Winner: Alix Sobler 

Sheltered 

Alix Sobler is a writer of theater, podcasts, television, and film based in New York City. Her plays have been read or produced at theaters around the world, including Alliance Theater (Atlanta, GA), Theater J (Washington D.C.), Theatre Lab at FAU (Boca Raton, FL), Roundabout Theatre Company (New York, NY), The Kennedy Center (Washington, D.C.), South Coast Repertory (Costa Mesa, CA), The Finborough Theatre (London, UK), Segal Centre (Montreal QC), Fiasco Theater Company (New York, NY), The Stratford Shakespeare Festival (Stratford, ON), Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre (Winnipeg, MB), Gulfshore Playhouse (Naples, FL), and others. Her plays have won and been finalists for multiple awards including the 2018 Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Competition, the Canadian Jewish Playwriting Competition, The Gulfshore Playhouse New Play Series, the Columbia@Roundabout New Play Contest, the National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center (finalist), the Henley Rose Playwriting Competition (finalist), and the Jane Chambers Award (runner-up), among others. She is a graduate of Brown University and received her MFA in playwriting from Columbia University, where she was honored to study with David Henry Hwang, Lynn Nottage and Charles Mee, among others. She is also passionate about teaching playwriting and theater to up-and-coming artists, hobbyists, children, and anyone interested in expressing themselves. 

Tearrance Arvelle Chisholm 

Anacostia Street Lions 

Tearrance most recently presented his new play Black Dick at the 2019 O’Neill National Playwrights Conference. Last season, Tearrance premiered P.Y.G. at Studio Theater as both playwright and director; the play has previously been developed at the Magic Theater’s Virgin Play Festival and at Juilliard. He won a Helen Hayes award (the Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding Original New Play or Musical) for his play Hooded: Or Being Black for Dummies, which premiered and was revived at Mosaic Theater.  

Tearrance has developed new works with Signature Theatre, Theatre J, Theatre Alliance, and The Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. He has held residencies at The Bay Area Playwrights Festival, The Virginia Center for Creative Arts, Djerassi Resident Artists Program and The Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference. He was a finalist for the Inaugural Relentless Award and the Theatre 503 Playwriting Award. Tearrance received two of the 2016 National KCACTF awards, the Rosa Parks Playwriting Award and the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award. Tearrance was a part of the Pacific Playwrights Festival at South Coast Rep with his play Anacostia Street Lions. He developed the play Black Lady Authority under the auspices of the Sundance Theater Lab.  

Tearrance holds an MFA in Playwriting from the Catholic University of America. He is a recent graduate from the Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program at Julliard, and is a former Sundance Institute and Time Warner Foundation Fellow, and 2050 Fellow at New York Theater Workshop. 

Leo McGann 

The Honey Trap

Leo McGann is a playwright from Belfast. He began writing with Tinderbox Theatre Company through their Fireworks Young Writers group, and was also part of the Royal Court