After almost eight months, we have finally reached a decision and have chosen Tommy Smith as the 2008 P73 Playwriting Fellow.  It was really tough - we received some pretty amazing applications this year.  We were pulling out our (collective) hair, trying to pick our fellow for next year. 

But the collective hair-pulling was worthwhile.  Tommy’s fantastic and we can’t wait to work with him on his play The Wife, a comedy about a Hasidic Jewish wife who falls in with some pretty sketchy characters.  Because Renee Zellweger gave such a memorably nuanced performance in A Price Above Rubies* as a Hasidic Jewish wife (we’re not making this up), we’re going to try to get her to tackle the wife in Tommy’s play.  She’s going to be wonderful.  We only hope that Tommy agrees with this  coup de casting.  I mean, seriously, who is more Jewish than Renee Zellweger.

* The movie’s tagline? ”In a world of rules… one woman is ruled by her passion.”  And it wasn’t even on Lifetime.

Unless we’re on them, we think that “Top Ten Lists” are kind of silly. 

This was truly nice, though.   1001 made it on both David Cote’s and Adam Feldman’s lists for the year-end Time Out edition.  Why hasn’t Jason Grote mentioned this on his blog?  C’mon, Jason!  You’re usually so great about picking this stuff up and posting it on your blog.