Winners will be revealed March 29 at a ceremony at the Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre in Louisville, KY. The top honoree will receive $25,000, the largest prize for a national playwriting award. Two additional playwrights will each receive $7,500.
The award is presented by the American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA) with funding from the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust.
The six finalists (and the theatres at which the plays were first produced) follow:
Past honorees of the New Play Award, which was established in 1977, include Lanford Wilson, Marsha Norman, August Wilson, Jane Martin, Arthur Miller, Mac Wellman, Adrienne Kennedy, Donald Margulies, Lee Blessing, Lynn Nottage, Horton Foote and Craig Lucas.
Last year's winner was Peter Sinn Nachtrieb's Hunter Gatherers.
