The Relentless Award Will Send Eight American Playwrights to London Each Year

The American Playwriting Foundation, which awards the largest annual grant in American theater to an unproduced play, is partnering with two of the most vibrant theaters in London to give eight American Playwrights per year an opportunity to create artistic relationships with the British theater community.

The Old Vic will annually present a staged reading of the Relentless Award-winning play in London, featuring a British cast and director, and the eight Relentless Award finalists and semi-finalists will be part of a week-long Reading Series at Theatre503, a 60-seat new writing powerhouse situated in Battersea, South London, that launches the work of more new writers than any other theatre in the UK.

"This award exists to serve playwrights and what could be more exiting for an American playwright than seeing their work read on one of the most storied stages in the English-speaking world, and to have the opportunity to work with the artists and staff of one of the most exciting producing venues in the UK," said Executive Director/Founder David Bar Katz. "And Theatre503 will be presenting eight of what we think are the best American plays written each year; eight diverse playwrights from all over the US will work with 8 British directors. Europeans who have been asking lately what the hell Americans are thinking will have an intimate opportunity to find out."

Established in honor of Philip Seymour Hoffman and his pursuit of truth in the theater, The American Playwriting Foundation will have a ceremony on March 26 at the Cherry Lane Theater to present Aleshea Harris with the 2016 Relentless Award for her play, Is God Is.

The Play Selection Committee will be comprised of some of America's top playwrights, including Eric Bogosian, Thomas Bradshaw, David Bar Katz, Dominique Morisseau, Lynn Nottage, John Ortiz, Jonathan Marc Sherman, and Lucy Thurber, Over 2,000 plays were received and considered. They sought out plays that were challenging, and plays that were, as the name would have it, relentlessly truthful.

For more information, visit www.americanplaywritingfoundation.org.

The American Playwriting Foundation's Artistic Advisors are composed of theater professionals who were all friends and collaborators of Philip Seymour Hoffman, including Peter DuBois, Scott Elliott, Robert Falls, Mandy Greenfeld, Ethan Hawke, Dominique Morisseau, Gregory Mosher, Austin Pendleton and Yul Vazquez. Laura Ramadei is the Director of Creative Development for The American Playwriting Foundation.