On Friday, 28 October, 2011, Adeline Chia from The Straits Times in Singapore reported Haresh Sharma as the first non-American to receive a US Award given by Tisch School of the Arts.
“It felt a bit unreal… But I think it reflects that Tisch is going more international writers to its programme.” Says acclaimed Singaporean playwright and Adjunct Professor in New York University Tisch School of the Arts Asia, Haresh Sharma, who has been awarded the distinguished Goldberg Master Playwright Award by New York University Tisch School of the Arts.
Haresh is the first non-American to have received this annual award – given only to “an outstanding playwright whose body of work represents the highest level of potential of the art of dramatic writing for the stage”. A total of US$10,000 to create a six-session playwriting workshop at New York University, which had already begun yesterday, will be awarded to Haresh.
Famed for his play, Gemuk Girls, a winner for Best Script at the Life! Theatre Awards, American actors will perform in English for the entire play, although the play was initially performed in Singapore in both the English and Malay. Coincidentally, Gemuk Girls is slated to take place next month at The Necessary Stage’s Black Box.
Writer of more than 60 plays, Haresh’s works usually deal with sensitive social issues such as mental illness in 1993’s Off Centre, which became the first Singapore play to become an O-level literature text in 2006 and drug use in 2007’s Good People.
Mark Dickerman, previous Chair for Tisch Asia’s Dramatic Writing Department voted Haresh for the illustrious award. Residing in New York now where Mark Dickerman is now teaching at New York University Tisch School of the Arts said of Haresh, “The great playwrights reach beyond their grasp to create art that stimulates the audience and illuminates the world. Haresh Sharma is this kind of artist. He is a master playwright and an artist of conscience who creates breakthrough work in form and style.”
Mark Dickerman added, “We admire Mr. Sharma and cite him for the excellence and originality of this story-making, his technical virtuosity as a playwright, his ability to work in different theatrical forms, and for his courage, vision, and his relationship with the audience and his fellow collaborators in the process of making a play.”
For the full report, please see.
