Nancy Dean Lesbian Playwriting Award
NANCY DEAN LESBIAN PLAYWRIGHT AWARD
$5000
Including $1000 from Arch and Bruce Brown Foundation
in memory of Dr. Donna R. Barnes
The Open Meadows Foundation is creating the Nancy Dean Lesbian Playwright Award in honor of Nancy Dean.
The Nancy Dean award for Lesbian Playwrights is to honor a woman who was at the forefront of Lesbian, queer, gay, genderqueer, gender-nonconforming, trans, intersex and people of color movements. We honor her focus and writing on Lesbian relationships before the time of the Stonewall rebellion. Her writings were the precursor to social change. In that spirit of struggle and often hidden desire we encourage the submission of new plays that address the conflict of lesbian, queer or gay, trans and nonbinary women struggling to live and love their best lives. In these times of social definition and refinement the age-old conflict of acceptance and the right to live our true lives as we truly are is still our continuing fight which is refined and embolden by each new generation.
We understand people have their own language for their gender and sexuality. We are open to submission from people who are lesbian, queer or gay, trans and nonbinary.
As we are a small family foundation with an all-volunteer board, we must rely on nominations to identify potential recipients. We are asking professors, teachers, artistic directors, directors, literary managers, actors, writers, and others to nominate promising writers. As we want to be inclusive, we will allow people to self-nominate. The following are our guidelines:
Please send a letter(pdf) describing why your writer should receive this award and a full-length play (pdf) to openmeadowsfdn@gmail.com. In your letter, please be as detailed as possible in up to 2 pages. Include the writer’s resume and website or other social media links. The deadline for submissions is September 15, 2021. We will announce the recipient December 31, 2021.
Nancy Dean
Award-winning equestrian, Hunter College Professor for 28 years (Vassar BA, Harvard MA, NYU PhD) medieval scholar and author, novelist, prolific playwright, philanthropist, Nancy Dean died on October 6, 2017 in the hospital in Sullivan County. (87) Brilliant visionary, her many friends mourn the loss of Nancy's vivacious presence, genuine wit, bold activism. In 1977 when Nancy Dean learned that women received less than 1% of foundation grants, she declared: "we must create our own." The clarity of her vision, the power of her insistence, led to the founding of the Astraea Foundation which from its inception would prioritize the needs of lesbians and women of color. "Multi Multi" she insisted. We will build "unity across all class, race, and cultural divides." The legacy of Nancy's fierce, prescient leadership is manifested in the 40-years of relentless commitment to and expansion of her vision with the other founding mothers in today's Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice. With Beva Eastman, her partner of 54 years, Nancy subsequently founded the Open Meadows Foundation, a global fund for women and girls, serving those from particularly vulnerable communities. Rest in power, Nancy. Your legacy will live forever. One Act Plays include Blood and Water, Counter Talk, Gloria’s Visit, Murder at the Regatta, Ophelia’s Laughter, Returning Home, Ripe Avocados, and Which Marriage? Full length plays include Burning Bridges, Hetty Pepper’s Stew, Larks and Owls, The Misanthrope, That Ilk, and Upstairs in the Afternoon.
Dr. Donna Barnes
Died of natural causes at her home in Brooklyn, NY, on January 20, 2018. Born in Quincy, MA, on March 4, 1940, to Ruth E. Barnes and Donovan D. Barnes, Donna grew up in Teaneck, NJ. She received a B.S. from Boston University, an M.A. from Columbia University, and an Ed.D. from Rutgers University. For many years Donna was a professor of education at Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY. Her great intellectual passion was 17th-century Dutch art. She curated several exhibitions of Dutch Old Master drawings and paintings in both the United States and the Netherlands, including, most recently, a show of artist Leonard Bramer’s drawings of peddlers and craftsmen at the Westfries Museum in the Dutch city of Hoorn in 2013. In addition, she authored or coauthored a number of books on Dutch art and artists, including “Street Scenes: Leonard Bramer’s Drawings of 17th-Century Dutch Daily Life” (with Jane ten Brink Goldsmith, 1991), “The Butcher, the Baker, the Candlestick Maker: Jan Luykens’s Mirrors of 17th-Century Dutch Life” (1995), and, with food historian Peter G. Rose, “Matters of Taste: Food and Drink in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art and Life” (2002) and “Childhood Pleasures: Dutch Children in the Seventeenth Century” (2012). Other exhibitions curated by her included “Children’s Pleasures: American Celebrations of Childhood,” at Hofstra’s Emily Lowe Gallery in 2010. Donna also served as vice president of the Arch and Bruce Brown Foundation, which funds LGBTQ-themed performing arts works, from its founding in 1994 until her death. Donna was predeceased in 2002 by her life partner, Barbara Miller, with whom she traveled extensively, hosted countless gustatory celebrations at their Park Slope home, rescued many cats, and shared a beloved vacation retreat, Casa Bardoña, in Vieques, PR. Donna’s passing is mourned by family members, colleagues, and the many friends whom she loved and who brought delight into her life.
openmeadowsfdn@gmail.com.
