Shayok Misha Chowdhury & Laura Grill Jaye
Win the Inaugural Relentless Musical Award

Largest cash prize in American theater presented to their musical 
How the White Girl Got Her Spots and Other 90s Trivia

(December 22, 2022 – New York, NY)

The American Playwriting Foundation (David Bar Katz, Founding Artistic Director) and Building for the Arts (David J. Roberts, President) have announced that Shayok Misha Chowdhury and Laura Grill Jaye, professionally known as Grill and Chowder, have won the Relentless Musical Award for their new musical How the White Girl Got Her Spots and Other 90s Trivia. As the creators of the winning submission, Grill and Chowder will receive $65,000, the largest cash prize in American theater presented to an unproduced work, as well as opportunities to have How the White Girl… developed at various theatrical institutions, including a series of staged readings at Theatre Row.

The annual Relentless Award, created in honor of Philip Seymour Hoffman, is presented this year to a musical submission in honor of Adam Schlesinger, an Academy & Tony-nominated and Emmy & Grammy-winning songwriter who passed away from COVID-19 in 2020. Schlesinger had served as an artistic advisor during the creation of the Relentless Award in 2015.

“The Relentless Award’s purpose is not just to honor Phil’s and Adam’s legacies, but to extend them through the launching of new works selected through the lens of their artistic sensibilities,” said David Bar Katz, leader of the Selection Committee. “Our judges, including Rachel Bloom, Sam Hollander, Brontez Purnell, Stephin Merrit and Lynn Nottage, come together through this award to uplift artists whose work embodies Adam’s and Phil’s fearlessness, passion, humor and relentless commitment to truth in art.”

In How the White Girl Got Her Spots and Other 90s Trivia, a White Girl's smooth white life in Suburbia is interrupted by an unexpected scar on her shoulder. A Brown Spot. In this musical automythography, told through a series of Kipling-esque creation myths, Grill and Chowder wade through a swamp of discarded tamagotchis, Abercrombie clippings, and soggy pogs in search of a history that holds them, even when they’d rather it let them go.

Together, Grill and Chowder have written musicals about the physics of light, the Armenian Genocide, boys who eat dirt, 19th century coalminers, and the book of Genesis. Their work has been seen or developed at Ars Nova, New York Theatre Workshop, SPACE on Ryder Farm, and NYMF. How the White Girl Got Her Spots and Other 90s Trivia is their unabashedly nostalgic ode to the 90s, growing up gay, and the messiness of cultural memory.

The winner and finalists of the Relentless Musical Award were selected by a panel of judges including Rachel Bloom (“Crazy Ex-Girlfriend”), James Iha (Smashing Pumpkins), Lynn Nottage (Clyde’s), Thomas Bradshaw (When They See Us), David Javerbaum (“The Daily Show with Jon Stewart”), Sam Hollander (“Ordinary Joe”), Brontez Purnell (“100 Boyfriends”) and Stephin Merrit (The Magnetic Fields).

The 2022 Relentless Musical Award Selection Committee has also recognized three finalists:

• Hills On Fire

By Coyote Joe Stevens and Keaton Wooden

A musical ghost story about the opioid crisis in Appalachia, this folk tale follows the Stray family as they attempt to overcome poverty and escape the ghosts that haunt them in their fiery Rust Belt town. Will they survive or will the town swallow them whole?

• Shoot for the Moon

By David Gomez and John-Michael Lyles

Shoot for the Moon explores a forbidden gay love affair between Mercy Wheatley, an up-and-coming Black prizefighter, and Federico García Lorca, a celebrated Spanish poet who is studying abroad at Columbia University. As they fall in love against the backdrop of the Harlem Renaissance, they're forced to overcome cultural barriers, the cut-throat boxing world, and Mercy's impending wedding to Sarah Jeffries. It's a sweaty, sexy, and surreal musical that will leave you wondering: how hard would you fight for love?

• XY

By Oliver Houser

Chris can’t shake the past. It follows him everywhere he goes, staring back strangely when he looks in the mirror. When Chris falls in love, the line between then and now begins to blur. XY follows the journey of an intersex man as he navigates a lifetime full of “firsts.” A musical drama about reconciling the past and embracing the present, XY is a powerful and timely story about our desire to be seen.

The Relentless Award selects finalists from several thousand submissions using blind evaluation, keeping the writers’ identities, gender, race, etc. completely anonymous throughout the process. Approximately 80% of Relentless Finalists have been women.

