NEW YORK CITY: History Matters/Back To The Future, a program committed to promoting the study and production of women’s plays of the past, has announced Lindsay Adams as the winner of the second annual Judith Barlow Prize. Adams, a student at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., will receive a cash prize of $2,500, a trip to New York City, and a reading of her one-act play.

Adams’s play Her Own Devices, inspired by Mary Chase’s play Harvey, is about a young girl with a rare autoimmune disease who spends her life in a lab, and copes with the help of her imaginary robot friend. There will be a reading of the play at the Women’s Project Theater at McGinn/Cazale in New York City on April 29. Jade King Carroll will direct, and Kathleen Chalfant will serve as the evening’s host.

“History Matters/Back To The Future is a project to unearth lost treasures,” said Chalfant in a statement. “The treasure that is lost are plays written by women for the theatre. We are now going through a moment in which a number of glorious women are writing again for the theatre and being produced, and History Matters lets the world see that this is not an anomaly but part of a glorious tradition.”

Adams is part of the One Play at a Time initiative, which encourages colleges and universities across the country to dedicate one class period per semester to a historic play by a woman playwright. Participating educators are given sample lessons and support materials for the program, and the chance to submit entries to the Judith Barlow Prize.

Adams’s professor, Patrick Tuite, will receive a $500 prize, and the Judith Barlow Prize runner up, Aaron Scully of the University of Missouri, will receive $1,000.