Awards and Press
2018 - 2023 Awards
Awards and Notable Achievements
SEMI-FINALIST - Orlando Shakespeare Theatre’s Playfest 2023 (All the Emilies in All the Universes)
RUNNER UP - Judith Royer Excellence in Playwriting Award (All the Emilies in All the Universes)
FINALIST - Amphibian Stage’s 2023 Spark Fest (Everything You Can Do)
SHORT LIST - 2023 Wild Imaginings Theatre Epiphanies New Works Festival (Zero)
SELECTION / FINALIST - 2022 PlayPenn New Works Conference (All the Emilies in All the Universes)
SEMI-FINALIST - 2022 Garry Marshall New Works Festival (Zero)
RECIPIENT - 2021 Independent Artist Fellowship, NJ State Council on the Arts
WINNER - 2020 Ashland New Plays Festival (Zero)
SEMI-FINALIST - 2020 Bay Area Playwrights Festival (Zero)
FINALIST - 2020 Normal Avenue Players NAPSeries Festival (Zero)
FINALIST - 2020 Shakespeare’s New Contemporaries Program (The Moor’s Son)
FINALIST - 2019 Lark Theatre’s Playwrights Week (Brisé)
SELECTION - 2019 Great Plains Theatre Conference (Brisé)
FINALIST - 2019 Seven Devils Playwrights Conference (Brisé)
FINALIST - 2019 B Street Theatre New Comedy Festival (Cobbler)
SEMI-FINALIST - 2019 Orlando Shakespeare Theatre’s Playfest (Interviewese)
WINNER - 2018 Ashland New Plays Festival (The Excavation of Mary Anning)
WINNER - 2018 Garry Marshall New Works Festival (Interviewese)
WINNER - 2018 Dennis and Victoria Ross Foundation New Playwright Program (The Excavation of Mary Anning)
WINNER - Judge’s Prize for Best New Play at Tomo Suru’s 2018 Short Play Festival (Compelling Spencer)
FINALIST - 2017 Hidden River Arts Playwriting Award (The Excavation of Mary Anning)
FINALIST - 2018 UCF Pegasus New Play Festival (The Excavation of Mary Anning)
FINALIST - 2018 B Street Theatre New Comedy Festival (Interviewese)
FINALIST - 2018 City Theatre Short Play Award (Frozen Foods)
SEMI-FINALIST - 2018 Eugene O’Neill National Playwriting Conference (The Excavation of Mary Anning)
Reviews
Missing Celia Rose
Orlando Shakespeare Theatre
I think Ian August’s elegant, elegiac script has “potential future classic” written all over it. This dreamlike memory-play conjours up a mythical Georgian town, whose geographical isolation made it a island of racial harmony in 1921. I wouldn’t want to reveal the plots secrets, but suffice to say the author has a Faulkner-esque grasp of the poetry and pathos of the southern gothic. The show is a bit like if Tennessee Williams wrote Our Town. And I mean that in a good way. Orlando Weekly, 1/31/2008
Bermuda Musical and Dramatic Society
This play’s strengths lie in its intricate, poetic language. Missing Celia Rose is a masterpiece. Bermuda Sun, 5/20/2009
Submitted by C. Randall McCloskey
NY Intl. Fringe Festival
Mad hijinks and crazy situations ensue in Ian August’s absolutely hysterical and outrageously unique new comedy Submitted by C. Randall McCloskey. This is a highly entertaining and very funny show, although I’d imagine the humor may not be for everyone. But I’m not ashamed to say I laughed my ass off. theasy.com, 8/17/2011
Donna Orbits the Moon
NJ Repertory Company
The play is good. It's mysterious and emotionally moving, with a generous smattering of humor. SceneonStage.com, 9/12/2011
A worthwhile afternoon or evening of theater from an actor turned playwright who, like Ibsen and Shaw, finds the humanity in small domestic corners. The Mirror, 9/11/2011
At this post-Space Shuttle moment in time — a moment in which too many Americans feel permanently grounded in lives spent fending off earthly catastrophes and marking grim anniversaries — August... ha[s] crafted a modestly scaled meditation on the devastation of despair and the power of hope; one that suggests we may have lost our cold and dusty moon, but we've regained the ability to wish upon a star. Asbury Park Press, 9/11/2011
There is something sweet and vulnerable yet cosmic about Donna and her plight that reminded me of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's plucky Little Prince. And I think the production team intended this resemblance. The small protagonist, face upturned in the dark to a black sky studded with wondrous dots of light, adrift and floating—a beautiful image. It matters not at all that Donna is a woman of middle age, her spaceship an old recliner, and her universe lined with clutter. August tells us, and Gallo and Geller show us, that there is profundity in muddle and Middle America and midlife. This is a play that discovers and celebrates the cracks in the façade, the unknowable in the ordinary, the humanity in the humble. NYTheatre.com, 9/8/2011
The Goldilocks Zone
Passage Theatre Company
August’s complex structure of direct address monologues, couples’ dialogues, and alternating parallel discussions requires precise timing in both the direction and delivery of the script, and (the) director... and his cast don’t miss a beat. Phindie.com, 5/19/2015
Ian August calls his play “The Goldilocks Zone” and uses the scientific term as a metaphor for several parallel situations that aren’t aligning in perfect harmony in his smart, detailed, thoughtful and topical comedy having its world premiere at Trenton’s Passage Theatre. NealsPaper.com, 5/26/15
ZERO
Spooky action theatre (virtual workshop)
“Zero” is enigmatic, devious, heartbreaking, and breathtaking. Set in a private reform school/residential treatment center called St. Vedastus Academy for Misguided Teens, it does a masterful job of depicting the relationships among the kids. MDtheatreguide.com, 8/19/2020
Press
Features and Interviews
Features:
2/12/24 - BROADWAY WORLD press release announcing the inclusion of Donna Orbits the Moon as part of the 2024 season with a six show run.
