If these Winship walls could talk.

Kirk Lynn, Department of Theatre and Dance lecturer of playwriting and directing, has been honored as one of the 2011 United States Artists Fellows. This prestigious award grants 50 of America’s finest artists with individual fellowships of $50,000. Past winners include Austin-based choreographer Deborah Hay, Anne Bogart (artistic director, The SITI Company), Ping Chong, Bill Rauch (co-founder, Cornerstone Theater Company), and award-winning actress and playwright Anna Deavere Smith.

In addition to his work at The University of Texas at Austin, Lynn is the playwright-in-residence and one of six co-producing artistic directors of Rude Mechs. Formed in 1995, Rude Mechs is an ensemble-based company based in Austin, Texas committed to the collaborative creation of new works for the stage. With the Rude Mechs Lynn has written and adapted more than a dozen plays, including Lipstick Traces, Cherrywood, The Method Gun, and I’ve Never Been So Happy, a Western Operetta. I’ve Never Been So Happy received the NEA New Play Development Award and was recently performed at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. and Center Theatre Group’s Kirk Douglas Theatre in Los Angeles. Since the company’s inception, Rude Mechs has produced 23 original pieces that have been presented nationally and internationally and earned over 180 local and national awards and nominations.

Lynn holds a bachelor of arts and master of fine arts from The University of Texas at Austin. He also serves as a co-producer for the Department of Theatre and Dance’s Cohen New Works Festival, presented by the University Co-op.

Founded in 2005, United States Artists is a national grant-making and advocacy organization committed to investing in America’s artists and illuminating the value of artists to society. USA Fellows are chosen through a highly competitive nomination and peer-review process. Lynn and the cohort of 2011 USA fellows represent some of the most innovative and diverse creative talents in the country.

Media Contact: Cassie Gholston, gholston[at]austin[dot]utexas.edu

Photo: J Elissa Marshall