Dave Harris wins the 2024 Relentless Award

The playwright will receive the coveted $50,000 prize for his play

(September 23, 2024) - The American Playwriting Foundation (David Bar Katz, Founding Artistic Director) and Building for the Arts (David J. Roberts, President; Jeffrey A. Horwitz, Board Chair) are pleased to announce the winner of the 2024 Relentless Award, MANAKIN by Dave Harris.

MANAKIN is a wedding story. But not just any wedding— this one brings together four generations for the union of Son and Daughter. Son and Daughter are getting married, just like their parents before them, and their parents before them. Oh, and this wedding is also a Satanic invocation. All the vessels are poised to spill. A raw, lyrical, darkly hilarious piece about intergenerational trauma, love in all its forms, and the ways in which language both describes and creates the world, this play channels ancient traditions and universal yearnings, drawing us into a sacred ritual. If this generation does things right, a bounteous future awaits us— including the arrival of the ultimate guest. 

"I will never forget the moment of receiving the call about this award,” said Harris. “The legacy of The Relentless Award, starting with Philip Seymour Hoffman, is profound, and I am deeply honored and grateful to be a part of its lineage.”

Harris will receive a $50,000 prize as well as developmental opportunities to be announced.

The Relentless Award’s submission process is completely blind, and the winning play is selected without any knowledge of the playwright’s identity. Despite this, two of Harris’ other plays have been previously recognized by the American Playwriting Foundation: he was a Semifinalist in 2016 and 2019 for his plays White History and Incendiary, respectively.

“There are periods in life where it feels like all of the writing has left your body, and then you write another play and it saves you,” Harris said. “This is what MANAKIN was for me. Perhaps the scariest play I've written. It is the honor of my career that it was read and rewarded by so many artists whom I have been inspired by since I first began writing plays.”

More than 1,200 plays were submitted for this year’s award. The winning play was selected by an illustrious panel of judges, including Eric Bogosian, Thomas Bradshaw, Aleshea Harris, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, David Bar Katz, Lynn Nottage, Brontez Purnell, Jonathan Marc Sherman, Lloyd Suh, and Lucy Thurber.

The jury also awarded $2,000 prizes to three finalists: My Father Was Shot in the Back of the Head by Gloria Majule; The Good Boy Game by Patrick Vermillion; and The TeeTee & Lala Show by Donja R. Love.

The winning and finalist plays will be honored at a ceremony on Monday, October 21st at Theatre Row. The evening will feature an exclusive first look at MANAKIN, plus speeches from special guests and a reception. A limited number of $20 tickets are available for purchase.

Next year’s Relentless Award will be given to a full-length musical. The Relentless Musical Award, the first of which was given in 2022 to Shayok Misha Chowdhury and Laura Grill Jaye, was established in honor of songwriter Adam Schlesinger. Submissions are expected to open later this year.

The American Playwriting Foundation  

Announces The Relentless Award 

Ten Minute “Picket Plays” 

Six $10,000 Prizes To Be Awarded To WGA Writers 

(August 3, 2023 – New York, NY) – The American Playwriting Foundation (David Bar Katz, Founding Artistic Director) and Building for the Arts NY (David J. Roberts, President; Jeffrey A. Horwitz, Board Chair) have announced a new Relentless Award for Ten-Minute Plays, created to support WGA members who are unable to work due to the current strike. Open to all current WGA members, the Award will grant each of the six winning authors $10,000. Their plays will be performed in a special benefit performance at Theatre Row by Relentless Theater Company actors including Wayne Brady, Billy Crudup, Vincent D’Onofrio, Gina Gershon, Walton Goggins, Natasha Lyonne, Sam Rockwell, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Liev Schreiber, and Yul Vazquez. Five Finalists will also be named and awarded $1,000 each. Picket Play judges include Tanya Barfield, Eric Bogosian, Aleshea Harris, and Lynn Nottage.  

The American Playwriting Foundation believes that the survival of writers is essential to our society and that writers deserve respect and support—financially and artistically. APF is committed to offering that support, and to celebrating writers’ relentless spirit and invaluable creative contributions to American life. 

“Many WGA members began their careers as playwrights,” commented American Playwriting Foundation Artistic Director David Bar Katz. “The Relentless Award, the largest cash prize in theater, was created for the specific purpose of supporting playwrights so that writing for TV and film wouldn’t be their only option if they wanted to eat and pay rent. But during this time, when those avenues have been closed to them, the American Playwriting Foundation – the theater community, the first artistic home to many of these artists – is here for them and has their backs.” 

Submissions will be open now through September 5, 2023. Plays should be no longer than 15 pages and should be written specifically for this award. The required topic/theme of the plays is ‘Picketing/Striking.’ For full play submission guidelines, please visit americanplaywritingfoundation.submittable.com/submit.  

Submission dates for the Relentless Award for full-length plays will be announced this fall. 

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 one of the most impactful awards in theater, launching some of theater’s brightest new artists who are revitalizing the American stage: Obie Award-winner and Pulitzer finalist 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 was produced at Roundabout Theatre Company; and Sarah DeLappe, whose play The Wolves, with over 500 productions, has become one of the most produced plays of the last decade.  

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

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.