The American Playwriting Foundation will begin accepting applications for the 2025 Relentless Musical Award in honor of Adam Schlesinger on January 15, 2025. The creators of the winning submission will receive $65,000, the largest prize in American theater presented in recognition of an unproduced musical.
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The Relentless Awards, founded in honor of Philip Seymour Hoffman, place special emphasis on works that are fearless in their choice of subject matter, featuring audacious, honest storytelling.
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The Relentless Musical Award will honor works that:
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* Are challenging. * Exhibit fearlessness. * Exude passion. * Are relentlessly truthful.
Our criteria for submission cast a wide net of eligibility; we encourage submissions by both first-time composers, lyricists, and book writers, as well as musical veterans who may have a particularly challenging piece that has not yet received a production.
Our goal is to discover and promote talented, ambitious voices which may be less conventional and more daring than most mainstream musical theater, and to celebrate exceptional craft in songwriting.
Eligibility/Criteria for Submission:
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Only full-length works of musical theater are eligible for the 2025 Relentless Musical Award.
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The work must be unproduced (ie., eligible for world premiere status) and may not have a current production commitment. If the project is a commission, the commissioning entity must either have declined to offer the work a production, or let its option expire.
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Applications are limited to shows by writers with United States citizenship, or who are authorized to work in the United States.
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Musicals that utilize extant music not written by the applicant(s) (e.g. “jukebox musicals” or musicals with parody lyrics) are ineligible.
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All creators must be at least 21 years old at the time of submission.
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Creators who have authored (book, music, and/or lyrics of) a musical that has been produced on Broadway are ineligible.
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Works may be based on underlying material, in which case proof of authorization or right to adapt the underlying material must be uploaded with the application (if it is not in the public domain.)
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We welcome musicals that include non-English languages, but request that an English translation be included for any non-English text.
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Musicals considered to be “Theater for a Young Audience” are ineligible.
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Musicals that have previously been submitted to the Relentless award *are* eligible for resubmission. However, each member of the creative team (book writer, lyricist, or composer) may only submit one work per cycle. Additionally, if a previously submitted work has been publicly cited (as an honorable mention, semi-finalist, or finalist), it is not eligible for consideration in future cycles.
Materials
As all work will be evaluated anonymously; writer/composer names and personal information must be removed from all documents and file names.
Submission materials required:
1) A musical demo of the score. This should contain no fewer than 12 and no more than 35 minutes of representative material from the musical.
Note: All rough and raw demos are welcome. No preference or advantage will be given based on the production value of any recordings--we do not require anything professional, finished, or elaborate. Please do not let concerns about the quality or sophistication of your recordings discourage you from applying.
All score materials should be uploaded in the form of music/audio files or zipped folder containing music/audio files. PDFs of sheet music cannot be accepted.
2) A 1-2 page synopsis and/or outline of the story/concept/beats/characters.
3) All the songs that have been written/recorded, representing at least 50% of the planned score.
4) A full script, without any author information (or, if a full script is not yet complete, as much of it as you have). Please include song lyrics in the body of the script.
All materials must be uploaded electronically along with the application form information. We cannot accept hard copies.
*Please note: the Relentless Award uses a blind submissions process (the names and identifying details about the authors are hidden from all judges.) It is imperative that all submitting writers create a draft of their submission with all identifying information (name, contact information, representation information if applicable, development history, dedications or acknowledgements) redacted. Failure to do so may disqualify your materials and render them ineligible for consideration.
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**Please also note: our submission window will close automatically at 11:59pm EST on February 15, 2025 and no late submissions will be accepted. Due to Submittable's 48 hour turn around time for user inquiries, we strongly urge you to allow yourself ample time before the deadline, in case of any technological or other difficulties.
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***Please see our FAQ here for more information. We highly recommend consulting the FAQ before submitting, as some of the details provided are relevant to the eligibility of your submission.