The University of Arkansas Department of Theatre in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences has named Ricardo Enrique (Parts Per Million & Prophets) and Andrea Stolowitz (Recent Unsettling Events) as co-winners of the 2025 Kernodle New Play Award.

Named in honor of U of A faculty member George Kernodle, the annual contest attracts submissions from emerging and established playwrights nationwide. This year, approximately 200 scripts were reviewed by a committee of graduate students and faculty members.

Enrique's Parts Per Million & Prophets is a provocative, funny high-school drama mixed with a creation myth for the climate-conscious generations. As the play unfolds, Silvia — a fierce, outspoken teen — wrestles with her rising eco-anxiety, her matrilineal legacy of becoming a vessel for an imposing mythological beast and the challenges of starting over at a new high school in Houston. Enrique, an actor and playwright, says the play "was written in response to my own eco-anxiety. ... The play is a love letter to younger generations who are witnessing the irreversible decline of our ecosystems."

Stolowitz's Recent Unsettling Events examines how a college campus protest over the required curriculum escalates across a quiet liberal arts college. As the controversy intensifies, each affected character is pulled deeper into the controversy and forced to confront their own assumptions, biases, beliefs and interpersonal loyalties. Using documentary-style techniques, the play uses dynamic theatricality to engage audiences with the same questions and flashpoints that inspired the play's creation. Stolowitz explains: "The play grew out of what I witnessed daily at the universities where I have taught for over 20 years: what are the tenets of free speech, and how do we uphold them in these tumultuous times?"

John Walch, associate professor of playwriting and director of the Kernodle Award, says, "These two theatrical dramas explore difficult conversations in educational spaces. At this moment in time, we felt naming co-winners would amplify the dialogue central to each play's activist spirit."

In addition to the co-winners, the reading committee awarded a Special Citation for Theatrical Storytelling to DJ Hills for Horsegirl & Cowdaddy.

The Kernodle New Play Award includes a cash prize, opportunities for further script development and potential guest artist mentorships with students in the Department of Theatre.

ABOUT THE PLAYS

Parts Per Million & Prophets, by Ricardo Enrique
"Let the records show that this is our legacy: our fashion trends laid waste to entire species, our cravings were like tsunamis, our comforts like earthquakes and our tastes like plagues."

Mystical and timely, Parts Per Million & Prophets follows Silvia, a girl struggling to manage excruciating eco-anxiety. After a provocative science project lands her suspended at her new school, she navigates the halls, making friends and searching for creative ways to channel her debilitating feelings about the state of the Earth. In her search, she uncovers a secret her mother has kept from her—her inheritance of a long passed down spiritual tradition that will soon take over her body. Can she keep her sanity and stay in school as reality begins to break open and a new, ancient presence makes a home inside of her?

Recent Unsettling Events, by Andrea Stolowitz
"Being human is a very messy venture."

A college protest. A canceled professor. A revolutionary spirit. As a student protest over a required Western Civilization class roils a small liberal arts college, the characters pulled into the maelstrom confront the larger complexities, entanglements and conflicting values in our higher educational spaces. Rich with nuance, carefully drawn characters and timely themes, Recent Unsettling Events asks deep questions about our now: What is free speech? Whose identity is represented in the curriculum? What is the need for critical thought? What is revolution? And who pays for it in the end?

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHTS

Ricardo Enrique is a multidisciplinary artist, eco-philosopher and educator. As an actor, they have performed nationally with TheatreSquared, Stages, Teatrx, Alley Theatre, HERE Arts Center, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre and others. Television credits include: Dietland (AMC), New Amsterdam (NBC), Chicago P.D. (NBC), Alternatino with Arturo Castro (Comedy Central) and others. They are a 2025 Houston Arts Alliance grant recipient, which they're using to produce their first short film, Cloud Maker, a story about grief and air inequality in Houston. Their first two full-length plays have each been awarded as finalists for the Eugene O'Neill Playwriting Conference (Parts Per Million & Prophets in 2024 and Los Pecados de Iberia in 2025). Their work and practice is dedicated to climate activism, dismantling the myth of human exceptionalism and curating experiences of ecological atonement. Instagram: @unacasaguayaba

Andrea Stolowitz is a playwright working in traditional and experimental theater and opera. Stolowitz's work embraces bold theatricality ranging from intimate portrayals of the human condition to the intersection of national history and private lives. Stolowitz is a member of the New Dramatists class of 2026, the Lacroute Playwright in Residence at the Oregon Jewish Museum Center for Holocaust Education and the artistic director of Andrea Stolowitz Theatre Projects, the producing arm of her creative work. Stolowitz splits her time between Cork, Ireland; Berlin, Germany; New York City; and Portland, Oregon. Stolowitz is also very, very funny. M.F.A.: UCSD. https://andreastolowitz.com/

---

About the Department of Theatre: The University of Arkansas Department of Theatre has offered hands-on theatrical education for 75 years. The department provides a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre and a Master of Fine Arts with concentrations in Acting, Directing, Playwriting, Costume Design, Scene Design, and Lighting Design. Applications for the Department of Theatre's graduate M.F.A. cohort in all concentrations are being accepted for the fall of 2026.

About the University of Arkansas: The University of Arkansas provides an internationally competitive education for undergraduate and graduate students in more than 200 academic programs