Mar. 16, 2000


School of the Arts Playwriting Student Eric C. Waldemar Jr. Wins National Play Award

By Ulrika Brand

Eric C. Waldemar Jr., center, Columbia School of the Arts playwriting student, has received the National Play Award. Next to him, left, is Raul Espinoza, chair of the National Repertory Theatre Foundation, and right, Steve Dennis, director of the Los Angeles production of Waldemar's prize-winning play, In Walks Mem'ry.

In Walks Mem'ry , a full-length play written by Eric C. Waldemar Jr. as his MFA thesis in the School of the Arts, has been selected the 1999 National Play Award Winner by the National Repertory Theatre Foundation.

Chosen from among 200 submissions from across the nation along with international entries, the play has received a $5,000 cash prize.

Waldemar, in his fourth and final year of the graduate playwriting program, describes In Walks Mem'ry , which centers around a man and the homecoming of his sister, as a "black family drama that has components of magic realism."

His distinctive playwriting voice was cultivated in the School of the Arts. "One of the main things I learned at Columbia," Waldemar explains, "is that I have no obligation to any particular group or person--I wrote what I thought was true, from the heart." He recalls walking into the office of Romulus Linney (who was teaching at Columbia at the time) to show him a play he had written and for which he'd received criticism. "Linney told me that when you love your community, you're willing to show all your sides. That changed me," Waldemar says. "As a black, gay male, I'm a double minority. There's a great deal about both communities that some would rather have go unheard and unseen."

Eduardo Machado, professor and head of the graduate playwriting program at Columbia, has had a strong influence on Waldemar. Waldemar says of his teacher: "He has an unshakable conviction about playwriting and he makes sure that only those who have an unwavering reason for writing go through the program."

Machado said of Waldemar, "Eric was always willful, stubborn and talented. But I knew he was listening. Teaching him was a challenge that ended with the wonderful creation of his play. He is sure of himself and doubts himself at the same time--the essential ingredients for a writer."

Since winning the award, readings of In Walks Mem'ry have been held at theaters in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington, DC.