A handful of Utah writers and theater artists have been honored with prestigious awards.
Utah poet Lisa Bickmore has won the Ballymaloe International Poetry Prize, awarded by the Irish Writers Centre for a single unpublished poem, for "Eidolon," a meditation on love and grief.
Bickmore is an associate professor at Salt Lake Community College who was awarded the Salt Lake City Mayor's Artist Award for the Literary Arts in 2008. Her first poetry collection, "Haste," was published by Signature Press; her second collection, "flicker," will be published by Elixir Press, where it won the 2014 Antivenom Prize.
Utah-based playwright Julie Jensen, who adapted "Mockingbird" from the National Book Award young-adult novel by Katherine Erskine, has received the David Mark Cohen National Playwriting Award. The play received a workshop production at Weber State University last year and a Kennedy Center Theater for Young Audiences production in Washington, D.C., earlier this year. Pygmalion Productions in Salt Lake City wraps up a critically acclaimed staging of the play on Saturday, May 2.
The Brigham Young University theater and media arts department won 13 awards for its production of "Our Town" as part of the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. The BYU production was noted for its integration of video and live performance, receiving an award for outstanding production of a modern classic.
Other BYU awards: outstanding director of a play, Stephanie Breinholt (sharing the award with Maiya Corral, of Diablo Valley College, who directed "The Pillowman"); outstanding lighting design, Mark Ohran; outstanding costume design, Ashley Cook; outstanding performance by an actress in a supporting role, Mackenzie Larsen; special achievement in film and projection design, David Jon Banks; distinguished performance by an actress in a leading role, Brittany Stahly; distinguished performance by an actor in a leading role, Morgan Gunter and Jacob Swain; distinguished performance by an actor in a supporting role, Joseph Skousen; commendation for achievement in stage management, Hannah Richardson; and commendation for achievement in performance, Andrew Justvig.
"We worked tirelessly on this show, scouting for locations, film prototyping, rehearsing and performing in each venue for over a full year now," said Breinholt, BYU assistant professor and the show's director, in a statement. "It is a distinct honor for the production to be invited to KCACTF regional festival, but to receive such national recognition is simply remarkable."
Also receiving commendation was Weber State University student Shawnee K. Johnson, for distinguished performance in a leading role as Vivian Bearing in "Wit."
Alexia McCarty, an eighth-grade writer from Ogden, has won the national Young Playwrights for Change competition, sponsored by Theatre for Young Audiences/USA and the American Alliance for Theater in Education. Her play, "Life Goes On," is about 12-year-old Claire, the child of divorced parents who is challenged when she meets her father's fiancée.
"Life Goes On" earned the regional top spot after it was performed by Utah Valley University actors in March as part of the Noorda Center's Young Playwrights for Change workshop. As the national winner, Alexia's play will receive a professional staged reading at the One Theatre World 2015 conference in Chicago on May 9 and will be published in the competition's anthology.
Paul M. Durham, of the law firm Durham Jones & Pinegar, has been awarded Pioneer Theatre Company's Bravo award. Durham, who joined the company's board of directors in 2003, served as chairman during the search for a new artistic director in 2012 and the completion of Meldrum House artist housing project. He also served as the theater's representative on the Zoo, Arts and Parks Program (ZAP) reauthorization committee in 2014.
In his professional life, Durham was named lawyer of the year in litigation-real estate for 2014 by U.S. New Media Group and Best Lawyers in America, and received a professionalism award from the Utah State Bar in 2012.
St. George poet Candy Lish Fowler has been named the state poet of the year by the Utah State Poetry Society for her collection "On a Road That Knows Me."
Fowler, a former dance instructor, founded the Southwest Dance Theatre in St. George and has taught at Dixie State College and the University of Utah's Tanner Dance Program. She is the former president of the Dixie Poets Chapter of the Utah State Poetry Society, a member of Redrock Writers Guild and a former member of the Utah Arts Council.
ellenf@sltrib.com