AZ Espinoza Wins 2026 Terrence McNally Award

Philadelphia Theatre Company (PTC), in partnership with The Terrence McNally Foundation, has announced AZ Espinoza as the recipient of the 2026 Terrence McNally Award for Caribbean King. Presented biennially, the award honors the life and legacy of Tony Award-winning playwright, librettist, and LGBTQ+ trailblazer Terrence McNally while supporting one of Philadelphia’s most promising early-career playwrights. Espinoza was selected from nearly 100 submissions, the most in the award’s history.

AZ Espinoza (they/he) is an Afro-futurist, trans-masculine, feminist making magic with theater. As a playwright, director, mover, and maker, he grounds his praxis in community building, embodiments of queer joy, and decolonial ritual practice. Espinoza’s full-length plays have been produced and supported by Azuka Theatre, National New Play Network, Black Spatial Relics, and the Four Seasons Playwriting Residency. Their performance work has been featured and supported by SubCircle Residency, the LongShot Comedy Series, and the Leah Stein Dance Company. His directing credits include work at Ursinus College, Passage Theatre, Delaware Shakespeare, Philadelphia Artists’ Collective, and more. Espinoza is a 2025 Queer Art Fellow and a 2026 inaugural Flamboyance Award winner as a boundary breaker for his play Caribbean King. A proud theatre educator, AZ has helped students of all ages develop their creative voice and personal agency, most recently at Ursinus College and Drexel University.

“This year’s competition brought out the most submissions we’ve ever had. Philadelphia is home to some of the best writers in the country, and we’re beyond grateful that the Terrence McNally Foundation continues to support this fantastic program. Thank you to everyone who submitted a play this year, and congratulations to AZ Espinoza on their richly deserved award,” said Tyler Dobrowsky, PTC Co-Artistic Director. “We would also like to shout out our other two finalists: Matt Schatz, whose play Bobby Robotowitz, will have a number of productions across the country over the next year, and Natalie Valentine, who just recently joined Philadelphia’s playwriting collective The Foundry. Congrats to both of them on being named finalists for this award.”

Caribbean King is a decolonial, transgressive, adaptive confrontation with Shakespeare’s King Lear in which Cord(elia) fights to survive against a catastrophic hurricane barreling towards his childhood home, and his father’s unshakeable belief that he is a daughter, not a son. A love letter to Black Queer Diasporic Drag and Performance communities, the play charts Cord's reawakening to place, self, and what leadership can look like in service to Queer collectives and in the face of the climate crisis.

The Terrence McNally Award provides the selected playwright with a $10,000 cash prize, dramaturgical support, access to PTC’s artistic network, and career development opportunities. PTC plans to workshop the winning play and present a public reading with professional actors and a director in spring 2027, with details to be announced.

“We are incredibly proud to continue Terrence’s legacy of championing bold new voices through PTC’s Terrence McNally Award, and deeply grateful for our longstanding partnership with Philadelphia Theatre Company, which allows us to invest meaningfully in the next generation of playwrights in a city that meant so much to Terrence and his work,” said Santino DeAngelo, Executive Director of the Terrence McNally Foundation.

The other finalists for the 2026 Terrence McNally Award were Greetings from the Red Planet (Natalie Valentine) and Bobby Robotowitz (Matt Schatz).

The three finalists’ works were evaluated by a panel comprising MK Tuomanen, 2024 Terrence McNally Award winner for Night Science; Quinn Eli, playwright and head of the Theater Program at Community College of Philadelphia; and acclaimed playwright and screenwriter Lauren Yee, whose plays have been produced in New York, across the country, as well as internationally. Previous McNally Award recipients include Pulitzer Prize winner James Ijames, Bill Cain, A. Zell Williams, Martín Zimmerman, Donja R. Love, and Stephanie Kyung-Sun Walters.

In addition to the biennial award for early-career playwrights, Philadelphia Theatre Company announces Charlie Taylor as the inaugural recipient of the Carol Saline High School Playwriting Award, funded by Paul Rathblott in memory of Carol Saline, a longtime PTC board member, award-winning journalist, and beloved community advocate. Open to Philadelphia-area high school sophomores and juniors, the competition invited students to submit an original 10-minute play, with the winning playwright receiving a $1,000 scholarship. Taylor, now a 12th-grade student at the Center for Performing and Fine Arts (CPFA), received the award for their play, Wave Function Collapse. The play explores the intersection of trans identity and quantum physics—or, as Taylor puts it, “two things people have a hard time understanding.”

Terrence McNally was an American playwright, librettist, and LGBTQ+ trailblazer whose six-decade career earned him five Tony Awards, including the 2019 Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement, an Emmy Award, and numerous other honors. His work continues to be performed worldwide, while the Terrence McNally Foundation carries forward his commitment to supporting emerging voices in American theater.

Philadelphia Theatre Company had a longstanding artistic relationship with McNally, mounting the world premieres of Master Class, Golden Age, Some Men, and Unusual Acts of Devotion, along with Philadelphia regional premieres of Love! Valour! Compassion!, Lips Together, Teeth Apart, Mothers and Sons, and Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune.

More on Philadelphia Theatre Company

Upcoming Shows

Liberation

10/9 - 10/25/2026