Open Meadows Home
$5000
Including $1000 from Arch and Bruce Brown Foundation
in memory of Dr. Donna R. Barnes
The Open Meadows Foundation is creating the Nancy Dean Lesbian Playwright Award in honor of Nancy Dean.
The Nancy Dean award for Lesbian Playwrights is to honor a woman who was at the forefront of Lesbian, queer, gay, genderqueer, gender-nonconforming, trans, intersex and people of color movements. We honor her focus and writing on Lesbian relationships before the time of the Stonewall rebellion. Her writings were the precursor to social change. In that spirit of struggle and often hidden desire we encourage the submission of new plays that address the conflict of lesbian, queer or gay, trans and nonbinary women struggling to live and love their best lives. In these times of social definition and refinement the age-old conflict of acceptance and the right to live our true lives as we truly are is still our continuing fight which is refined and embolden by each new generation.
We understand people have their own language for their gender and sexuality. We are open to submission from people who are lesbian, queer or gay, trans and nonbinary.
As we are a small family foundation with an all-volunteer board, we must rely on nominations to identify potential recipients. We are asking professors, teachers, artistic directors, directors, literary managers, actors, writers, and others to nominate promising writers. As we want to be inclusive, we will allow people to self-nominate. The following are our guidelines:
- Writer is lesbian, queer or gay and nonbinary;
- Writer has written at least one play;
- Writer is writing plays about lesbians;
- Writer is committed to writing plays and furthering her/their career;
- Writer is interested in receiving the award.
Please send a letter(pdf) describing why your writer should receive this award and a full-length play (pdf) to openmeadowsfdn@gmail.com. In your letter, please be as detailed as possible in up to 2 pages. Include the writer’s resume and website or other social media links. The deadline for submissions is September 15, 2021. We will announce the recipient December 31, 2021.
Nancy Dean
Award-winning equestrian, Hunter College Professor for 28 years (Vassar BA, Harvard MA, NYU PhD) medieval scholar and author, novelist, prolific playwright, philanthropist, Nancy Dean died on October 6, 2017 in the hospital in Sullivan County. (87) Brilliant visionary, her many friends mourn the loss of Nancy's vivacious presence, genuine wit, bold activism. In 1977 when Nancy Dean learned that women received less than 1% of foundation grants, she declared: "we must create our own." The clarity of her vision, the power of her insistence, led to the founding of the Astraea Foundation which from its inception would prioritize the needs of lesbians and women of color. "Multi Multi" she insisted. We will build "unity across all class, race, and cultural divides." The legacy of Nancy's fierce, prescient leadership is manifested in the 40-years of relentless commitment to and expansion of her vision with the other founding mothers in today's Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice. With Beva Eastman, her partner of 54 years, Nancy subsequently founded the Open Meadows Foundation, a global fund for women and girls, serving those from particularly vulnerable communities. Rest in power, Nancy. Your legacy will live forever. One Act Plays include Blood and Water, Counter Talk, Gloria’s Visit, Murder at the Regatta, Ophelia’s Laughter, Returning Home, Ripe Avocados, and Which Marriage? Full length plays include Burning Bridges, Hetty Pepper’s Stew, Larks and Owls, The Misanthrope, That Ilk, and Upstairs in the Afternoon.
Dr. Donna Barnes
Died of natural causes at her home in Brooklyn, NY, on January 20, 2018. Born in Quincy, MA, on March 4, 1940, to Ruth E. Barnes and Donovan D. Barnes, Donna grew up in Teaneck, NJ. She received a B.S. from Boston University, an M.A. from Columbia University, and an Ed.D. from Rutgers University. For many years Donna was a professor of education at Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY. Her great intellectual passion was 17th-century Dutch art. She curated several exhibitions of Dutch Old Master drawings and paintings in both the United States and the Netherlands, including, most recently, a show of artist Leonard Bramer’s drawings of peddlers and craftsmen at the Westfries Museum in the Dutch city of Hoorn in 2013. In addition, she authored or coauthored a number of books on Dutch art and artists, including “Street Scenes: Leonard Bramer’s Drawings of 17th-Century Dutch Daily Life” (with Jane ten Brink Goldsmith, 1991), “The Butcher, the Baker, the Candlestick Maker: Jan Luykens’s Mirrors of 17th-Century Dutch Life” (1995), and, with food historian Peter G. Rose, “Matters of Taste: Food and Drink in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art and Life” (2002) and “Childhood Pleasures: Dutch Children in the Seventeenth Century” (2012). Other exhibitions curated by her included “Children’s Pleasures: American Celebrations of Childhood,” at Hofstra’s Emily Lowe Gallery in 2010. Donna also served as vice president of the Arch and Bruce Brown Foundation, which funds LGBTQ-themed performing arts works, from its founding in 1994 until her death. Donna was predeceased in 2002 by her life partner, Barbara Miller, with whom she traveled extensively, hosted countless gustatory celebrations at their Park Slope home, rescued many cats, and shared a beloved vacation retreat, Casa Bardoña, in Vieques, PR. Donna’s passing is mourned by family members, colleagues, and the many friends whom she loved and who brought delight into her life.
openmeadowsfdn@gmail.com.
Open Meadows Home