This is an excellent piece. Now that it is a YEAR LATER, we know they forfeited the 2010 prize. What is happening for 2011?  Please - do tell!

Well said!

Kamy, I applaud your rational fearlessness and good manners in the face of David LeShay's condesending tone, typos, and careless, faux-intimate lowercase form -- as if your valid objections and questions aren't worthy of the time and thought it takes to write a grammatically correct sentence. Thank you for taking this on.

I've also found the award committee's decision to "alter" the judging "process" in order to make finding a winner more viable equally, if not more insulting to the 19 finalists. It's akin to saying: "We're changing (possibly even lowering?) our standards in the hopes placating these annoying protesters."

Kamy, thank you for your fearlessness in covering this incident and for remaining gracious yet persistent in trying to ferret out the backstory. Since the answers were not forthcoming and LeShay's responses do little to correct the "misinformation" (as he calls it), the entire situation is a lose-lose for all parties involved. It's particularly disturbing to have the "play nice, or we'll pull the prize" threat made -- it smacks of retribution. My heart go out to the finalists -- clearly, if a process can't "identify" young playwrights the judges feel are worthy, then it's the process that's flawed, not the young women nominated. What a cruel slap in the face.

Thank you, Kamy.

Good suggestion by Evalyn Lee. And a She Writes Prize. Solutions, solutions...

Having worked as a magazine editor for decades now, I have to deal with alot (love re-using that) of "communications" directors at large companies and corporations. Their job is NEVER to supply information you may want. It is to stand as a buffer between what gets into print about the companies/executives they work for and the media. Their job is gatekeeper, controller of information. Not communication. That title is simply a shield, like the job.

There is a wonderful non-profit organization in England that looks for artists, playwrights and others that She Writes could contact for advice on how to find, support and stage/display new work. It is called Curving Road. http://www.curvingroad.com/why_we_do.php

One of the comments after the Time Out article suggested that they are confusing the words "prize" and "grant." An interesting argument, but considering I don't know the entry rules of the "prize" it does seem to suggest that the body doesn't have a grasp on the purpose of the "prize."

Regardless, I like Kamy's idea of a She Writes Prize...or even establishing grants. I'd definitely help and contribute.

Kamy, what most infuriates me about this exchange you had with David LeShay is his initial fig leaf:
"just try to give the rfacts (which no one really tried to get)" -- but clearly he is not interested in supplying the facts or acknowledging your repeated attempts to get at them. And he's the Director of Communications?!

I think my favorite part of the interview with Victoria was where she said, "You don't honor a prize by making it easy." Ohhhh... If I'd known that writing plays was so easy, I wouldn't have wasted my time on fiction. You crazy playwrights... keeping that all to yourselves.... Scamps!

Go Kamy! Way to hang in there and persist, meeting his dodges with firm insistence. You're my hero!

Yea, Kamy! Your ovaries are bigger and braver than David's...bits...when wanting to find out all the facts. Maybe he doesn't capitalize "I" because he's insecure? A Freudian issue, perhaps?

And I think a She Writes Prize would be a great idea.

Hey, they can give that prize to me! How does one get nominated?

I don't even know where to begin.

A She Writes competition would have just so much more credibility.

Wendy must be reeling in her grave at the hubris and snobbery invoked under her (uncapitalized) name. She knew Uncommon Women and Others had to start somewhere. She knew we are all Uncommon Women in our own way.

David LeShay is one of those individuals who is simply too, too busy and important, darling, to be bothered with punctuation in an e-mail. That is only for the little people like you and I, Kamy. I've worked with his kind before. They think they're busy. They think they're important. What they really are are assholes.

'Nuff said, methinks.

All I can imagine is that the committee only had one person apply for LeShay's job, because he certainly doesn't meet the minimum requirements for his position. And yet, they still hired him instead of leaving the position open. Hmmm.

If the playwrights made it to finalist but the committee couldn't determine if one stood out from the others, then why didn't they just divide the $25,000 among the finalists?

My gut tells me that they have a fund that stipulates the organization is not allowed to touch the principal and somewhere along the way in this bad economy someone made a bad investment and they are struggling to recover their principal to its original amount so they can eventually award another prize. A strong guess after working for years in nonprofit where money is a constant struggle, integrity as well.

The "She Writes Emerging Playwright Competition" was just given my donation.

Bring on the She Writes Prize for young women playwrights! And thank you for making moving this story forward.

Is it possible that the funding for the Wasserstein Prize was somehow invested by Bernie Madoff and all this is simply a cover up? That would explain ALOT (i know i know 2 woids).

Wow. The only other instance I can think of where medals may HONOURABLY not be awarded and everyone knows they might not if no-one meets the standard is the Chelsea Flower Show. Yes it would be unheard of and no it's not writing - but did anyone in the Wassertein Prize group actually say to these young women that the prize might not be awarded if they weren't deemed good enough in the end? I bet they didn't. That question should be asked and an answer sought as well.

Dear Kamy, You remind me of the Gorrilla Girls and WE KNOW WHO WE ARE:
In February of 1986, the College Art Association invited the Guerrilla Girls to participate in an "Anger Panel" at their national convention taking place in New York City. Dressed in black leather jackets, high-heels and gorilla masks and distributing buttons proclaiming "I'm a Guerrilla Girl," the women played a tape in which they claimed not to be angry:

I'm a Guerrilla Girl and I'm not incensed that the Museum of Modern Art showed only 13 women of the 169 artists in their International Survey of Painting and Sculpture show or that the Carnegie International (Pittsburgh) had only four out of 42. I know these figures occurred only by chance. There was no sexism, conscious or unconscious, at work.

I'm a Guerrilla Girl and I think that the art world is perfect and I would never think of complaining about any of the wonderful people in it. After all, women artists make fully one whole third of what male artists make, so what's there to be mad about? I mean, it's not nice to get angry. I wouldn't dream about getting angry. Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to listen to this.[11]

That the emails above came from a man whose job title is Director of Communications is frankly hilarious. He obviously doesn't understand that for a communications professional, every single interaction with a member of the public, a potential supporter, a donor, a client, or a critic (or any other human showing an interest in that professional's business/cause) should show the highest level of thought and care. Honestly, I've worked in communications for a nonprofit and I would have been ashamed to send out emails like that. His failure to answer specific, politely framed questions is particularly pitiful.

Wow! Just wow.

Oops ... and I apparently failed to note that his name is LeShay.

Mea Culpa.

Shay also doesn't seem to know that "a lot" is two words.

How is it that these 19 playwrights were good enough to qualify for the award, but not good enough to win? Something is fishy here.