February 2014 was a very good month for U-M’s School of Music, Theatre & Dance alumni.

Playwright Dominique Morisseau’s “Detroit ’67” won the Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History.

The award includes a $100,000 cash prize as well as assistance from the Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning at Columbia University Libraries in creating a teaching website that will put the work in historical context, and offer study guides and scholarly discussion.

Morisseau’s play looks at the Detroit riots of 1967 through the eyes of two black siblings and a battered white woman seeking refuge in their home. Morisseau is a 2000 graduate of SMTD. Read more: http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/24/play-about-detroit-riots-wins-kennedy-drama-prize/

In the same week, tenor Michael Fabiano, a 2005 SMTD alum, won the prestigious Beverly Sills Artist Award for young singers, presented by New York’s Metropolitan Opera.

The $50,000 award honors singers between the ages of 25 and 40 who have had featured roles at the Met. Fabiano has appeared at the Met in Verdi’s “Stiffelio,” as Cassio in Verdi’s “Otello,” and, this year, as Alfred in Johann Strauss’s “Die Fledermaus.”  Read more: http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/21/sills-award-goes-to-a-rising-tenor/