Christopher Durang and Marsha Norman, co-directors of the Playwrights Program at The Juilliard School, are the joint recipients of the Margo Jones Award for 2004.

The award is given to "that citizen-of-the-theatre who has demonstrated a significant impact, understanding and affirmation of the craft of playwriting, with a lifetime commitment to the encouragement of the living theatre everywhere" and is administered by the Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute at the Ohio State University. From the Dallas theater she founded in 1947. Margo Jones (1912-1955) was an advocate for the professional regional theater movement in the United States and provided important support for Lawrence and Lee’s Inherit the Wind and Tennessee Williams’ Summer and Smoke, among others. First conferred upon Lucile Lortel of the White Barn Playhouse in Westport, Connecticut in 1961, other prominent recent recipients of the Margo Jones Award include Mel Gussow of The New York Times (2001) and Jane Alexander, Chair of the National Endowment for the Arts (1994).

Mr. Durang and Ms. Norman received this award both for their individual contributions to the arts and for their dedication to and success at Juilliard.