Announcing the 2026 Rella Lossy Awardee
We are proud to announce the recipient of the 2026-27 Rella Lossy Award. The Rella Lossy Award honors the memory of Rella Lossy, a lifelong champion of the American theatre and playwriting, by honoring the best new full-length script of a play by an emerging playwright that will premiere in Alameda County, Contra Costa County, Marin County, Napa County, San Francisco County, San Mateo County, Santa Clara County, Solano County, or Sonoma County in the coming year.
by Chloé Hung
Produced by San Francisco Playhouse
February 25 – April 3, 2027
About the Play
A father sets out to build the perfect daughter. With the help of a scientist, he creates an AI version of Claudia, adjusting her life again and again in pursuit of something just right. But each new iteration brings unexpected results. The more he tries to control who she becomes, the more complicated she gets. By turns hilarious and deeply revealing, Chloé Hung’s Perfect Daughter explores the gap between expectation and reality, and the quiet heartbreak of trying to be seen, understood, and loved on your own terms.
Chloé Hung is a writer and director. Her plays include Three Women of Swatow (Tarragon Theatre, Dora Award nominee for Outstanding New Play; Centaur Theatre), Issei He Say (New Jersey Rep), All Our Yesterdays (Toronto Fringe Fest’s Patron’s Pick, Next Stage Theatre
Fest). She has workshopped plays with Geffen Theatre, Great Plains Theatre Commons, Stratford Festival’s Playwrights Retreat, Banff Playwrights Lab, Factory Theatre, Tarragon Theatre, and The Kennedy Center. Chloé is a Playwrights Center Core Writer and holds the Rhimes Unsung Voices commission from IAMA Theatre. In TV and film, Chloé has written for Queen Sugar, Cherish the Day, The Watchful Eye, and developed for Netflix. She is a Film Independent Screenwriting lab fellow. Her short films include SIGNAL (Women in Film’s Production program), and GEM & SHAZ (Bell Media, streaming on Crave). www.chloehung.com
2026 Rella Lossy Award Panelists
Luis Alfaro is a writer known for his work in theatre, poetry, and performance art. A recipient of MacArthur, Mellon, Joyce, and Ford Foundation Fellowships, including the Glickman Prize, among others, he is director of MFA Playwriting at USC. His plays have been produced throughout the Americas and include his Greek cycle of adaptations; Mojada, Oedipus el Rey, Electricidad, and Bruja. Recent plays include Herakles, Speaking in Tongues, Aztlan, and The Travelers.
victor cervantes jr (they/elle/iel) is a theatremaker, educator, and community organizer from Phoenix, AZ. they have served on the selection panels for American Playwriting Foundation’s Relentless Award; American Musical Theatre Project; HERE Arts HARP Residency Award; NAMT: Impact & Exploration Fund Grant Award; Eugene O’Neill’s Musical Theater and Playwrights Conference; Playwrights Realm’s Development Programs; Princess Grace Awards; Terrence McNally Fellowship at Rattlestick; and the Theater Producers of Color Cohort. they served as the Associate Producer of New Work and Innovation & Strategy at Oregon Shakespeare Festival; Associate Producer at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater; and Co-Artistic Director of Middle Voice at Rattlestick. they have enjoyed teaching for ASU, Columbia University, Hunter College, NTI at The O’Neill Theater Center, NYU’s Tisch School for the Arts, and schools serving the ASD community. First-Generation College Graduate: BFA NYU/Tisch School for the Arts — Lee Strasberg Centennial Scholar and Martin Luther King Jr. Scholar; and Laurents/Hatcher Centennial Award recipient.
Aaron Higareda is a southern California playwright. The first play in his “Rhino Cycle,” You don’t even speak Spanish! was produced at Cal State San Bernardino in 2025 and was also a 2023 O’Neill National Playwright Conference semifinalist, and a 2022 Latinx Theatre Commons Comedy Carnaval finalist. His second play in the “Rhino Cycle,” Cry Now, Laugh Later, was a 2026 O’Neill National Playwright Conference semifinalist, and a 2025 Bay Area Playwrights Festival semifinalist. @aaron.higareda.102
Lisa Mallette has been at the helm of City Lights since 2001, leading the company through unprecedented artistic and administrative growth. A member of Actors’ Equity Association and SAG/AFTRA, she has worked for theaters throughout the Western United States as an actor, director and manager. Lisa is a member of Theatre Bay Area, San Jose Rotary and the Congregational Church of San Mateo. In 2023 she was named a Woman of Influence by the Silicon Valley Business Journal
Learn more about the Rella Lossy Award