Last week was an especially good one for playwrights on the UT campus. On Monday, April 23, Linda Ramsey, a senior in the College of Liberal Arts, became the first recipient of the Wasserstein Prize for her play This Feather House. This new honor for young women dramatists, established in memory of Wendy Wasserstein, comes with a $15,000 award, a year’s membership to the Dramatists Guild, and a reading of the play in New York City with a professional cast and director. The prize was presented at a benefit for the Dramatists Guild Fund.
Then, on Thursday, nationally renowned dramatist Steven Dietz, who quietly joined the UT Department of Theatre & Dance faculty last year, was awarded an Edgar from the Mystery Writers of America for his play Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure. Commissioned by the Arizona Theatre Company, which premiered it last spring, the play conflates the Arthur Conan Doyle stories “A Scandal in Bohemia” and “The Final Problem” with William Gillette’s wildly successful dramatic adaptation from 1899 into one jam-packed adventure featuring both Holmes’ archenemy, professor James Moriarty, and his love interest, Irene Adler.
This article appears in May 4 • 2007.