HANOVER, N.H.: The Neukom Institute for Computational Science at Dartmouth College has named Jessica Andrewartha the inaugural recipient of the Neukom Institute Literary Arts Award for Playwriting for her play Choices People Make.

Andrewartha’s work was selected from a pool of 50 entries, and she will receive a $5,000 honorarium. The play, which is about a near-world future dominated by artificial intelligence, will be presented as a staged reading at the Dartmouth College VoxFest in July and at the New Works Now Festival at Northern Stage in White River Junction, Vt., in January 2019.

“The Neukom Institute Literary Arts Awards recognize the important role that the arts play in illuminating and imagining the impact of science on society, and, to that end, aim to encourage new work in this direction,” said Dan Rockmore, director of the Neukom Institute, in a statement. “Jessica Andrewartha’s winning entry is funny and insightful about aspects of AI in the world that we will surely one day need to address. The Neukom Institute very much looks forward to helping to bring her work to the public.”

VoxFest’s director, Kate Mulley, and Northern Stage’s producing artistic director Carol Dunne will work with Andrewartha to further develop the play. Andrewartha will also have the opportunity to work with the staff of Dartmouth College’s Department of Theater.

“This is a wonderfully challenging play that paints a picture of a future that is actually already knocking on the door,” said Dunne in a statement. “By bringing the award-winning play to Voxfest and the professional Northern Stage, we are giving this new work of art and those involved with it—including students—a meaningful entree into the greater American theatre.”