American Blues Reveals Winner of 2025 Blue Ink Award for Playwriting

American Blues Theater has revealed the recipient of the 2025 Blue Ink Award is Alyssa Haddad-Chin for her play You Should Be So Lucky. As part of the award, Haddad-Chin receives a $3,000 cash prize and a staged reading at American Blues Theater.
 
A staged reading of You Should Be So Lucky, directed by Helen Young, will be presented this summer as part of the 2025 Blue Ink Playwriting Festival on Saturday, August 9, 2025, along with new work by finalists Erlina Ortiz (She Wore Those Shoes), and LaDarrion Williams (Hurt People). Details for the playwrights named in the 2025 Blue Ink Award are at AmericanBluesTheater.com.
 
2025 Blue Ink Award winner Alyssa Haddad-Chin notes, “I am truly humbled and honored to receive the Blue Ink Award for Playwriting. You Should Be So Lucky is inspired by my grandmother-in-law, and is a dedication to all communities, from Chinatown to Palestine, who hold firm in the face of displacement. And yet, in spite of that examination which may seem so overwhelming and heavy, it’s ultimately a play about two people searching for ways to connect. I'm so grateful for this recognition, which is a true game changer for me and for this piece, and it will allow me to continue to develop and share it far and wide. To borrow a quote from the play: we’re still here, and we’re not going anywhere.”
 
“We're honored to name Alyssa Haddad-Chin's play You Should Be So Lucky as the 2025 Blue Ink Award for playwriting. Alyssa's timely and poignant depiction of the family relationships and struggles immediately captured our hearts. We're excited to present the staged reading, directed by incredible Chicago theater maker Helen Young, this summer as part of our Blue Ink Playwriting Festival,” comments Executive Artistic Director Gwendolyn Whiteside.

About You Should Be So Lucky

Poh Poh teaches her granddaughter, Jenny, to make dumplings for the Lunar New Year in her Chinatown apartment. As Jenny learns more about her culture, history, and family, she discovers that there are some secrets Poh Poh won't share, and the changing neighborhood isn't leaving space for them.

About Alyssa Haddad-Chin

Alyssa Haddad-Chin (she/her) is a Lebanese American, playwright, educator and arts facilitator. She is a 2024-’25 Target Margin Theater Institute Fellow, commissioned by Keen Company for their 2024-’25 Keen Teens series, and a 2025 artist at the Mercury Store. Her play, The Newlywed Game, won B Street Theatre’s 2023 New Comedies Festival and received its World Premiere in June 2024. Other plays include The Ancestry Dot Com Play (Developed with The Playwrights Realm, Premiere Stages at Kean, Art House Productions), Off-White; Or the Arab House Party Play (Developed with New York Theater Workshop, Backstitch Story Arts). She has been a finalist for American Blues Theater Blue Ink Award, Leah Ryan Award, Amphibian SparkFest, The Playwright’s Realm, Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellowship, Ensemble Studio Theatre Youngblood and a semi-finalist for American Blues Theater Blue Ink Award, Rattlestick Theater Terrence McNally New Works Incubator, Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival, O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, Princess Grace Award, Bay Area Playwright’s Festival, and others. She is a New Georges Affiliated Artist, a Resident Artist at Breaking and Entering Theater Collective, and the Company and Community Manager at Target Margin Theater. A collection of her short plays, And Now a Little Something for the Ladies (among others), is published with 1319 Press. She holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU Tisch School of the Arts.