Philadelphia playwright and poet Dave Harris (Tambo & Bones, Exception to the Rule) has been named the winner of the 2024 Relentless Award for his play MANAKIN.
Presented by the American Playwriting Foundation and Building for the Arts, Harris will receive a $50,000 prize as well as developmental opportunities to be announced.
The jury also awarded $2,000 prizes to three finalists: My Father Was Shot in the Back of the Head by Gloria Majule, The Good Boy Game by Patrick Vermillion, and The TeeTee & Lala Show by Donja R. Love.
More than 1,200 plays were submitted for this year’s award. The winning play was selected by a panel that included Eric Bogosian, Thomas Bradshaw, Aleshea Harris, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, David Bar Katz, Lynn Nottage, Brontez Purnell, Jonathan Marc Sherman, Lloyd Suh, and Lucy Thurber.
The Relentless Award’s submission process is completely blind, and the winning play is selected without knowledge of the playwright’s identity. Despite this, two of Harris’ other plays have been previously recognized: He was a semifinalist in 2016 and 2019 for his plays White History and Incendiary, respectively.
"I will never forget the moment of receiving the call about this award,” said Harris. “The legacy of The Relentless Award, starting with Philip Seymour Hoffman, is profound, and I am deeply honored and grateful to be a part of its lineage.”
MANAKIN is a wedding story that brings together four generations for the union of Son and Daughter. This wedding is also a Satanic invocation, and all the vessels are poised to spill. The play is described as a "raw, lyrical, darkly hilarious piece about intergenerational trauma, love in all its forms, and the ways in which language both describes and creates the world."
“There are periods in life where it feels like all of the writing has left your body, and then you write another play and it saves you,” Harris added. “This is what MANAKIN was for me. Perhaps the scariest play I've written. It is the honor of my career that it was read and rewarded by so many artists whom I have been inspired by since I first began writing plays.”
The winning and finalist plays will be honored at a ceremony October 21 at Theatre Row. The evening will feature a first look at MANAKIN, plus speeches from guests and a reception. A limited number of $20 tickets are available by clicking here.
Next year’s Relentless Award will be given to a full-length musical. Submissions are expected to open later this year.
