NEW YORK CITY: The American Playwriting Foundation and Building for the Arts has named Dave Harris the winner of the 2024 Relentless Award for his play MANAKIN. Harris, along with this year’s finalists, semifinalists, and honorable mentions, will be recognized at an awards ceremony on Oct. 21 at Theatre Row.
Harris is a poet and playwright from Philadelphia. Selected plays include Tambo & Bones, Exception to the Rule, and Everybody Black. His first feature film, Summertime, premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and was released in 2021. He has also received the 2023 Horton Foote Prize, the 2019 Ollie Award, the Lorraine Hansberry Award and Mark Twain Award from the Kennedy Center, the International Commendation for the Bruntwood Prize, the Venturous Fellowship from The Lark, and a Cave Canem poetry fellowship, among other recognitions.
The mission of Building for the Arts is to “expand access to the performing arts by providing creative space, learning opportunities, and hubs for artistic connection.” The American Playwriting Foundation makes annual grants to new American plays. The Relentless Award, established in honor of Philip Seymour Hoffman and his pursuit of truth in the theatre, is the largest annual cash prize in American theatre awarded to a playwright in recognition of a new play. As recipient of the award, Harris will receive a $50,000 prize and developmental opportunities.
NEW YORK CITY: Lighting designer Beverly Emmons will be honored with the Ming Cho Lee Award for Lifetime Achievement in Design bestowed by the Henry Hewes Design Awards at the 60th annual awards ceremony on Oct. 21.
A five-time honoree of the Hewes Awards for six productions dating back to The Elephant Man in 1979, Emmons has 33 Broadway credits and nearly four dozen Off-Broadway designs that have made a profound impact on theatre culture for nearly five decades. Her Broadway credits include Annie Get Your Gun, Jekyll & Hyde, The Heiress, Passion, and The Elephant Man. Her lighting of Amadeus won a Tony, and she has also garnered seven Tony nominations, two Bessies, an Obie for Distinguished Lighting, and five Maharam/American Theatre Wing Design Awards (now known as the Henry Hewes Design Awards). She has curated the Lighting Archive, which makes historical lighting documents accessible to students and scholars on the Internet.
The annual Henry Hewes Design Awards honor designers for work in venues on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Off-Off-Broadway, recognizing the categories of Scenic Design, Costume Design, Lighting Design, Sound Design, Media Design, and Notable Effects. The awards are named after critic Henry Hewes (1917–2006), who created the awards and served as a board member of the American Theatre Wing until his death. The Ming Cho Lee award is named for theatre designer Ming Cho Lee, who designed more than 300 productions across the globe and was the first recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Henry Hewes Design Awards.
NEW YORK CITY: Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation (SDCF), the not-for-profit foundation of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC), today announced that acclaimed director Christopher Ashley will be honored with the “Mr. Abbott” Award, given to a Broadway director or choreographer. The award will be presented at the foundation’s annual gala on March 31, 2025 at City Winery in New York City.
“On behalf of the SDCF Board of Trustees, we are thrilled to honor Christopher Ashley this season for his contributions to the American Theatre,” said SDCF director Dani Barlow in a statement. “Chris’s extraordinary craft and artistry, along with serving as artistic director of La Jolla Playhouse, have shaped work on Broadway—and beyond—for many years and will continue to do so for many more years to come.”
Christopher Ashley, recently named the next artistic director of NYC’s Roundabout Theatre Company, won the Tony for his direction of Come From Away on Broadway. Other Broadway credits include Diana: The Musical, Escape to Margaritaville, Xanadu, Leap of Faith (Drama Desk Award nomination), Memphis (Tony, Outer Critics Circle nominations), All Shook Up, and The Rocky Horror Show (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle Award nominations). At La Jolla Playhouse, Ashley directed the world premiere productions of The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical, Babbitt, Come From Away, The Darrell Hammond Project, Hollywood, and Chasing the Song. Ashley directed productions of Come From Away in London, Toronto, and Australia, and on its national tour.
Founded in 1965, Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation celebrates, develops, and supports professional stage directors and choreographers throughout every phase of their careers. The “Mr. Abbott” Award, presented by SDCF on behalf of directors and choreographers to one of their peers, is named in honor of the renowned director George Abbott (1887–1995).
INDEPENDENCE, KANS.: The William Inge Center for the Arts at Independence Community College announces John Patrick Shanley as the honoree for the 42nd William Inge Theatre Festival, to take place April 17-19, 2025. Shanley will be presented with the William Inge Distinguished Achievement in the American Theatre Award.
Shanley’s plays include Brooklyn Laundry, Prodigal Son, Outside Mullingar (Tony nomination), Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, Savage in Limbo, Italian-American Reconciliation, Welcome to the Moon, Four Dogs and a Bone, Dirty Story, Defiance, and Beggars in the House of Plenty. His play Doubt received the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize and was adapted into a film which he also directed. Other films include Five Corners, Alive, Joe Versus the Volcano, and Live From Baghdad. For his script of Moonstruck, he received both the Writers Guild of America Award and an Academy Award for best original screenplay. In 2009, the Writers Guild of America awarded Shanley the Lifetime Achievement in Writing.
