THEATRE

Dan DeNicola is the recipient of the Rod Parker Playwriting Festival Award and will have his original play PAINT produced by Emerson Stage. DeNicola, a member of the class of 2010 as a B.A. Theatre Studies major, will have his work directed by Joe Antoun, artistic director of Centastage in Boston, Massachusetts.

With DeNicola’s Paint, Emerson Stage continues the tradition of debuting an original work written by an Emerson student. The play imagines the love story between two visual arts titans, Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns. “We look to the lives of our cultural icons for compelling stories because we have an appreciation for their contributions. So we owe it to them to represent their experiences in the spirit of authenticity,” says DeNicola of scripting the biological drama.

Emerson Stage’s annual NewFest and Rod Parker Playwright Award are made possible by Emerson College alumnus Rod Parker (’51), a successful writer and producer for both stage and screen. In addition to the mainstage production of the Rod Parker Playwright Award winner, staged readings of other works considered for the award will take place in the Greene Theater on Thursday, April 1 at 7pm.