Professor Lynn Nottage Spearheads Crossroads Theatre Genesis Prize for Playwriting Excellence

The Tony Award winning Crossroads Theatre Company has partnered with Professor Lynn Nottage and Columbia University School of the Arts to found the annual Crossroads Genesis Prize for Playwriting Excellence. The new prize supports the next generation of Black playwrights, awarding one Columbia MFA student a development lab and a public reading of their play with professional actors and director. The reading will headline the yearly Genesis Festival of New Plays.

“The collaboration emerged from a conversation I had with Sydne Mahone, Dramaturg and organizer of the Genesis Festival, about a need to create a creative pipeline for Black playwrights in graduate school programs,” said Nottage. “The goal is for it to be an annual award that includes a cash prize for the winner and finalists, and the opportunity for their work to be featured at the Genesis Festival and read by professional actors.”

The Crossroads Genesis Prize’s inaugural recipient, Playwriting student Silma Sierra Barrada, won with her play Pearls. The play follows both a landlord and tenant as the tenant receives an eviction notice. Inspired by the disproportionate impact of the housing crisis on Black women and Barrada’s family experiences on both sides of evictions, the play is full of empathy. 

“At the end of the day, a home is everything. And what does it mean if not everyone can have that—a home?” said Barrada. “I live in a time that prioritizes the individual over the collective. I’m guilty of it, too, choosing myself over others in small and big ways. But maybe it’s not too late? Maybe things can change?”

Pearls will be read at the Genesis Festival of New Plays on April 2, 2025, at 7 p.m. Tickets are available here.

Three Columbia playwrights were honored as finalists. Goldie Patrick ’23 was selected for her play Fish Fry, a love letter to the complex relationships between Black men. “As a Black playwright, I have a great deal of respect and reverence for Crossroads and its place in the history of theatre—specifically, Black theatre,” said Patrick. “As an emerging voice in theatre it’s the acknowledgment that assures me that there are places where my work belongs. It’s both affirming and motivating.”

Other finalists include Playwriting student Jonathan Williem Mikhael Barbee and DeAndre Short ’23. Barbee’s play The Finisher and The Opener Destroy the Universe encounters a pair of teenage twins, borne by their father, as they struggle to understand the ways of their alternate universe. Short’s play The Group follows six men as they embark on their healing journeys in group therapy for survivors of childhood sexual abuse. The play was inspired by his own experiences and the loneliness that came from men’s silence on the issue. “Maybe someone will see it and feel less alone,” said Short.

In 1978, the Crossroads Theatre Company established a venue that gave Black theatre-makers a mainstream platform for outstanding work. In 1999, the Crossroads won a Tony for best regional theater, after incubating the hit Broadway musical Ain’t Nothing But The Blues. After nearly 50 years of supporting the early work of acclaimed playwrights, the theater established the Crossroads-Genesis Prize that will give generations of emerging Columbia playwrights a platform for their work.

“The partnership with Crossroads ensures an important and culturally unique opportunity for Columbia University MFA students seeking to augment their academic pursuits with professional support of their new work,” The Crossroads Theatre Company announced in a press release.

“Our long time commitment has been to ensure that our artists have a safe and nurturing environment to thrive. This partnership is an extension of that dedication to the next generation of storytellers,” said Managing Director of Crossroads Theatre Company Ezra Ezzard.

The annual Genesis Festival of New Plays runs from April 2 to 7, 2025, at the Crossroads Theatre Company in New Brunswick, New Jersey. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit their website.