2025 Steinberg Playwright Awards Winners Revealed

The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust announced the names of the two outstanding early-to-mid-career playwrights who will be celebrated with 2025 Steinberg Playwright Awards in the amount of $100,000 each. The 2025 recipients of the “Mimi” Awards are Christopher Chen and Zora Howard.

For 40 years, the Steinberg Trust has been dedicated to shining a light on distinctive and powerful theatrical voices, and to investing in the future of American playwriting amidst ever-evolving challenges facing artists.  The “Mimi” Awards are presented annually to playwrights in early and middle stages of their careers who have unique and compelling voices, and whose work exhibits exceptional talent and artistic excellence. The awards celebrate their accomplishments and honor the promise they hold for the future of American theater.

“I want to thank the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust for entrusting me with this life-altering gift. I am truly overwhelmed and humbled to be included among such an esteemed group of artists,” said Christopher Chen. “In these uncertain times for the arts and for society, I take this gift as encouragement to keep using the art of playwriting to ask challenging questions and pull at unpredictable threads. I take it as a call – in life and art and the mingling of the two – to keep pushing forward without fear, with an openness of mind and spirit.”

“I was in the middle of the street when I received the news about the 2025 Steinberg Playwright Award. I had to stop to make sure my feet were still on the ground,” said Zora Howard. “I cannot overstate the impact of this award at this juncture in my career. It is at once an encouragement to keep going, and an invitation to slow down, take stock and indulge in the act of imagining without the immediate pressure to produce. I am endlessly grateful to the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust and the 2025 selection committee for this invaluable gift and humbled to be in the company of such brilliant past recipients.”

“Christopher Chen is one of the most exciting, innovative, and theatrically ambitious writers in the American canon today, and epitomizes the spirit of the Steinberg Playwright Award,” said Hana S. Sharif, Advisory Committee Member. “A once-in-a-generation playwright, his work boldly redefines the relationship between audience and stage, dismantling theatrical walls and inviting us into a psychological and philosophical exploration of ourselves. With rare intelligence, heart, and humor, Chen confronts the central questions of our humanity—who we are, how we see one another, and what it means to live together in an increasingly complex world.”

“Zora Howard is a singular and thrilling voice in the American theatre. Her writing is lyrical, intimate, and fiercely alive, illuminating the complexity of human relationships with poetry, humor, and profound emotional insight,” said Snehal Desai, Advisory Committee Member. “Her haunting work brings to life unforgettable characters whose journeys transcend time and space, holding us in the immediacy of the present while echoing through our collective past. Each year, the ‘Mimi' Awards honor playwrights with compelling voices who exemplify artistic excellence and illuminate the American theatre, and it is deeply gratifying to see Zora's extraordinary artistry recognized with the award this year.”

Christopher Chen was born and raised in San Francisco. His plays Caught, The Headlands, Passage, The Late Wedding, You Mean To Do Me Harm and The Hundred Flowers Project have been produced across the U.S. and abroad at companies such as Lincoln Center (LCT3), American Conservatory Theater, Soho Rep, The Play Company, Crowded Fire, Singapore Rep, S.F. Playhouse, The Wilma, InterAct Theatre and Shotgun Players, among many others. His play The Motion will be produced at The Arena Stage this spring. Honors include the Obie Award (for Caught), the Windham Campbell Prize, USA Fellow, the inaugural Ollie Award, the Lanford Wilson Award (co-winner), a Sundance Time Warner Fellowship and the Paula Vogel Award. Current commissions include American Conservatory Theater, Portland Center Stage and the Mark Gordon Company. As a screenwriter he co-wrote the Sundance award-winning The Accidental Getaway Driver, the upcoming film The Hole, directed by Kim Jee-woon, and the upcoming television series Spider-Noir. He is a graduate of U.C. Berkeley and holds an M.F.A. in Playwriting from S.F. State.

Zora Howard is a Harlem-bred writer and director. Plays include STEW (P73 Productions; Pulitzer Prize Finalist), HANG TIME (The Flea/National Tour; Creative Capital Finalist), BUST (The Alliance/Goodman; Susan Smith Blackburn Finalist), THE MASTER'S TOOLS (Williamstown Theatre Festival; Wiener Festwochen), AtGN, and THE MOTIONS. In 2020, her feature film Premature (2020 Film Independent John Cassavetes Award nominee), which she co-wrote with director Rashaad Ernesto Green, opened in theaters following its world premiere at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. Zora is currently the 2025 Peacedale Kopit Fellow, a former MTC Judith Champion Fellow and Van Lier New Voices Fellow, and a Lilly Award, Helen Merrill Award and AUDELCO Special Achievement Award recipient. Her work has been developed at Cinereach, Ojai Playwrights Conference, Second Stage, New York Theatre Workshop, La Napoule Art Foundation, Stillwright, and Cape Cod Theatre Project, among others. She is currently under commission from Seattle Rep and Chautauqua Theater Company and developing film projects with Shot of Tea, FilmNation, Wychwood Media and River Road Entertainment.

In 2008, the Trustees created an advisory committee of seven prominent theater professionals to establish the awards criteria, nominate individual candidates, and select recipients.  The 2025 Advisory Committee is comprised of Jeremy B. Cohen, Producing Artistic Director, Ojai Playwrights Conference; Snehal Desai, Artistic Director, Center Theatre Group; Adam Greenfield, Artistic Director, Playwrights Horizons; Sarah Lunnie, Dramaturg; Dámaso Rodriguez, Artistic Director, Seattle Rep; Hana S. Sharif, Artistic Director, Arena Stage; and Nicole A. Watson, Producing Artistic Director, The Playwrights' Center.

The Board of Trustees of The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust is made up of Susan Frunzi, Carole Krumland, James Steinberg, Michael Steinberg, Seth Weingarten, and William Zabel.