Andy Sandberg, Artistic Director and CEO of the Hermitage Artist Retreat, announced today that New York-based playwright Anne Washburn has been selected as the sixth recipient of the Hermitage Major Theater Award (HMTA). This jury-selected prize, established by the Hermitage in 2021 with generous support from Flora Major and the Kutya Major Foundation, offers one of the largest unrestricted nonprofit theater commissions in the United States. Washburn will receive a cash prize of $35,000, a residency at the Hermitage Artist Retreat in Florida, and a developmental workshop in a major arts capital – which for this commission is anticipated for New York in late 2027.
Anne Washburn is a New York-based playwright. Washburn’s plays include Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play, a New York Times Critic’s Pick and fourth on The New York Times list: “The 25 Best American Plays Since Angels in America.” Her other plays include 10 Out of 12, Antlia Pneumatica, The Burning Cauldron of Fiery Fire, A Devil at Noon, Apparition, The Communist Dracula Pageant, I Have Loved Strangers, The Ladies, Little Bunny Foo Foo, The Internationalist, Shipwreck, The Small, and transadaptations of Euripides’ Iphigenia in Aulis and Orestes. Washburn’s work has been produced nationally and internationally and has premiered with 13P, Actors Theater of Louisville, the Almeida, American Repertory Theatre, Cherry Lane Theatre, Classic Stage, Clubbed Thumb, The Civilians, Dixon Place, Ensemble Studio Theater, The Folger, Playwrights Horizons, Soho Rep, Two River, Vineyard Theater, and Woolly Mammoth. Her honors include an Alpert Award, a Guggenheim, a PEN/Laura Pels Award, twice a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn, and a Whiting Award.
“I was delighted to receive the Hermitage Major Theater Award and residency,” said Anne Washburn. “This is a demanding project I’ve been thinking about for years, and this award with the residency time at the Hermitage (at what looks like a dreamy stretch of this good earth) makes it all possible.”
“Amidst four extraordinary and deserving finalists, Anne Washburn confirmed herself to be one of America’s most compelling playwrights as she impressed us all with her inventive and ambitious proposal,” said Hermitage Artistic Director and CEO Andy Sandberg. “We are honored to support Anne as she creates this epic new play, and we can’t wait to see her brilliant work come to fruition. I must thank our brilliant and dedicated Award Committee – Evan Cabinet, Snehal Desai, and Jill Rafson – for their passion, intelligence, and care throughout this process. I also want to congratulate Adam Gwon, Talene Monahon, and Aya Ogawa, each of whom are innovative and exceptional artists with thrilling, original ideas for new theatrical works.”
The Hermitage Major Theater Award (HMTA) was established in 2021 to recognize a playwright or theater artist with a $35,000 commission to create a new, original, and impactful piece of theater. Three distinguished finalists for the sixth Hermitage Major Theater Award include Adam Gwon, a Drama Desk and Drama League Award-nominated Hermitage Fellow whose celebrated musicals include Ordinary Days, Scotland, PA, and All the World’s a Stage; Talene Monahon, an award-winning playwright whose acclaimed works include Meet the Cartozians, The Good John Proctor, and Jane Anger; and Aya Ogawa, a Tokyo-born, Brooklyn-based, Obie Award-winning theater-maker whose works include Nosebleed, Journey to the Ocean, and the forthcoming Meat Suit. Each finalist has been awarded a Hermitage residency and Fellowship, in addition to a cash prize of $1,000.
HMTA winners and finalists are nominated and selected by a jury of visionary and forward-thinking artistic leaders. The 2026 HMTA Award Committee included Evan Cabnet, Artistic Director of New York’s Second Stage Theater and longtime Artistic Director of LCT3 at Lincoln Center; Snehal Desai, Artistic Director of Los Angeles’ Center Theatre Group and previous Producing Artistic Director of East West Players; and Jill Rafson, Producing Artistic Director of Classic Stage Company in New York and previously the Associate Artistic Director at Roundabout Theatre Company.
“Anne Washburn is one of our most brilliant and fascinating playwrights, and the Hermitage one of the most important and vital arts organizations in America,” said Evan Cabnet. “To know she’ll have the support of Andy Sandberg and everyone at the Hermitage as she embarks on such an ambitious project makes me excited for the future; I cannot wait to see what she creates.”
“Anne’s work stands the test of time,” noted Snehal Desai. “Her proposal raises interesting and timely questions about the Greeks, and about society. Anne is approaching these stories in a way I haven’t considered before, and I find that refreshing and thrilling.”
“There are not a lot of Anne Washburns out there,” added Jill Rafson. “Her voice is one of a kind, and the preoccupations of her subjects are so unique. No one else would even think about writing this play in this way, or about this combination of things with this source material – and that’s very exciting.”
