Two playwrights Will Share Prize in Honor of Philip Seymour Hoffman

Two plays exploring the relationships between young women competing in physical endeavors are the first recipients of a new play-writing award honoring Philip Seymour Hoffman who died of a drug overdose early last year

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From left, Clare Barron and Sarah DeLappe.Credit RJ Tolan (Barron)

According to Artbeat, the decision was arrived at after a pensive and critical assessment of more than 2,000 play submissions, the judges of the new honour, the Relentless Award, were torn between “Dance Nation,” a play by Clare Barron about adolescent dancers, and “The Wolves,” a play by Sarah DeLappe about a girls indoor soccer team, so they decided to split the honour between the two works.

“Each one of these plays does something that I haven’t seen before — there’s some technique used, some use of time, character, that is unusual,” said David Bar Katz, a screenwriter, playwright and friend of Mr. Hoffman, the film star and stage actor.

The award, which was created by Mr. Katz from the settlement he received from the court battle between him and The National Enquirer. The National Enquirer had published a false story about Mr. Hoffman and Mr. Katz when the former died; Mr. Katz sued, and the new publishing company paid a settlement that he used to create the American Playwriting Foundation and its Relentless Award, which honors unproduced works of theater by American writers.

The winners will split a $45,000 prize and in addition, the playwrights will be given a weeklong retreat with a director, dramaturg and actors at an organic farm in upstate New York, and the plays will be given staged readings, intended to help with their development and the performance, at regional theaters around the nation.