In addition to the Relentless Award, the American Playwriting Foundation provides play development opportunities to relentless playwrights, offering them crucial time, space, and creative collaboration to pursue projects that challenge and inspire them.
The Relentless Reading Series
In 2025, we launched the first annual Relentless Reading Series, which features staged readings of each of the Relentless Award winning and finalist plays. Produced by the American Playwriting Foundation at Theatre Row, these staged readings provide the playwrights with the invaluable opportunity to see and hear their plays brought to life by professional actors and directors in front of a live audience.
Our staged reading of the 2024 Relentless Award-winning play, MANAKIN, by Dave Harris, directed by Taylor Reynolds and featuring Toney Goins, Amara Granderson, Socorro Santiago, Brittany Bradford, Genesis Oliver, Matthew Jeffers, Daniel K. Isaac, Vanessa Kai, and Barzin Akhavan.
Other Projects
The American Playwriting Foundation also hosts additional opportunities for artist collaboration, including developmental readings for Relentless-affiliated creators. Past such readings have included bold new interpretations of canonical works, new plays by Relentless Award-honored playwrights, and re-explorations of older works which may not have received necessary and deserved support.​
The Verbatim Salon
​​The Verbatim Salon is a monthly public event where actors share stories from interviews recorded with people interacting with the US immigration system. Directed by Scott Illingworth. Learn more here.
The Ed Vassallo Reading Series
The Ed Vassallo Reading Series was created in honor of Actor/Producer Ed Vassallo, a cherished member of the New York arts community for more than 20 years. A graduate of Union College and Brandeis University’s MFA program, Vassallo was an energetic and vital member of LAByrinth Theater Company, where he produced the TENN99 and NYNY festivals and served as the company appointed member to the Board. In addition to his work at LAByrinth, Vassallo was a dedicated volunteer and mentor at The 52nd Street Project. Vassallo's producing credits include the short film F—K, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival (2010), the award winning feature film King Kelly (2012), and the IFC/Sundance Selects film Days and Nights (2014). Vassallo died in February 2014 after a 2 ½ year battle with leukemia. As an artist, mentor, educator, and friend, his passion for theater and his loving and compassionate nature was and will always be a source of inspiration.
The Ed Vassallo Relentless Reading Series allows writers to further develop their plays through staged readings at some of the top theaters across the United States and expose the writers and their work to a national audience.
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Participating Theaters
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