[Vision2020] Moscow-born playwright wins “genius grant”

[Darrell Keim]

I think I saw an article on this in the Daily News.

On Fri, Sep 19, 2014 at 8:50 AM, Moscow Cares <moscowcares at moscow.com>
wrote:

> What surprises (more like "upsets") me is that the Daily News didn't pick
> up on it, yet they will dedicate a half-page pictorial to some NSA students
> working at Bucer's.
>
> Tom
>
>
> On Sep 19, 2014, at 8:37 AM, "Saundra Lund" <v2020 at ssl1.fastmail.fm>
> wrote:
>
> Thanks for sharing this, Tom.  What an honor for us to be able to claim
> such a distinguished and gifted young playwright!
>
>
>
>
>
> Saundra
>
>
>
> *From:* vision2020-bounces at moscow.com [
> mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com <vision2020-bounces at moscow.com>] *On
> Behalf Of *Tom Hansen
> *Sent:* Thursday, September 18, 2014 9:16 AM
> *To:* Moscow Vision 2020
> *Subject:* [Vision2020] Moscow-born playwright wins “genius grant”
>
>
>
> Courtesy of today's (September 18, 2014) Spokesman-Review.
>
>
>
> --------------------------------------
>
>
> Moscow-born playwright wins “genius grant”
>
> NEW YORK (AP) — Among the 21 winners of this year’s MacArthur Foundation
> “genius grants” is a playwright from Moscow, Idaho, who promises to keep
> doing what he he’s been doing.
>
> “What’s going to change about my work is ostensibly not very much,” said
> Samuel D. Hunter by phone from Chicago. “I just think I’m going to have so
> much more time and freedom to devote myself to it in this huge way.”
>
> The 33-year-old Hunter, whose plays include “A Bright New Boise” and “The
> Whale,” knew he had won the award — along with its $625,000 prize — weeks
> ago but was sworn to secrecy. Still, he admitted to feeling stunned. “It
> still hasn’t totally settled in my mind yet,” he said. “It still feels
> almost like a fiction.”
>
> The MacArthur Foundation cited Hunter for his interest in “the poetry of
> everyday speech and the aspirations of those seldom celebrated on the
> stage, from a staff of outcasts who run a newspaper for lonely, long-haul
> truckers to the octogenarian residents of a rest home days away from
> shutting down.”
>
> His most famous work, “The Whale,” which was staged off-Broadway in 2012
> by Playwrights Horizons, has at its center a writing teacher who weighs
> about 600 pounds and is eating himself to death.
>
> “I’m not writing screenplays that are being made into $100 million films,”
> he said. “These are very small, contained, quiet plays and they don’t make
> a ton of money. But for the next several years, that’s not a concern.”
>
> Hunter holds degrees in playwriting from New York University, the Iowa
> Playwrights Workshop and The Juilliard School. He was raised in Moscow and
> now makes his home in New York City.
>
> He said he was aware of the annual genius grants, but never expected to
> get one. “It honestly had never occurred to me,” he said. “It felt like
> even to consider it was sort of a narcissistic act.”
>
> He is currently rehearsing his new play “Rest” at the Victory Gardens
> Theater in Chicago. It’s the second production of his play set in a
> retirement home and it opens on Friday.
>
> “So it’s an eventful week,” he said with a laugh.
>
> --------------------
>
> In this Sept. 10, 2014 photo provided by the John D. and Catherine T.
> MacArthur Foundation, playwright Samuel Hunter poses for a photo in
> Chicago. Hunter was named Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014, as one of 21 people to
> receive a “genius grant” from the Chicago-based MacArthur Foundation.
>
> <image001.jpg>
>
> --------------------------------------
>
> Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .
>
>
>
> "Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)
>
> http://www.MoscowCares.com <http://www.moscowcares.com/>
>
>
>
> Tom Hansen
>
> Moscow, Idaho
>
>
>
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