The Ohio State University

The Ohio State University Libraries and College of the Arts are pleased to announce that South Coast Repertory Artistic Directors David Emmes and Martin Benson have been named the recipients of the 2007-08 Margo Jones Medal. The award honors those who have demonstrated a significant impact, understanding and affirmation of the craft of playwriting, with a lifetime commitment to the encouragement of the living theatre everywhere. Emmes and Benson have guided South Coast Repertory from a small touring company into one of the country's leading professional theatres, now approaching its 45th season and known world-wide for its development of new work for the stage. The award presentation will be made on May 1st at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, California, in conjunction with the theatre's nationally-renowned Pacific Playwrights Festival.

"Martin Benson and David Emmes have created a thriving theatre and a haven for new work by playwrights in the unlikely setting of a suburban southern California mall. With successes spanning four decades, they're clearly doing something right!" said OSU Theatre professor Alan Woods, speaking on behalf of the Margo Jones Medal award committee.

Producing Artistic Director David Emmes has received numerous awards for productions he has directed during his SCR career, including a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for the direction of George Bernard Shaw's The Philanderer. He directed the world premieres of Amy Freed's Safe in Hell, The Beard of Avon and Freedomland, Thomas Babe's Great Day in the Morning, Keith Reddin's Rum and Coke and Neal Bell's Cold Sweat; the American premieres of Terry Johnson's Unsuitable for Adults and Joe Penhall's Dumb Show. Emmes has served as a theatre panelist and onsite evaluator for the National Endowment for the Arts, on the Executive Committee of the League of Resident Theatres, and as a panelist for the California Arts Council. After attending Orange Coast College, he received his BA and MA from San Francisco State University, and his Ph.D. in theatre and film from USC.

Artistic Director Martin Benson has distinguished himself in the staging of contemporary work, including the world premiere of Horton Foote's Getting Frankie Married- and Afterwards and the critically acclaimed California premiere of William Nicholson's Shadowlands. He has won accolades for his direction of five major works by George Bernard Shaw, including the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle (LADCC) Award-winners Major Barbara, Misalliance and Heartbreak House. Among his numerous world premieres is Margaret Edson's Pulitzer Prize winning Wit, which he also directed at Seattle Repertory Theatre and the Alley Theatre in Houston. Benson has received the LADCC Distinguished Achievement in Directing award an unparalleled seven times. He also directed the film version of Sally Nemeth's Holy Days using the original SCR cast. Mr. Benson received his BA in Theatre from San Francisco State University.

Under Emmes' and Benson's guidance, South Coast Repertory has premiered 103 plays and has given commissions to nearly 150 writers. Over 80 percent of new plays launched at SCR have gone on to subsequent productions at theatres across the nation, including all of the major resident companies in New York City. Their records of accomplishment in theatre make David Emmes and Martin Benson ideal recipients of the Margo Jones Medal.

Founded in 1961 by playwrights Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, the Margo Jones Medal commemorates pioneers of the American professional regional theatre movement. One of the first pioneers herself, Margo Jones supported and nurtured new plays at the theatre she founded in Dallas in 1947 including Lawrence and Lee's Inherit the Wind, William Inge's Farther Off From Heaven; and Tennessee Williams' Summer and Smoke. The pattern she created for developing theatre works is now a standard for producing new plays. Previous recipients include Lucille Lortel, Joseph Papp, Zelda Fichandler, Lloyd Richards, Jane Alexander, Al Hirschfeld, Ellen Stewart, Jon Jory and Andre Bishop.

The award, with additional support through a bequest by J. B. Tad Adoue III, has been administered by the Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute at The Ohio State University since 1993. The Lawrence and Lee Institute, jointly administered by The Ohio State University Libraries and Department of Theatre, collects, preserves, maintains, and makes accessible research materials in the performing arts, with a primary emphasis upon live performance.

For further information regarding the 2007-08 Margo Jones Award, please contact Nena Couch at (614) 292-6614 or couch.1@osu.edu. Additional information on the award is available at the Margo Jones Award webpage: http://library.osu.edu/sites/tri/Jones.php.

On September 28, at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles, The Ohio State University Libraries and College of the Arts presented the Margo Jones Award posthumously to the playwriting team of Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee. The award honors those who have demonstrated a significant impact, understanding and affirmation of the craft of playwriting, and who have encouraged the living theatre everywhere.

A highlight of the celebration was the reading of a scene from Inherit the Wind by noted actors Edward Asner and David Selby, directed by prominent director Gordon Hunt. Making the presentation were College of the Arts Dean Karen Bell, Theatre Research Institute Curator Nena Couch, and Theatre Research Institute Director Alan Woods. Joining in the festivities were many OSU and COTA alumni including Dr. Bernice Zahm and Lynn Dally; theatre, television and film professionals Richard Lewis, Fay Kanin, Hal Kanter, Susan Loewenberg, and Jayne Meadows Allen, among others; and family members and friends of Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee.

Standing: Alan Woods, Jenny Lee, Neila Lee, Jonathan Lee, Lucy Lee, Karen Bell, Nena Couch. Seated: Deborah Robison, Janet Waldo Lee, Joshua Robison.

The accomplishments of Lawrence and Lee include such long running and widely produced plays as Inherit the Wind, First Monday in October, The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail, and Auntie Mame. Lawrence and Lee were co-founders of American Playwrights Theatre, administered at OSU by emeritus Theatre faculty member David Ayers.