Playwright Emily Schwend Receives 10th Annual Yale Drama Series Prize for Utility

Playwright Emily Schwend received the 10th Annual Yale Drama Series Prize for her play Utility during a ceremony November 1.

The Yale Drama Series Prize, sponsored by the David Charles Horn Foundation, is given out annually for a play by an emerging playwright. The winner receives the David Charles Horn Prize of $10,000, as well as publication of the winning play by Yale University Press and a staged reading at Lincoln Center Theater's Claire Tow Theater. The Yale Drama Series is an annual international open submission competition for emerging playwrights who are invited to submit original, unpublished, full-length, English language plays for consideration. All entries are read blindly.

Utility had its world premiere at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater in January 2016 in a production by the Amoralists Theatre Company. The story is described as follows: "Amber has two jobs, three kids, and an eight-year-old's birthday party to plan. The house needs fixing up, and her on-again, off-again husband, Chris, just can't help but make things worse. As Amber struggles to keep things from boiling over, she finds herself a stranger to the person she once was and the person she thought she might be."