Jack Ciapciak Wins for “Naming the Dog”
The Rita and Burton Goldberg Department of Dramatic Writing at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts has announced the winner of the 2016 Rita and Burton Goldberg Dramatic Writing Award. This year’s honor and $7,500 cash prize goes to Jack Ciapciak for his play Naming the Dog.
The Goldberg Playwriting Prize was established in 1998 to honor the best play or plays written by a graduate or undergradate student in the Department of Dramatic Writing. Ciapciak, a playwright and actor from St. Louis, MO, earned his BFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU Tisch in 2016. He spent a year studying Drama in the Meisner Studio before focusing on playwriting and served on the NYU University Committee on Student Life (UCSL). He earned a President's Service Award from John Sexton for his contributions to improving student life on campus. Since graduation, Ciapciak has been working in the writers' office of Blue Bloods on CBS.
Naming the Dog tells the story of a self-obsessed millennial couple living 30 minutes away from Ferguson in the days after Michael Brown's death. While Ferguson is burning, they struggle with the biggest issue in their life, naming their new dog. The play will receive a staged reading, directed by Benjamin Kamine, on April 6 and 7 at 7:30 pm at the Tisch School of the Arts. Individuals interested in attending should contact Ayanda Wright ayanda.wright@nyu.edu.
Naming the Dog was among five plays to make it to the finalist round. The others included Cerstin Johnson's Thirst, Edessa Tailo's Althea, Kyle A. Smith's Blinded, and Adam Sharp's A Modest Proposal. In addition to the prize’s founder Rita Goldberg, the selection committee also comprised playwrights Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Chisa Hutchinson (alum), Daniel Goldfarb (alum and faculty) and Terry Curtis Fox (faculty).