Introducing the 2020 Winners of
Playing on Air’s James Stevenson Prize for Comedic Short Plays

Playing on Air is proud to announce the 2020 winners of the third annual James Stevenson Prize for Comedic Short Plays. The Stevenson competition awards an audio production and $6,000 cash prize — the nation’s largest for a new short play —  to the comedy that best celebrates the spirit and wit of longtime author, illustrator, and New Yorker cartoonist James Stevenson.

From 960 scripts, this year’s top plays were selected in a multi-month process by outside readers, PoA staff, and acclaimed theater artists. Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage, Tony-winning director Rebecca Taichman, and Tony-winning playwright David Henry Hwang joined Playing on Air’s Founder and Producing Artistic Director Claudia Catania and prize sponsor Josie Merck as guest judges for the final round of scoring. All readers and judges scored scripts blind, with no knowledge of playwrights’ past credits.

Thank you to all of the writers who shared their work at this unprecedented time, and thanks to the many artists who gave generously of their energy and talents to make this year’s competition possible. Our deep thanks also to prize sponsor Josie Merck. With no more ado — 

First Prize: Mallory Jane Weiss

I think it’s worth pointing out that I’ve been very serious throughout this entire discussion Or, Dave and Julia are stuck in a tree 

Mallory Jane Weiss is a NYC-based playwright whose work primarily spirals around female stories, especially as they relate to sexuality, friendship, authenticity, education, and privilege. Select plays include PONY UP (Princess Grace Finalist, 2019; SPACE on Ryder Farm semi-finalist, 2020; The New School, 2019), A&Z’S ESCAPADES IN MOONSTRUCK CITY (Cutting Ball Theatre Variety Pack Finalist, 2019; The New School, 2018), UNDERWATER (published in “The Dionysian Issue 004”; The New School, 2017) and LOSING YOU, WHICH IS ENOUGH (workshop readings at The Lark and Cherry Lane Theatre). Her play, HOWL FROM UP HIGH, is currently in development with Gingold Theatrical Group. She has also developed work with Fresh Ground Pepper (BRB Retreat). Her play EVERMORE UNREST was recently selected for the 2020 Red Bull Short New Play Festival. Additionally, Mallory works as a teacher/teaching artist (The Hotchkiss School, Salisbury Summer School), a writing tutor, a copywriter, and a cycling instructor. BA: Harvard University, MFA: The New School. www.malloryjaneweiss.com

Second PRIZE: Jaymes Sanchez

S.W.A.T.

Jaymes Sanchez is a Texan playwright, actor, director, and educator. Jaymes's plays have been developed with The Lark, Company One, Teatro Vivo, and Artists' Theatre of Boston. His play THE CUCUY WILL FIND YOU received the 2020 Keene Prize for Literature. Jaymes has been a finalist for the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, SPACE on Ryder Farm, the Latinx Theatre Commons Carnaval and the Kitchen Dog Theater New Works Festival, as well as a semifinalist for the Princess Grace Award. Jaymes was a 2019 Company One Playlab Fellow and a member of the 2018 Company One PlayLab Unit. He earned a Master of Arts in Teaching degree from Brown University and taught English and Theatre at Milton High School. Jaymes is pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in Playwriting at the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin.

Third Prize: Avery Deutsch

THE DONOR

Avery Deutsch is a Brooklyn-based actor and playwright. Full length plays include THE WINTERGUARD PLAY (Reading at NYTW Next Door, Aug 2019), THE GUESTS, and LUCKY! (Developed with Leo Abel, Russell Norris and Henry Evans at the Orchard Project and Dixon Place). Short plays include OLD BEGGAR WOMEN (Winner, Red Bull Short New Play Festival 2020) and THE PATRIOT (Acted and Performed at Actors Theatre of Louisville as part of the 2018 Solo Mio festival). Avery is a member of Actors' Equity and was an acting apprentice at Actors Theatre of Louisville (18/19 PTC). Up next, Avery will be playing Juliet in Actors Theatre of Louisville's virtual production of Romeo and Juliet. averydeutsch.com

2020 Stevenson Guest Judges

David Henry Hwang

David Henry Hwang’s stage works include the plays M. Butterfly, Chinglish, Yellow Face, Kung Fu, Golden Child, The Dance and the Railroad, and FOB, as well as the Broadway musicals Elton John & Tim Rice’s Aida (co-author), Flower Drum Song (2002 revival), and Disney’s Tarzan. Hwang is a Tony Award winner and three-time nominee, a three-time OBIE Award winner, and a three-time Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He is also the most-produced living American opera librettist, whose works have been honored with two Grammy Awards. Hwang co-wrote the Gold Record Solo with the late pop icon Prince, and worked from 2015-2019 as a Writer/Consulting Producer for the Golden Globe-winning television series The Affair. He is currently writing the live-action musical feature film The Hunchback of Notre Dame for Disney Studios and a movie to star actress Gemma Chan. Hwang serves on the Board of the Lark Play Development Center, as Head of Playwriting at Columbia University School of the Arts, and as Chair of the American Theatre Wing, founder of the Tony Awards. M. Butterfly recently returned to Broadway in a revival directed by Julie Taymor, which marked Mr. Hwang’s eighth Broadway production. His newest work, Soft Power, a collaboration with composer Jeanine Tesori (Fun Home), premiered at Los Angeles’ Ahmanson Theatre, where it won six Ovation Awards. Its subsequent run at the Public Theatre in NYC received four Outer Critics Honors, eleven Drama Desk Nominations, and was a Finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in Drama. 

Lynn Nottage

Lynn Nottage is a playwright and a screenwriter, and the first woman in history to win two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama. Her plays, which have been produced widely in the United States and throughout the world, include Floyd’s, Sweat, Mlima's Tale, By the Way, Meet Vera Stark, Ruined, Intimate Apparel, Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine Crumbs from the Table of Joy, Las Meninas, Mud, River, Stone, Por’knockers, and POOF!. Musical librettos include The Secret Life of Bees and MJ (upcoming). She has also developed This is Reading, a performance installation in Reading, Pennsylvania. Ms. Nottage is the recipient of a MacArthur "Genius Grant" Fellowship, among other awards, and is an Associate Professor at Columbia University School of the Arts.

Rebecca taichman

Rebecca Taichman won the 2017 Tony Award for Best Director of a Play for Indecent. She also received an Obie Award and Outer Critics Circle Award for Indecent, written by Paula Vogel (Yale Repertory Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Vineyard Theatre, Huntington Theatre Company, and Broadway at The Cort Theatre). Ms. Taichman has directed on and off Broadway, new plays, classics, musicals, and opera. She has worked with writers Jocelyn Bioh, Sarah Ruhl, Danai Gurira, Enda Walsh, Brian Selznick, Kirsten Greenidge, Nico Muhly, David Adjmi, and Stephen Karam, among others. Ms. Taichman has worked at theaters such as The Roundabout Theatre Company, Lincoln Center, The Public Theater, Playwrights Horizons, MCC Theater, The Shakespeare Theatre Company, The Old Globe, American Repertory Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, McCarter Theatre, and Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. She is a resident director at The Roundabout Theatre in NYC, a Henry Crown Fellow at The Aspen Institute, and a graduate of the Yale School of Drama. rebeccataichman.com