Hilary Bettis is the initial recipient of a new prize from the Abingdon Thaetre Company that honors the work of a female playwright under 30. The company hopes that the honor will become an annual award. Tony Award winner Cherry Jones has sponsored this inaugural presentation.
Bettis’ play American Girls was produced Off-Broadway in 2008 and selections from it have been anthologized in Best Monologues of 2009 and Best Stage Scenes of 2008. It will be published in 2011. In addition, she has received the John N. Wall Fellowship for playwriting at Sewanee Writer’s Conference and two fellowships from New River Dramatists in 2009.
