Thursday, February 5, 2009
Media Crime Pays for Nashville Playwright
Posted by Jim Ridley on Thu, Feb 5, 2009 at 5:00 AM
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If all goes well, Judy Klass won't just get away with murder, she'll be rewarded for it. The author, playwright and screenwriter, a Nashville resident since 2006, is one of three nominees for best play in the Edgar Awards, the prestigious awards given each year by the Mystery Writers of America.
Klass, a Vanderbilt sociology instructor, was nominated for her play Cell, a whodunit about an addict whose locked-room death under his brother's supervision triggers a police investigation. Previous Edgar winners for best play include such staples of the genre as Ira Levin's Deathtrap, Anthony Shaffer's Sleuth and Agatha Christie's Witness for the Prosecution.
Until now, Klass was best known for co-writing the Salma Hayek-Edward James Olmos drama In the Time of the Butterflies in 2001 with her brother, screenwriter David Klass. She's also a musician with a CD called Brooklyn Cowgirl. What she isn't, however, is a playwright whose work has been performed in her adopted hometown.
"I would love to hear from some of the theater people here," says Klass, whose play made its debut last year at the International Mystery Writers Festival in Owensboro, Ky.
The 63rd annual Edgar Awards will be announced April 30 at a banquet ceremony in New York. Tell Klass to break a leg--or those of the competition.
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