Winners of The Relentless Award:
Full List

2023 Relentless Award

Picket Plays Winners

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The Scorpion Dance by Jon Haller 

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A Ride in the Car in the Morning

by Hannah Globus 

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fire ants by Lily Houghton and Sofya Levitsky-Weitz 

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Love Your Work by Eric Pfeffinger 

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WILDCAT by Kristen Adele Calhoun

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Me. by Jill Twiss

Read the winning plays here.

 

Picket Plays Finalists

• The Empty Space, or White People Ruin Everything by Dominic Colón 

• Hello, Stacey by Alice Stanley Jr. 

• Scabby by Dean Imperial 

• Benefits by C. Quintana 

• Merced by Alfredo Barrios Jr.

• Life With a French Bulldog by Chris Licud

 

Picket Plays Semifinalists

• Underpaid/Overqualified by Natalia Temesgen

• Coffee How by Derek Simon

• Killing Natasha Lyonne by Jamie Mayer 

• Tired of Fighting by Josephina Lopez 

• When We Eat the Rich Our Great-Grandmothers Will Smile Through Our Teeth and Taste the Future on Our Red and Ravenous Tongues by Kevin Snipes 

• Rat Blanket by Jonathan Mastro  

• The Gates by Evan Susser 

• One Day Longer by Marin Gazzaniga  

• Change the Narrative by Anthony Schneck

• Moby Dick, the Comedy by Molly Mosely

 

Picket Plays Honorable Mentions

• The Machine Breakers by Eleanor Burgess

• Shame by Sinead Daly

• Six Coffees by Sam Rubinek

• Content Farm by Joshua Max Feldman 

• Boiling Point by Amy Reed

• What We Keep by Ilana Peña

• A Rancorous State of Affairs by David Golden

• whas a cat to do? by Nambi Kelley

• The Robots Will Go on Strike Too by Jen McCartney

• Solidarity by Jessica Huang

2019 Relentless Award Winner

Nightwatch by Max Yu

for more information, visit our press page

 

2019 Finalists

• This Exquisite Corpse by Mia Chung

• Wet Brain by John J Caswell, Jr.

 

2019 Semifinalists

• Free & Proud by Charles Gershman

• Incendiary by Dave Harris

• The Leopard Play, or sad songs for lost boys by Isaac Gómez

• Pound by Sam Silbiger

• Society by Skylar Fox & Simon Henriques

• Where the Lovelight Gleams by Kyle J McCloskey

 

2019 Honorable Mentions

• angel’s share by Dominic Finocchiaro

• Badlands by Nora Leahy

• Everything Beautiful Happens at Night by Ted Malawer

• Lawnpeople by Natalie Temesgen

• Little Bird by Nicole Oglesby

• Long by Charlie Oh

• Model Citizens by Michael Chadwick

• Pidor and the Wolf by Sam Max

• They Could Give No Name by Exal Iraheta

• Your Own Personal Exegesis by Julia Jonas

2017 Relentless Award Winner

Pussy Sludge by Gracie Gardner

for more information, visit our press page

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2017 Finalists

• Hamlet by Mia Fefferman by Mara Nelson-Greenberg

• One More Less by Kate Cortesi

• There's Always the Hudson by Paola Lázaro

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2017 Semifinalists

• Before Evening Comes by Philana Omorotionmwan

• The Mermaids' Parade by Gina Femia

• Sanctuary City by Martyna Majok

• Wink by Jen Silverman

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2017 Honorable Mentions

• Another Jungle by Kristin Idaszak

• Backwater Rising by Lizzie Vieh

• Bondage by Star Finch

• (end of message) by Laura Jacqmin

• Home Church Play by Jacob Perkins

• Masculinity Max by MJ Kaufman

• Sarah's Salt. by Jillian Walker

• they don't really care about us by Aurin Squire

• USUAL GIRLS by Ming Peiffer

• Wendy and the Neckbeards by Kari Bentley-Quinn

• ZAMBONI by Sean-Patrick O'Brien

2015 Relentless Award Winners

• Dance Nation by Clare Barron

• The Wolves by Sarah DeLappe

After being deadlocked our judges enthusiastically embraced the idea of these two wildly talented writers sharing the award.

