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Aleshea Harris Receives American Playwriting Foundation's Relentless Award

Ellen Burstyn and Billy Crudup spoke at the award ceremony.

David Bar Katz and Laura Ramadei of the American Playwriting Foundation awarded Aleshea Harris with the Relentless Award.
David Bar Katz and Laura Ramadei of the American Playwriting Foundation awarded Aleshea Harris with the Relentless Award.
(© Hunter Canning)

Aleshea Harris has been awarded the American Playwriting Foundation's Relentless Award in a ceremony held March 26 at the Cherry Lane Theatre. The award, established in honor of Philip Seymour Hoffman, is given to the author of an unproduced play and includes the largest cash prize in American theater awarded to a play. Harris won for her play Is God Is, which will receive readings at theaters nationwide.

The Play Selection Committee comprised Eric Bogosian, Thomas Bradshaw, David Bar Katz, Dominique Morisseau, Lynn Nottage, John Ortiz, Jonathan Marc Sherman, and Lucy Thurber.

Billy Crudup made remarks.
Billy Crudup made remarks at the award ceremony.
(© Hunter Canning)

Is God Is is a revenge tale of twin sisters that takes its cues from the ancient, the modern, the tragic, the spaghetti Western, hip-hop, and Afropunk. The play explores deviant morality, patricide, familial dysfunction and the perilous landscape of orphaned black girl/womanhood.

As previously reported, the American Playwright Foundation has partnered with London's Old Vic and Theatre503 to bring the Relentless Award recipients to the United Kingdom. The partnership will provide eight American playwrights per year with an opportunity to create artistic relationships with the British theater community.