Culver City Observer -

Center Theatre Group and Humanitas announce that Ngozi Anyanwu has won first place for the inaugural Humanitas/CTG Playwriting Prize, with Dan O'Brien in second place and Louisa Hill in third place. The prize is awarded annually to the best new unproduced play written by a Southern California-based writer.

The winning plays will be developed with CTG's literary staff, led by CTG's Director of New Play Development Pier Carlo Talenti, and will be presented in staged readings at Humanitas Play Fest, Celebrating Southern California Playwrights, at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City from February 12-14.

The playwrights and their works were selected from 234 total submissions, which were each read by at least two artists from a pool of 71 Southern California-based directors, dramaturgs, designers, actors and artistic directors who volunteered to serve as judges.

Anyanwu was awarded $5,000 for her play "Good Grief," which follows Nkechi, a first generation Nigerian girl, and her misadventures of love, loss and growing up. If a Southern California theatre premieres the play, the theatre will receive $5,000 toward the production.

Dan O'Brien was awarded $2,000 for "The House in Scarsdale," in which the playwright interviews lost relatives in pursuit of an answer to the mystery of the dissolution of his family.

Louisa Hill was awarded $2,000 for "Lord of the Underworld's Home for Unwed Mothers," a contemporary reimagining of the Demeter and Persephone myth.

Ngozi Anyanwu is an actress, writer and producer with an MFA in acting from the University of California, San Diego. She is the founder of the 1st Generation Nigerian Project, where she served as Artistic Director. Anyanwu is currently the Co-Artistic Director of NOW AFRICA's Playwrights Festival. She is a recipient of the Djerassi Artist Residency.

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The partnership between Humanitas and Center Theatre Group not only provides support for rising playwrights, but fosters the growth of the Southern California theatre landscape.