The 4th annual New Play Award provides the winning playwright with a $2,500 prize and the opportunity to workshop his or her play with ACT. The winner is selected through an open submission process.

ACT has teamed with the Seattle-based Hansberry Project, which dedicates its programming to new and classic works penned by African American artists. The Hansberry Project was instrumental in selecting Alexander's play as the 2009 ACT New Play Award winner.

Sweet Maladies will receive free readings on June 6 at 7:30 PM and June 7 at 2 PM at ACT's Falls Theatre. The readings, which feature Lisa Strum, Felicia Loud, Adilia Scott and Jane May, will be followed by a discussion with playwright Alexander and director Valerie Curtis-Newton.

According to press notes, "Sweet Maladies is a riveting new play about four girls (three black and one white) who must come to terms with their new circumstances in the Reconstruction-era South. Set two years after slavery has been abolished, the girls learn to assert themselves in the world that they have inherited and the society they must rebuild. Sharply written and surprisingly funny, Sweet Maladies is a timely investigation into what happens to identity when old shackles are broken and anything seems possible – a question as relevant today as it was during Reconstruction."

For more information visit ACT. ACT is located at 700 Union Street in Seattle, WA.