Founded in 1981, the William Inge Theatre Festival is sponsored by Independence Community College, Kansas and is the official theatre festival of the state of Kansas. The festival is named for Pulitzer- and Oscar-winning playwright and screenwriter William Inge (1913–1973), who was born and raised in Independence.
PORTLAND, ORE.: Advance Gender Equity in the Arts (AGE) announced Lava Alapai, Joslyn Housley, and Myung Jin (MJ) Kang as the recipients of the third annual AGE Legacy Playwright (ALP) grants. Alapai is the first ALP recipient from AGE’s home city of Portland, joined by Housley from Chicago and Kang from Los Angeles. The ALP grant program annually awards three recipients each a $10,000 unrestricted grant.
“I have fallen in love with these playwrights’ work and I cannot wait to share it with the Portland community and beyond,” said AGE program director Andréa Morales in a statement.
Lava Alapai is a multi-ethnic director, playwright, and photographer born in Okinawa, Japan, and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii. After graduating with an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts in acting, Alapai left Los Angeles, toured the country as a puppeteer, and landed in Portland, where she has been creating theatre for two decades. Her directing credits include a stage to film of Wayfinding (Willamette University); School Girls; or the African Mean Girls Play (Portland Center Stage); Is God Is (Washington Ensemble Theatre); The Chinese Lady (film and stage), The Revolutionists, and An Octoroon (Artists Repertory Theatre); Columbinus, Charlotte’s Web, and Locomotion for Oregon Children’s Theatre. She is currently finishing her MFA in Creative Writing and Theatre at the University of British Columbia.
Joslyn Housley is an American writer and librettist whose credits include the award-winning historical drama The Silver Thread and the 2021 film Hal King, an R&B opera based on Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1 and Part 2. Housley’s work has been recognized by the Women Playwrights International Conference/Montreal, Landing Theatre’s New American Voices, the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Playwrights Conference, the Great Plains Theatre Conference, and the Hudson Valley Writers Center. The parent of two girls, Joslyn is also pursuing her MFA in Writing for the Screen and Stage at Northwestern University.
Myung Jin (MJ) Kang was awarded the Breathe Project 2022 New Play award and Theater J’s Expanding the Canon award (2022-24). She has been commissioned by Portland Playhouse, Shotgun Players, Blyth Festival Theatre, Shakespeare in Action, and AFO Solo Shorts. Her play Pretender was a finalist for the Miranda Project and Infinite Theatre’s Write-on-Q. Her play The Battle of Saratoga was a semifinalist for the Bay Area Playwright’s Festival, the American Blues Theater’s Blue Ink Award, and Bay Street Theatre’s Wave New Works Festival. She has received numerous awards and fellowships for her writing, including from the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council, Dora Mavor Moore for Best New Play, the Barrow Group, Groundlings, UCB, Impro Theatre, and Westside Comedy Theater.
The ALP awards were created by in 2022 AGE Founder Jane Vogel Mantiri to invest in emerging writers who have historically been underrepresented and underserved because of their gender, race, and age. The deNovo Initiative, a private foundation, underwrites the awards to further their mission supporting storytellers who challenge our values, opinions, and beliefs.
AGE has awarded close to $110,000 to ALP recipients and finalists over its three annual cycles. The ALP process begins in March when AGE invites BIPOC playwrights of marginalized gender* over age 40 to apply. This cycle, AGE closed the submission portal early after receiving a record number of more than 80 completed applications.
*AGE uses the term “marginalized gender” to refer to our community who experience marginalization due to their genders. This includes cisgender women, transgender women, transgender men, and nonbinary people, among many other marginalized gender identities.
NEW YORK CITY: The David Prize announced its 2024 winners, including Meghan Finn, artistic director of the Off-Off-Broadway theatre The Tank.
The David Prize is an annual award that honors five individuals with ideas that may significantly benefit New York City. Winners are recognized for their bold visions and relentless commitment to improving New York City across a range of sectors from arts and culture to mental health and education to automation and economic development. Each recipient receives $200,000 with no strings attached.
Despite a decline in theatre attendance and ticket sales post-pandemic, The Tank has thrived by offering free rehearsal and performance spaces and comprehensive support services for artists. Finn’s idea focuses on theatres across the city reimagining their business model by maximizing use of their space through a “backend-in-a-box.”
By making it easy and efficient to welcome more artists into the space, Finn believes theatres can increase the number and diversity of shows, patrons, and ultimately revenue. Her vision is to “white label” The Tank’s successful model to other theatres in a time-bound and flexible way, helping them utilize dark periods productively. This initiative aims to generate revenue, attract new audiences, and inject fresh energy into theatre lobbies, ensuring a diverse and vibrant array of performances in New York City.
“The prize seeds and celebrates those who contribute incrementally, over days and decades, to this unique city,” said Erika Augustine, executive director of The David Prize in a statement. “It’s our privilege to learn from and support these recipients who represent the best of New York City.”