Brittany K. Allen is the winner of the Georgia Engel Comedy Playwriting Prize. The $10,000 Award is given annually to a female-identifying playwright in honor of their work in comedy. The Award was spearheaded in 2020 by Georgia’s close friends, writer/producer Phil Rosenthal and actress Monica Horan Rosenthal (Rosenthal Family Foundation), producer Dori Berinstein, and actor John Quilty (the Founding Committee). The inaugural winner was Bess Wohl. 

“I think particularly in this moment of ongoing world catastrophe, I’ve personally felt the most human, the most connected, and, in a curious way, the most politically galvanized when I’m able to laugh through, or at, the painful stuff so it feels particularly special to be recognized in this tradition of comedic playwriting,” Allen said in response to winning the Award. 

The 2021 Thom Thomas Award winner is Avi Amon. This $10,000 award is given to a former DGF Fellow and commemorates playwright Thom Thomas’s endless passion for nurturing the next generation of dramatists and his appreciation of DGF’s support of writers. The Award is made possible through the generous support of his longtime friends and colleagues, Iris Rainer Dart and Helen Lee Henderson. The selected awardee demonstrates great artistic skill and articulates how they would put the money to use. This can include livelihood expenses, project expenses, travel expenses – anything that will support their ability to create their best work. Past recipients are Erika Dickerson-Despenza, Chisa Hutchinson, Julia Meinwald, Sylvan Oswald, Riti Sachdeva, Benjamin Velez, and Stefanie Zadravec.

“It’s going to be a game-changer for me as an artist, but also for us as a family,” Amon said. 

Emily Gardner Xu Hall is honored with the Stephen Schwartz Award. The Award is a  $10,000 Award given annually to a musical theatre writer whose voice is seen as critical to the continued success of the craft, in unconditional support of their work. The Stephen Schwartz Award debuted in 2019 with past recipients Khiyon Hursey (2020) and Oliver Houser (2019).

“I’m crying because I’ve been thinking about how hard it has been, in the pandemic, to keep writing and how hard it’s been for everyone dealing with every circumstance,” Gardner Xu Hall said in an emotional response to the news of the honor. “I am so, so grateful, and I feel so, so lucky.” 

Paulo K Tiról is the recipient of the first-ever Benjamin Indick Award. This award honors a mid-career lyricist, librettist or book writer for musical theater with $1,000, in honor of the late science fiction writer.

“Thank you for seeing the value in the stories that I tell about my community -- the Filipino immigrant community -- which I am so proud to be a part of and and which I hope to continue doing proud,” Tiról said. 

To watch the recipients’ acceptance speeches, visit DGF’s YouTube Channel. For more information on the DGF Awards, visit https://dgf.org/grants/awards/.