Drama Alum Wins New Play Contest
Southern Rep Theatre recently selected Drama alum Eisa Davis ’97 as winner of the Ruby Prize, a new play contest, for her play RAMP. The honor awards $10,000 to a woman of color playwright and provides future development workshops at Southern Rep in New Orleans, as well as in New York City.
Davis’ performing credits include Broadway’s Passing Strange, Yale Rep’s production of August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson, and the world premiere of This at Playwrights’ Horizons. Her play Bulrusher was nominated for the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
The Ruby Prize is named in honor of civil rights advocate Ruby Bridges, representing perseverance in the face of formidable obstacles. As a first-grader at the William Frantz Elementary School in the fall of 1960, Bridges became one of the first African Americans to attend an integrated public school in New Orleans.