In addition to the $35,000 commission, the recipient of the annual HMTA will receive six weeks of residency at the Hermitage’s historic beachfront campus to develop the new theatrical work, as well as a reading or workshop in a leading arts and cultural center. Anne Washburn’s commission is expected to receive its first presentation in late 2027 in New York.
For her Hermitage Major Theater Award commission, Anne Washburn will probe what she calls the “dramaturgical flaw at the heart of Western Democracy” by reimagining Aeschylus’ The Oresteia. Her approach will be informed by the ongoing debate about the role of democracy in today’s social media, the history of jury trials as entertainment in ancient Greece, and the scholarship which says that the simultaneous birth of democracy and the Western dramatic tradition was not a coincidence. Washburn plans to complete transadaptations (close although occasionally flexible renderings) of Agamemnon and The Libation Bearers, then will turn her primary attention to The Eumenides, the final play of the trilogy in which Orestes is pursued by the Furies (Greek goddesses of vengeance) and put on trial for the murder of his mother. This trial, in the original, is somewhat cursory, tipping the scales towards the newer Athenian Gods and the brand-new political experiment which was Democracy. Washburn plans to complexify the debate surrounding Orestes’ guilt, fleshing out the arguments on both sides of the conflict to more thoroughly explore the contest between our darkness and our light – and the necessities of both. Washburn also plans to structure the ‘Greek chorus’ so that audience members are invited to sing along during certain sections, a reaction to the phenomenon of Broadway mega-musicals where superfans who sing along are clashing with audience members who just want to hear the professionals. In Washburn’s world, harmony is possible.
In the spirit of the Hermitage’s commitment to the arts across multiple disciplines, recipients of the Hermitage Major Theater Award are encouraged to create a commission that directly or indirectly represents the role and impact of art – musical, literary, theatrical, visual, dance, or otherwise – in our culture and society. As to how this will infuse Washburn’s Hermitage commission, she explains, “The Oresteia was an act of art which was simultaneously an act of deep cultural and social significance. We don’t come together like the ancient Greeks did – one city gathered into one stadium to watch the same stories at the same moment – but that instinct still resounds in us, and the fabric of our culture and our society is woven throughout with the art we remember and the art we no longer remember; it’s a toss-up which is the more powerful driver of individuals and of nations.”
This distinguished Hermitage Major Theater Award recognition is not an award for an existing work, but rather it is designed as a commission that shall serve as a catalyst and inspiration to a theater artist to create a new, original, and impactful piece of theater. Further, the prize is intended to bridge the connection between the Hermitage in Sarasota County, Florida – where the commission is born – and other leading arts and culture centers around the world, including New York, London, Chicago, and other notable arts capitals where great theater is frequently developed and presented. Previous recipients of the HMTA have included Pulitzer Prize finalist and “Only Murders in the Building” writer Madeleine George; theater-maker and director Shariffa Ali; award-winning composer and theater artist Imani Uzuri; Olivier Award-winning playwright and librettist Chris Bush; and California-based playwright Naomi Iizuka. George and Ali had their first readings at New York’s MCC Theater in November of 2023. George’s The Sore Loser is a Faustian comedy reimagining the patriarchy through a small-town bowling tournament, and Ali’s play Hero chronicles a South African village faced with an opportunity for national glory through a singling competition. Uzuri’s commission, Lighthouse of the Singing Birds, had an invitation-only presentation at New York Theatre Workshop in 2024. Chris Bush’s new HMTA commission, Orlando (FL), received a premiere workshop at London’s National Theatre in October of 2025, directed by Andy Sandberg. Naomi Iizuka’s new commission, currently titled Casa de Mañana, is expected to have its first presentation in Chicago in the fall of 2026.
“This award is designed to be transformational for its recipients, providing not only significant funds and recognition, but also invaluable time, space, and inspiration at the Hermitage, plus an opportunity for these innovative theater artists to workshop and develop their original ideas,” said Andy Sandberg. An accomplished director, writer, and Tony Award-winning producer, Sandberg took the helm as Artistic Director and CEO of the Hermitage in early 2020. “In addition to introducing a new work of theater to the world each year, this is a meaningful way for the Hermitage to take a further step in supporting the artistic process, offering meaningful developmental resources to these extraordinary artists and their new commissions.”
The Hermitage Major Theater Award, presented annually, is made possible with a generous multi-year gift to the Hermitage from Flora Major and the Kutya Major Foundation. “No one does more for the arts and the creation of new work than the Hermitage,” added Flora Major, founder and trustee of the Kutya Major Foundation. “The impact and success of this commissioning program are further evidence that Andy and his team have established the Hermitage as a leading international arts incubator. I hope others who are passionate about the arts will support the important work that’s happening there. The impact and reach of the Hermitage is greater than most people realize – it’s truly unbelievable.” Flora Major was named an Honorary Member of the Hermitage Board of Trustees in 2024.