# The Marina Keegan Award for Excellence in Playwriting (Est. 2013)

**Source**: https://collegearts.yale.edu/academics/prizes-and-awards/The-Marina-Keegan-Award-for-Excellence-in-Playwriting-%28Est.%202013%29
**Parent**: https://collegearts.yale.edu/academics/prizes-and-awards

This award honors the memory of Marina Keegan ’12, a gifted playwright. Graduating seniors in English and Theater and Performance Studies, as well as seniors in other departments who have studied playwriting at Yale, are invited to submit a portfolio of dramatic writing for consideration – two plays, at least one of them full-length.

**2025**

[**Chesed Chap, *Pauli Murray College***](https://collegearts.yale.edu/biography/chesed-chap)

As in the best writing for the stage, playwright Chesed Chap *hears*the voices of her characters rather than *masterminds*them; this young playwright melts the reader’s distance from her characters with compassion for them as they, like all of us, seek connection in a disconnected world.

Chesed is a beautiful playwright, and a beautiful student of playwrighting, which are distinct qualities she has always evinced. Her comic sensibility serves to deepen her themes of love in the face of obstacle; of striving in the presence of indifference; of loss and joy in the middle of youth and yearning.

She has distinguished herself at Yale as the leader and head writer of an on-campus comedy group, as a featured artist in the Yale Playwrights Festival, an an actor in numerous productions, and as a writer of great promise.

**2024**

[**Mikayla Johnson, *Saybrook College***](https://collegearts.yale.edu/biography/mikayla-johnson)

The Marina Keegan Award for Excellence in Playwriting for *SAPPHIRE, after jezebel* and *East of Mercy*. Mikayla Johnson’s beautiful play *East of Mercy*, ached with the deepest look at the nature of family and memory, definitions of home, the diasporas of Blackness; the almost molecular forgiveness that comes with maternal love.

[**Hank Graham, *Davenport College***](https://collegearts.yale.edu/biography/hank-graham)

The Marina Keegan Award for Excellence in Playwriting for *[The Mourning Show](https://collegearts.yale.edu/events/shows-screenings/mourning-show)* and *[The Final Flight of the Passenger Pigeon](https://collegearts.yale.edu/events/shows-screenings/final-flight-passenger-pigeon).*

**2023**

[**Elliot Lewis, *Branford College***](https://collegearts.yale.edu/academics/prizes-and-awards/The-Marina-Keegan-Award-for-Excellence-in-Playwriting-%28Est.%202013%29/elliot#overlay-context=academics/prizes-and-awards)

**2022**

[**Gabrielle Poisson, *Pauli Murray College***](/academics/prizes-and-awards/The-Marina-Keegan-Award-for-Excellence-in-Playwriting-%28Est.%202013%29-0)

[**Charlotte Foote, *Jonathan Edwards College***](/academics/prizes-and-awards/The-Marina-Keegan-Award-for-Excellence-in-Playwriting-%28Est.%202013%29-1)

**2021**

[**Marty Chandler, *Ezra Stiles College***](https://collegearts.yale.edu/academics/prizes-and-awards/The-Marina-Keegan-Award-for-Excellence-in-Playwriting-%28Est.%202013%29/marty)

[**Kevin Tang, *Davenport College***](https://collegearts.yale.edu/academics/prizes-and-awards/The-Marina-Keegan-Award-for-Excellence-in-Playwriting-%28Est.%202013%29/kevin)

**2020**

[**Walker Caplan, *Branford College***](https://collegearts.yale.edu/academics/prizes-and-awards/The-Marina-Keegan-Award-for-Excellence-in-Playwriting-%28Est.%202013%29/walker)

[**Carrie Mannino, *Trumbull College***](https://collegearts.yale.edu/academics/prizes-and-awards/The-Marina-Keegan-Award-for-Excellence-in-Playwriting-%28Est.%202013%29/carrie)\

**2019**

[**Alexis “a.k.” Payne, *Berkeley College***](https://collegearts.yale.edu/academics/prizes-and-awards/The-Marina-Keegan-Award-for-Excellence-in-Playwriting-%28Est.%202013%29/alexis)

[**Rachel Calnek-Sugin, *Silliman College***](https://collegearts.yale.edu/academics/prizes-and-awards/The-Marina-Keegan-Award-for-Excellence-in-Playwriting-%28Est.%202013%29/rachel#overlay-context=biography/rachel-calnek-sugin)

**2018**

[**Alexa Derman, *Berkeley College***](https://collegearts.yale.edu/academics/prizes-and-awards/The-Marina-Keegan-Award-for-Excellence-in-Playwriting-%28Est.%202013%29/Alexa-Derman)

**2017**

[**Stefani Kuo, *Pierson College***](http://www.stefanikuo.com/bio)

**2016**

[**Dave Harris, *Jonathan Edwards College***](https://www.staydancingdave.com/about)

**2015**

[**Eric Sirakian, *Jonathan Edwards College***](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm9787451/)

**2014**

[**Ali Viterbi, *Branford College***](https://aliviterbi.com/bio/)

**2013**

[**Nicole Davis, *Berkeley College***](https://news.yale.edu/2013/05/20/graduating-senior-nicole-davis-wins-first-marina-keegan-award-her-playwriting)