Playwrights Lauren Yee and Jaclyn Backhaus, the winners of the 2018 Horton Foote Prize, were awarded the prize at the Lotos Club in New York City October 15. Presented biennially, the prize is divided into two awards: Outstanding New American Play and Promising New American Play, each with a cash reward of $25,000.
Flip through photos of the reception below:
Backhaus’ play India Pale Ale, which is currently in previews at Manhattan Theatre Club, is the winner of the Promising New American Play prize. Amid a flurry of wedding celebrations, the story follows the clashing ideals of different generations within a family and a tight-knit Punjabi community in Wisconsin.
Yee, whose plays include The Great Leap—recently seen Off-Broadway at Atlantic Theater Company—is the winner of the Outstanding New American Play award for Cambodian Rock Band. The play, which debuted at South Coast Repertory earlier this year, is a rock music-filled piece about a Cambodian-American woman and her father—a guitarist who was imprisoned under the Khmer Rouge.
