Author David Savran awarded 2011 Kurt Weill Article Prize for 'Highbrow/Lowdown'
American Theatre professor David Savran has been awarded the 2011 Kurt Weill Article Prize for the chapter “Fascinating Rhythm” in his University of Michigan Press book Highbrow/Lowdown: Theater, Jazz, and the Making of the New Middle Class.
Described by the panel as “vivid and eminently readable," Savran's work "beautifully contextualizes – from the viewpoint of a theater scholar/cultural historian – George Gershwin’s works for the musical stage.”
“It has wide appeal, as seems fitting for a prize bearing the name Kurt Weill. In fact, in its lucid portrayal of the ‘crossing of categories’ between highbrow and lowbrow elements in 1920s theater, the chapter ‘Fascinating Rhythm’ offers a rich background to the situation of musical theater as Weill found it when he arrived in New York in the mid-1930s and began his own series of ‘crossings,’” the judges wrote.
Savran will receive a a cash award of $2,000 and a plaque commemorating his achievement. He'll be honored at a reception following the annual meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Kurt Weill Foundation, to be held on Dec. 19, 2011. Congratulations, David!
