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WE ARE NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS FOR THE 2025 THE LEAH
The Leah Ryan Fund began giving out The Leah in 2010 to honor the memory of Leah Ryan, and to encourage and support the work of brilliant and unrecognized women, trans, and non-binary playwrights. It is the purpose of the prize to perpetuate the integrity, compassion, and creativity that Leah herself possessed and inspired in others.
Winners of The Leah playwriting prize receive a $5,000 cash award and a public reading and summer workshop as part of the Powerhouse Theater Program at Vassar College. As hoped, the prize has been a springboard for winners who have subsequently won other competitions, have received full-staged productions of their work, and/or have gone on to successful careers in theater, TV, and film.
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Our Mission
The Leah Ryan Fund helps sustain and support writers facing individual challenges and systemic oppression so they can keep writing, connecting, creating, and thriving. The Fund currently offers an annual playwriting prize (The Leah) and an annual award for writers facing a serious illness (The Vladimir), and the newly created commission (The Boost).
The Leah Ryan Fund was established in 2008 to honor the memory of Leah Ryan, a woman of letters who wrote plays, poetry, essays, lyrics, adaptations, and collaborated with performance artists.