1/28/24 - 12thNIGHT.CA review of Northern Lights Theatre Company’s production of Donna Orbits the Moon in January 2024.
6/11/23 - NJ STAGE press release announcing the inclusion of Brisé as part of Vivid Stage’s solo reading series.
7/7/22 - AMERICAN THEATRE MAGAZINE announcement of the inclusion of All the Emilies in All the Universes as part of the 2022 PlayPenn New Play Conference.
6/3/22 - BROADWAY WORLD press release announcing the inclusion of All the Emilies in All the Universes as part of the 2022 PlayPenn New Play Conference.
10/23/20 - BROADWAY WORLD press release announcing the formation of The Wirelings, an experimental digital theatre company and their inaugural performance of Cobbler. CLICK HERE.
10/20/20 - BROADWAY WORLD press release announcing Zero as a part of the Ashland New Plays Festival. CLICK HERE.
10/16/20 - MAIL TRIBUNE feature on the upcoming Ashland New Plays Festival, including Zero. CLICK HERE.
8/18/20 - DAILY DEMOCRAT article on the change from U.C. Davis’ new works festival from the Ground and Field Festival to Catalyst: A Theatre Think Tank. The premiere season includes a presentation of Everything You Can Do (To Make the World A Better Place). CLICK HERE.
8/12/20 - BROADWAY WORLD press release announces Everything You Can Do (To Make the World a Better Place) as part of the U.C. Davis Department of Theatre and Dance Catalyst: A Theatre Think Tank 2020 Festival. CLICK HERE.
4/22/19 - BROADWAY WORLD announcing selection of The Excavation of Mary Anning with the 2019 Powerhouse New Works Festival. CLICK HERE.
4/22/19 - THEATERMANIA announcing selection of The Excavation of Mary Anning with the 2019 Powerhouse New Works Festival. CLICK HERE.
4/10/19 - AMERICAN THEATRE MAGAZINE announcing selection of Brisé with the 2019 Great Plains Theatre Conference play lab. CLICK HERE.
6/27/18 - ASHLAND TIDINGS regarding The Excavation of Mary Anning at the 2018 Ashland New Plays Festival. CLICK HERE.
10/17/18 - MAIL TRIBUNE announcing The Excavation of Mary Anning at the 2018 Ashland New Plays Festival. CLICK HERE.
6/4/18 - BROADWAY WORLD announcing Frozen Foods finalist status with City Theatre of Miami. CLICK HERE.
4/24/18 - BROADWAY WORLD announcing selection of Interviewese with the Garry Marshall Theatre New Works Festival. CLICK HERE.
3/19/18 - BROADWAY WORLD announcing casting of The Excavation of Mary Anning for the Dennis and Victoria Ross Foundation industry reading. CLICK HERE.
INTERVIEWS
8/12/20 - DC METRO ARTS interview about the Spooky Action Theatre virtual workshop of Zero. CLICK HERE.
1/31/17 - Writers Theatre of NJ interview: 5 Questions for the Playwright. CLICK HERE.
5/15/15 - Playwright Adam Szymkowicz interviews playwright Ian August. CLICK HERE.
5/13/2015 - US1 Article on the writing of The Goldilocks Zone. CLICK HERE.
1/14/15 - Philadelphia Artists Collective interview regarding the 2015 reading of The Moor’s Son. CLICK HERE.
9/12/11 - Upper Wet Side interview regarding NJ Repertory Company production of Donna Orbits the Moon. CLICK HERE.