The American Playwriting Foundation, established in honor of Philip Seymour Hoffman and his relentless pursuit of truth in the theater, has presented the Relentless Award annually to a playwright in recognition of a new work. In its mere eight years, the Relentless Award has become the most impactful award in theater in terms of launching some of theater’s brightest new artists who are revitalizing the American stage: Obie Award-winner Aleshea Harris, whose plays have been produced non-stop since her Relentless win; Clare Barron, whose winning play Dance Nation went on to become a Pulitzer Prize finalist and winner of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize; Harrison David Rivers, whose play The Bandaged Place is up now at Roundabout Theater Company; and Sarah DeLappe, whose play The Wolves has received over 500 productions.

Building for the Arts (BFA) expands access to the performing arts by providing creative space, learning opportunities, and hubs for artistic connection. BFA’s signature projects – Theatre Row, Music and the Brain, and the American Playwriting Foundation– nurture artists, audiences, and youth with a focus on accessibility and inclusion.

Submissions Now Open for
the Relentless Musical Award

(January 24, 2022 – New York, NY)

The American Playwriting Foundation (David Bar Katz, Founding Artistic Director) and Building for the Arts (Wendy Rowden, President; Josh Landay, Chief Operating Officer) have announced that submissions for the Relentless Musical Award are now open and will close on March 1, 2022. The creators of the winning submission will receive $65,000, the largest cash prize in American theater presented to an unproduced work. There is no fee to apply.

The annual Relentless Award, created in honor of Philip Seymour Hoffman, will be presented to a musical submission this year in honor of Adam Schlesinger, an Academy & Tony-nominated and Emmy & Grammy-winning songwriter who passed away from COVID-19 in 2020. Schlesinger had served as an artistic advisor during the creation of the Relentless Award in 2015.

Led by David Bar Katz, the Relentless Award Selection Committee places special emphasis on works that are fearless in their choice of subject matter, featuring passionate voices that are relentlessly truthful. Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and Relentless judge Lynn Nottage said, “The Relentless Award celebrates writing that disrupts and upends our notions of what can be presented on the American stage. We are looking for brave, fearless and imaginative writers, who despite the tug of the industry at large, remain unabashedly true to their own voices.”

The Relentless Award selects eight finalists from several thousand submissions using blind evaluation, keeping the writers completely anonymous throughout the process. Judges will have no knowledge of the identity, gender, or race of a work’s creators. Criteria for submission casts a wide net of eligibility – essentially any unproduced new musical is eligible – but submissions by first-time composers, lyricists, and book writers of all identities are especially encouraged.

The winner of the Relentless Musical Award will be selected by a panel of judges including Rachel Bloom (“Crazy Ex-Girlfriend”), James Iha (Smashing Pumpkins), Ann Yee (Caroline, or Change), Lynn Nottage (Clyde’s), Thomas Bradshaw (When They See Us), Sam Hollander (“Ordinary Joe”), and Stephin Merrit (The Magnetic Fields).

The winning musical, along with finalists and semifinalists, may also receive opportunities to have their work developed at various theatrical institutions, including a series of staged readings at Theatre Row.

Eligibility/Criteria for Submission

• There is no fee to apply.

• Only full-length works of musical theatre are eligible for the Relentless Musical Award.

• The work must be unproduced and cannot have had a previous professional production or a current production commitment.

• Applications are limited to shows by writers with United States citizenship, those who possess a green card, or currently reside in the United States and have lived here for at least four (4) years.

• Musicals that utilize extant music not written by the applicant(s) (e.g. “jukebox musicals” or musicals with parody lyrics) are ineligible.

• Writers must be at least 21 years old.

• Works may be based on underlying material, in which case proof of authorization or right to adapt the underlying material must be uploaded with the application if it is not in the public domain.

• Musicals that include non-English languages are welcomed and encouraged, but in recognizing the current limitations of the reading committee, an English translation must be included for any non-English text.

• Writers and composers who have had a show produced on Broadway or the West End are ineligible.

• Musicals considered to be “Theatre for a Young Audience” are ineligible.

• Shows may only be submitted for consideration ONCE; if submitted for the 2022 Relentless Musical Award, the show will be ineligible for future Relentless Musical Awards.

The submission window is from January 25, 2022 until March 1, 2022. For details on how to submit and required materials, please visit americanplaywritingfoundation.org/the-relentless-award.

The American Playwriting Foundation, established in honor of Philip Seymour Hoffman and his relentless pursuit of truth in the theater, has presented the Relentless Award annually to a playwright in recognition of a new work. The Relentless Award has led the way in spotlighting plays and artists that have revitalized the American stage by some of theater’s brightest new talents, including Aleshea Harris, Clare Barron, and Sarah DeLappe.

Building for the Arts (BFA) expands access to the performing arts by providing creative space, learning opportunities, and hubs for artistic connection. BFA’s signature projects – Theatre Row, Music and the Brain, and the American Playwriting Foundation– nurture artists, audiences, and youth with a focus on accessibility and inclusion.