According to the announcement, Barron's Dance Nation is "a play about ambition, competition, and growing up – and how we find our souls in the heat of it all;" and DeLappe's The Wolves is focused on a girls indoor soccer team.
In addition to the cash prize, the winning writers will also receive a week-long residency at SPACE on Ryder Farm, an artist residency program in Brewster, NY, with the option to further develop the works; as well as the opportunity to have their plays published by the Dramatists Play Service.
More than 2,000 plays were submitted for the inaugural prize, which was established by APF in honor of stage and screen actor Hoffman's "pursuit of truth in the theater." Only plays that had not yet been produced were eligible for the award.
The two finalists, Jake Jeppson, for #Bros and Liza Birkenmeier for Radio Island will each receive $1,000.
The play selection committee was comprised of Eric Bogosian, Thomas Bradshaw, APF executive director David Bar Katz, Lynn Nottage, John Ortiz, Jonathan Marc Sherman and Lucy Thurber. For more information on the award visit AmericanPlaywritingFoundation.org.
The Academy Award-winning stage and screen actor who brought his own unique presence and deep-delving intelligence to his every role, died Feb. 2, 2014.
