RABIH MROUĆ© WINS SPALDING GRAY AWARD
The 2010 Spalding Gray Award has been given to Rabih Mroué, an actor, director, playwright, and visual artist based in Beirut who is known for controversial work that reflects the country’s political climate, reports the New York Times. The Lebanese Interior Ministry banned his 2007 performance piece about the country’s civil war, How Nancy Wished That Everything Was an April Fools’ Joke_, which was written with Fadi Toufic. (The ban was later reversed.) The award is sponsored by a consortium that includes Kathleen Russo (Gray’s wife); Performance Space 122 in New York; the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis; the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh; and On the Boards in Seattle. It comes with a stipend to create a new work and provides for a full production of that piece by each organization.
