John Ransford Watts, dean of The Theatre School, DePaul University, will present the $5,000 Cunningham Prize for Playwriting to Kristine Thatcher for her play Emma's Child at an award presentation on Wednesday, April 23, 1997, from 4 - 5:30 p.m. at DePaul University's Commons Building, 2324 N. Fremont Street.

Established at The Theatre School in 1991, the Cunningham Prize for Playwriting honors the memory of the Rev. Donald Cunningham, a Chicago priest, playwright and lover of the theatre. The award, which is funded by an endowment gift from the Cunningham family, recognizes and encourages the writing of dramatic works which affirm the centrality of religion and the human quest for meaning, truth and community.

In Emma's Child, Jean and Henry Farrell have traversed the realm of medical science in an effort to conceive a child of their own. When they are unsuccessful, the modern adoption system connects them with Emma Miller, who is expecting a second child she cannot support. The couple's euphoria at the new commitment gives way to shock and grief when the boy is born with severe and life-threatening birth defects. Henry wants to stop the adoption process, but Jean is driven by the thought that this may be the only child she will ever have the chance to mother. She pressures the powers-that-be to allow her to see the child, and an exquisite love affair begins. "A particular set of very personal physical facts can transcend into the universal longing for knowledge and insight into the purpose of our existence." playwright Kristine Thatcher says. "Because of this child's short journey, every character in the play moves closer to an understanding of the truth about themselves and each other."

Emma's Child was originally commissioned in 1993 by the Oregon Shakespeare Festival for its New Play Series, and it premiered at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in April 1995. The play subsequently enjoyed popular runs at Victory Gardens Theater and at Marin Theatre Company. On Sunday, April 27, 1997, at 8 p.m., WFMT 98.7-FM will broadcast Emma's Child as part of the "Chicago Theatres On the Air" series, with Ms. Thatcher performing the leading role. The play and playwright have also received the RESOLVE Award of Excellence, the Illinois Arts Council Fellowship for Playwriting and the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.

"Instead of pointing to simple solutions, Emma's Child sensitively deals with the difficulty and ambiguity of complex moral questions," says Dean Corrin, assistant professor of Playwriting at The Theatre School and a member of the Cunningham Prize Selection Committee. "Ms. Thatcher's success in creating interesting characters who deal with broad questions of morality and faith within a very specific set of circumstances led the jury to award her the Cunningham Prize."

Kristine Thatcher is an accomplished playwright and actress. Her other writing credits include Apparitions, nominated for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize; Under Glass, also nominated for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize; Niedecker, a Susan Smith Blackburn Prize finalist and a National Arts Club's Joseph Kesselring Award finalist; Waiting for Tina Meyer; the syndicated television mystery series Hyde and Seek; and an episode of the NBC daytime drama Another World. As an actress, Ms. Thatcher's credits include Shakespeare Repertory's Merry Wives of Windsor, The Taming of the Shrew, King Lear, and Pericles, for which she was nominated for a Joseph Jefferson Award and named 1992 Actress of the Year by the Academy of Theatre Artists and Friends. She has also appeared in Arcadia at the Goodman Theatre; Three Hotels at Apple Tree Theatre; Redwood Curtain at Wisdom Bridge Theatre; Later Life, Betrayal and The Real Thing at Northlight Theatre; Dancing at Lughnasa at Peninsula Players; A Streetcar Named Desire at Milwaukee Inside Theatre; and Nicholas Nickleby at Second City. Her television credits include CBS' The Magic Door and The Trial of the Moke for PBS Great Performances.

The Cunningham Prize Advisory Committee administered the prize competition and guided the jury selection. The committee includes the Rev. Cunningham's nieces Donna Campbell and Denise Brenner and nephew Dennis Crowley, Msgr. John J. Egan, the Rev. William Burke, the Rev. Thomas Healy and the Rev. John Shea. The jury, chaired by Dean Watts, is composed of distinguished theatre professionals who are members of the faculty of The Theatre School, DePaul University: theatre critic Anthony Adler; Richard Pettengill, Director of Arts in Education at the Goodman Theatre; Donald W. Ilko, director and professor of Acting; playwright Dean Corrin; Patrice Egleston, director and movement instructor; and Ric Murphy, director and professor of Acting.

Candidates for the award are limited to writers whose residence or base of operations is the metropolitan Chicago area, defined as within 100 miles of the Loop. Emma's Child was chosen anonymously from a field of 43 submissions.