Poughkeepsie, NY (MAY 21, 2026)—The Leah Ryan Fund is pleased to announce the winner of the 2026 Leah Prize, Genevieve Simon’s Punch Back. In Simon’s play seven trans college students fall in love and secretly distribute HRT while learning how to box in the red state of Ohio. The play will have a public reading on Saturday July 25th at Powerhouse Theater at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY.

The Fund also awards honorable mention citations to Karina Bellini’s The Forty Ninth Year, Ananda Long’s KINYOZI: A Hair Story, and Jasmine Sharma’s Gunner.

The finalists for this year’s award are Nova Black, Anna Clart, Kate Cortesi, Zizi Magid, Maureen Sebastian and Elise Wien.

“Punch Back winning this award is a deeply meaningful endorsement of the need for more gender-affirming, physically challenging roles for trans actors in the American theatre canon. At a time when trans lives are being threatened by people at the highest levels of government, and when many in the arts, medicine, sports, and other fields are quietly abandoning trans people, I thank the Leah Ryan Fund for standing with young trans people, who need to see themselves celebrated as complex, messy, hilarious, and loved” Simon said.

“It’s always a privilege to remember Leah Ryan with this award. This year we are especially honored to do so by supporting Genevieve’s voice and work, and to provide space for trans representation and to uplift trans stories and artists,” said board member Ed Cheetham.

Genevieve Simon (he/they) is an actor and playwright born in Ohio and based in New York. He is a 2025 NYSCA Commission Winner, a 2023-24 New Georges Audrey Resident, and a member of the 2024 Page 73 Writers Group. Their climate-doom-comedy Bloom Bloom Pow was a Finalist for the 2022 EMOS Ecodrama Playwrights Festival and has recently been produced at Skidmore College and Willamette University. Genevieve’s work has been supported by Ars Nova, The Bushwick Starr, Breaking The Binary, The Brick, Fresh Ground Pepper, The Motor Company, Oberlin College, Shadowland Stages, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Arts on Site, Philly Theatre Week, Holton-Arms School, Cincinnati Fringe Festival, The Parsnip Ship, and The Tank. Genevieve’s other plays include This Bug Is Gay, Guarding, Sister/Friend, and Hell Is Real. Published in Howlround Theatre Commons and by 1319 Press. New Georges Affiliated Artist. Playwriting Lecturer, Skidmore College. www.genevieve-simon.com

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Thank you to everyone who joined us on June 28th, 2025 at the Powerhouse Theater Season at Vassar College for the reading of the 2025 Leah Prize winning play In The Bronx Brown Girls Can See Stars Too (Or The F*ck Is You Lookin’ At?) by Amalia Oliva Rojas.

In The Bronx Brown Girls Can See Stars Too (Or The F*ck Is You Lookin’ At?)  by Amalia Oliva Rojas and directed Marina Montesanti
featuring: Essence Brown, Christin Eve Cato, Sarah-Michele Guei, Victoria Lino, Amaya Montañez, Elizabeth Spindler & Malaika Wanjiku
(photos by Buck Lewis)
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Thank you to everyone who joined us on May 19th, 2025 at Shares at LaMama for the reading of our first Boost commission:
The Boy King In Queens by Tammy Ryan written in conversation with Leah Ryan’s The Wire. 

Top: The Boy King In Queens — by Tammy Ryan and directed by Jessi D. Hill
featuring: Jane Cooper, Diane Davis, Aaron Costa Ganis, Brynn Gauthier, Iván Marcel & David Mason

Bottom: The Wire – by Leah Ryan and directed by Dev Bondarin & Ed Cheetham
featuring Sam Andrews, Senna Prasatthong, Tina Stafford & Jim Stanek
(photos by Buck Lewis)