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2015 Finalists

• ‪#‎bros by Jake Jeppson

• Radio Island by Liza Birkenmeier

2015 Semifinalists

• Br'er Cotton by Tearrance Chisholm

• Collective Rage, A Play in Five Boops... by Jen Silverman

• Co-Op by Matthew Stephen Smith

• Hannah and the Dread Gazebo by Jiehae Park

2022 Relentless

Musical Award Winner

How the White Girl Got Her Spots   and Other 90s Trivia by Shayok Misha Chowdhury and Laura Grill Jaye

for more information, visit our press page

 

2022 Finalists

• Hills on Fire by Coyote Joe Stevens and Keaton Wooden

• Shoot for the Moon by David Gomez and John-Michael Lyles

• XY by Oliver Houser

 

2022 Semifinalists

• Lauren and the Case of the Missing Hair by Lauren Marcus

• Little Black Book by Billy Recce 

• Little Duende by Robi Hager and Georgina Escobar

• You, Me, I, We by Jessica Wu

 

2022 Honorable Mentions

• Against Women and Music! by Kate Douglas and Grace McLean

• A Hanukkah Carol or, Gelt Trip! the Musical by Harrison Bryan, Aaron Kenny, and Rob Berliner

• A Problem with the Pattersons by Laura Zlatos and Andre Catrini

• Boomerangs by Benjamin Velez and Katie Hathaway

• Challenger: An American Dream by Patrick Lazour and Daniel Lazour

• Cubamor by Charles Vincent Burwell and James Sasser

• Crashlight by Celeste Mackoff

• Eddie the Marvelous, Who Will Change The World by Kate Kilbane and Dan Moses

• Fountain by Christopher Anselmo and Jared Corak

• Glory, MS by Andrew Gerle

• Greenwood: An American Musical by Ronve O'Daniel, J Kyle Manzay, and Jevares Myrick

• Hart Island by Danny Haengil Larsen and Michelle Elliott

• Household Magic by Patricia Ione Lloyd and Heather Christian

• How to You: A Musical Guide To Black Boyhood by Joriah Fleming

• I Was Unbecoming Then by Lyndsey Bourne and Sam Kaseta

• Iron John: An American Ghost Story by Jacinth Greywoode and Rebecca Hart

• Marie In Tomorrowland by Maggie-Kate Coleman and Erato A. Kremmyda

• Noise by Rachel Covey

• Penelope by Alex Bechtel, Eva Steinmetz, and Brenson Thomas

• Perpetual Sunshine and the Ghost Girls by Sara Cooper and Lynne Shankel

• Reb+VoDKa+Me by Gordon Leary and Julia Meinwald

• Savage the Musical by Nicolette Blount and Lindel Hart

• School Pictures by Milo Cramer

• Shoshana in December by Rose Oser, Weston Scott, and Matthew Grandy

• Soft Butter: a trans fantasia on edible themes by É Boylan

• The Bubble by Janine McGuire and Arrie Simon

• The Firebird by Christopher Staskel and Lisa Burns

• TL;DR: Thelma Louise; Dyke Remix by EllaRose Chary and Brandon James Gwinn

• We Foxes by Ryan Scott Oliver

• Wings by Danny K Bernstein

• 2 & 1: A Harlem Musical With Loose Morals by Joël René Scoville and Jenna Byrd

2018 Relentless Award Winner

The Bandaged Place by Harrison David Rivers

for more information, visit our press page

 

2018 Finalists

• The 626 Project by Lisa Sanaye Dring

• The Girl is Chained by Genne Murphy

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2018 Semifinalists​

• The Absentee by Julia Doolittle

• cullud wattah by Erika Dickerson-Despenza

• The End of a Sound by Ann Gillespie

• littleghost by Liza Birkenmeier

• Our Dear Dead Drug Lord by Alexis Scheer

• suspension by Kristiana Colón

• With Great Difficulty Alice Sits by Hannah Kenah

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2018 Honorable Mentions

• american (tele)visions by Victor I. Cazares

• Biting Hands by Laura Winters

• But When I Started to Play! by Max Baker

• Immortality Crisis by Alexander Pine

• Montag by Kate Tarker

• PSYCHOPSYCHOTIC, or, everyone at yale is a goddamn sociopath!!! by Alexa Derman

• Cave Canem by A. Emmanuel Leadon

• TJ Love Sally 4 Ever by James Ijames

• We Are Radios by Chana Porter

• WOLFCRUSH (a queer werewolf play in three acts) by Haygen-Brice Walker

2016 Relentless Award Winner

Is God Is by Aleshea Harris

for more information, visit our press page

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2016 Finalists

• Recent Alien Abductions by Jorge Ignacio Cortiñas

• The Treasurer by Max Posner

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2016 Semifinalists

• The Art of Gaman by Dipika Guha

• Laura and the Sea by Kate Tarker

• Ready Steady Yeti Go by David Jacobi

• Tom & Eliza by Celine Song

• White History by Dave Harris

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2016 Honorable Mentions

• Advance Man by Abe Koogler

• Bhuta Kala by Nathaniel Shapiro

• Charleses by Carl Holder

• Between Misery and the Sun by Mady Schutzman

• Brunch by Maya Macdonald

• Evanston Salt Costs Climbing by Will Arbery

• Great White by Deborah Yarchun

• If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must Be a Muhfucka by Tori Sampson

• Kin Folk by William Glick

• NC-17 by Rodney Hicks

• Spare Rib by Winter Miller

• That Poor Girl and How He Killed Her by Jen Silverman

• Trees in their Youth by Dominic Finochiarro

• Viv is for Vengeance by Lindsey Hope Pearlman