Playwrights' Company


The Playwrights' Company was an American theatrical production company.

History

, S. N. Behrman, Sidney Howard, Elmer Rice and Robert E. Sherwood
established the Playwrights' Company in 1938 to produce their own plays. Anderson had been frustrated with Broadway producers as well as drama critics. Anderson had stated the goal of the company “to make a center for ourselves within the theatre, and possibly rally the theatre as a whole to new levels by setting a high standard of writing and production,”. The founders had been unhappy with the policies of the Theatre Guild which had previously been their main producer. Robert Anderson, producer Roger L. Stevens, Kurt Weill and lawyer John F. Wharton joined later. It became a major production company. The company was dissolved in 1960 as only two founders were still alive, Behrman and Rice.

Award

After Howard's death, the four surviving members of the group created the Sidney Howard Memorial Award in his memory. The $1,500 award was created as a way to encourage new playwrights; to be eligible, one had to have at least one play produced on Broadway in a given season after having little previous success.

Notable productions