Company One's Ilana Brownstein Receives the Elliott Hayes Award

Company One Theatre's Director of New Work, Ilana Brownstein, is "well-known in the Boston Theatre community for championing local playwrights, advocating for theatre artists, and challenging the status quo," said Shawn LaCount, Artistic Director, Company One. "Anyone who knows Ilana, knows that she is a force - a savvy social-media activist and a skilled artist."

Many people throughout the Boston theatre community echo this sentiment, so it is only fitting that once again, she was honored with the Elliott Hayes Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dramaturgy by the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA) at their 2014 Conference in Boston, MA.

The Elliott Hayes Award recognized Ilana Brownstein for her advocacy work in dramaturgy, including her roles as the Director of New Work and dramaturgy mentor at Company One Theatre, Founding Dramaturg of Playwrights' Commons, and as a public advocate for justice and equality in the theatre. Brownstein is only the second two-time winner, first receiving the honor in 2008 for her creation of the Huntington Playwriting Fellows program in Boston.

The LMDA Prize in Dramaturgy recognizes exemplary contributions by dramaturgs to the conception, development and production of theatre or to educational projects in dramaturgy.

Brownstein has created a lasting impact on the Boston and national theatre scene through the vision of "inclusion, intersectionality, empathy, advocacy, and action." Her work includes the creation of an annual retreat for Boston playwrights, mentoring and employing early career dramaturgs, engaging with Boston civic and artistic leaders in an effort to bring about social change and actively using social media to engage in national theatre conversations while raising the profile of dramaturgs.

Brownstein recognized Company One Theatre in her acceptance speech, saying, "As I was getting Playwrights' Commons off the ground, learning to tweet, and teaching my amazing students at BU, I had the incredible good luck to find a home with Company One and its staff collective. For the first time in my life, I felt like all my artistic and professional endeavors were aligning with my own social mission: to make work that makes a difference. The founders of Company One all came out of Clark University, the motto of which is "Challenge Convention, Change our World." This notion infuses all we do. There is a presumption that as a non-profit theatre, we have a duty to represent our city in the widest sense possible, to be answerable to the people, and to provide civic benefit."