Supported by the Kennedy Center Education Department, The Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award, initiated in 1977, is part of the Michael Kanin Playwriting Awards Program. The Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award is presented in the memory of the distinguished dramatist for the outstanding KCACTF student-written plays on the subject of the African-American experience. Hansberry was the first African-American playwright, and the youngest of any color, to win the New York Drama Critics Award for her drama, A Raisin in the Sun, which opened on Broadway in 1959.  Lorraine Hansberry died in 1965 of cancer, at age thirty-four, at the peak of her career.

The Lorraine Hansberry Awards recognize the outstanding plays written by students of African or Diasporan descent that best express the African American experience.

* A first place cash award of $2,500.

*O’Neill Fellowship.  The first place playwright of the Lorraine Hansberry Award will have the opportunity to attend the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Playwrights Conference in Waterford, Connecticut, as official observer. During a ten-day to two-week fellowship at the Conference (July), the playwright will have the opportunity to observe plays by noted playwrights in development and to have access to and assist the artistic staff of the Conference. The O'Neill Fellowship provides travel, room, board, and tuition for the residency.

* Dramatists Guild Award.  The Dramatists Guild Award provides the playwright with Active membership in the Guild.

* The second place award is a cash prize of $1,000.

* Grants of $750 and $500 will be made to the theater departments of the college or university producing the first and second place award recipients, respectively.

The play must be produced by a college or university or publicly presented in a “rehearsed” or “staged reading” format following a significant development process. The play comply with the guidelines for scripts entered in the KCACTF Michael Kanin Playwriting Program.

For other questions, refer to “Rules and Procedures for the Michael Kanin Playwriting Awards Program” above.