLAND is a great honor,” says Myers. “I am grateful for the opportunity to bring this play to Buffalo and to work with Alleyway Theatre. It is humbling to be a part of their 40+ year legacy. I am inspired by their passionate advocacy for new voices and new work with a focus on collaboration and authenticity, especially because it directly aligns with my own artistic philosophy.”

ABOUT THE PIECE

After the mysterious death of her childhood sweetheart, Amitra returns home for the first time in sixteen years and finds herself plunged into a nightmare of secrets and lies. In this gripping psychological thriller, the ancient forest of the Pacific Northwest swallows up the house and long-buried memories surface, forcing Amitra to confront the ghosts of her past in order to survive the present. With its masterful blend of mystery, suspense and raw emotion, BLACK BEAR ISLAND explores the haunting power of guilt and the dangerous allure of nostalgia where reality blurs and the past refuses to stay buried.

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT

Karissa Murrell Myers is a Filipino-American theater artist based in Chicago, where she works as a playwright, actor, producer, and casting director. She is the artistic director and co-founder of Bramble Theatre Company. An O’Neill finalist, her plays include ON THE GREENBELT, BLACK BEAR ISLAND, BLOOD OF MY MOTHER’S, THE RED FORTUNE COOKIE, HOW TO MURDER…, FRAGMENTED, and HOW DO WE NAVIGATE SPACE? Her work has been developed and/or produced at the Goodman Theatre, Strawdog Theatre, Renaissance Theaterworks, A Red Orchid Theatre, Rivendell Theatre Ensemble, Gift Theatre, American Blues Theatre, Silk Road, Oregon Contemporary Theatre, City Theatre, Boise Contemporary Theatre, Avalanche Theatre, Broken Nose Theatre, Best of Playground-Chicago, Our Perspective: Asian American Plays, and Bramble. BLACK BEAR ISLAND was a finalist at the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference. Karissa received a Jeff Award nomination for Outstanding New Work for the world premiere of ON THE GREENBELT and is a three-time Blue Ink Award semi-finalist. Her theater work includes The Court Theatre, Remy Bumppo, Goodman Theatre, House Theatre of Chicago, and Renaissance Theaterworks. Her television credits include Chicago Med, Chicago PD, The Big Leap, Exorcist, and Electric Dreams. She is a resident casting director for Strawdog and works as an independent casting director and consultant for various theater companies across the United States. She has been featured in American Theatre Magazine’s “Theatre Workers You Should Know” for her casting work and in Newcity Stage’s “Players 2023: Who Really Performs in Chicago Right Now.” She teaches at the University of Illinois at Chicago as an adjunct faculty member and has lectured at DePaul University, Ball State, and Utah State University. Holds an MFA in Acting from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, a BA in Directing and Acting from Boise State University, and is a proud 2019 graduate of The School at Steppenwolf. Member of SAG-AFTRA and The Dramatist Guild. Learn more at www.kmurrellmyers.com.

ABOUT THE FINALISTS

Winner

BLACK BEAR ISLAND by Karissa Murrell Myers

Finalists

THE LOST WOMEN by Nubia Monks

SIX MEN DRESSED LIKE JOSEPH STALIN by Dianne Nora

Headless Man’s Wife Investigates Her Own Disappearance by Yussef El Guindi

Semi-finalists

SETTING POSITIVE INTENTIONS by Deneen Reynolds-Knott

BLEEDING NOSE by Matilda Corley Schulman

DHARMA by Nanya Agrawal

FEAR AND WONDER by Jason Tseng

FUGITIVES IN AMERICA by Jordan Ratliff

GREEK TRAGEDY by Lia Romeo

GROWING UP WITH BIG HAIR by Diana Suarez Mucci

IN THE TIME OF THE APOCALYPSE by Kendra Augustin

THE MAKING AND BREAKING OF GLASS by Dylan Zwickel

THE MOUSE AND THE MUSTACHE by Anthony Dodge

A NEW NEW STANDARD by John Mabey

PRINCESS ESPERLUETTE HAS A FEW NOTES by Tiffany Antone

Nandita Shenoy MEETING

SIGNS AND WONDERS (A DELIRIUM FOR A WOUNDED WORLD) by Fengar Gael

SISTER of Lindsay Bourne

TAKE ME BACK TO YELLOWSTONE by Mike Nappi

GODLESS LOVER by Megan Medley

THE WORLD FROM KAMPALA by Chris Weikel

THE MAZUMDAR PRIZE 2024

The next Mazumdar Prize submission period will open August 1-15, 2024 for new, unproduced, full-length plays. The winning play will receive a cash prize and be produced in a future season on Alleyway’s main stage. Details and information will be available at alleyway.com.

ABOUT ALLEYWAY

Alleyway Theatre, Buffalo’s award-winning and nationally recognized for new plays since 1980, is a professional theatre company and collaborative incubator for bold, visceral new theater. Education and development programs foster the talents of emerging artists from Western New York and beyond…embracing fearlessness, theatricality, humanity, and authenticity.

Alleyway, now in its 45th season, occupies a former Greyhound Bus Station in Buffalo’s historic theater district. The company produces four major new works each season, in addition to special presentations throughout the year. Its educational arm specializes in providing students of all ages with opportunities to create new plays, not only as performers, but also as playwrights and designers. Alleyworks is the theater development organization that will present three major playmaking workshops this year.

The company has been featured on NPR’s Morning Edition and was represented this spring off-Broadway as the developer of Alex Brightman’s THE LIFE AND SLIMES OF Marc Summers which played at the Alleyway in 2023.

The Alleyway Theatre is located at 1 Curtain Up Alley, Buffalo NY 14202, in the heart of Buffalo’s theater district. More details are available at alleyway.com

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