Utility

Marking the tenth anniversary of the Yale Drama Series for emerging playwrights, Emily Schwend's powerful work centers on Amber, a young woman struggling to raise a family in East Texas. Amber is juggling two nearly full-time jobs and three kids. Her on-again, off-again husband Chris is eternally optimistic and charming as hell, but rarely employed. The house is falling apart and Amber has an eight-year-old's birthday party to plan.

Selected from more than 1,600 entries, Schwend's newest play – produced by the Amoralists Theatre Company at Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre in 2016 – vividly captures the economic hardships and relationship difficulties faced by so many Americans today. "'Utility' is a remarkable play: beautifully written and effortlessly powerful", said contest judge Nicholas Wright. "At every moment the happiness of human lives is put at risk: is there any greater dramatic theme"?