MTC's Pulitzer Prize-winning Playwrights Featured in New York Times Arts & Leisure Weekend

Three of Manhattan Theatre Club's Pulitzer Prize-winning playwrights will participate in the New York Times' Arts & Leisure Weekend. Beth Henley, Donald Margulies, and John Patrick Shanley will participate in a panel discussion moderated by the Times' Robin Pogrebin on Sunday, January 10 at 2 PM at The Times Center (242 West 41st Street).

Manhattan Theatre Club has produced four of the last eight Pulitzer Prize-winning plays. Overall, the company has produced six Pulitzer Prize winners, an accomplishment unparalleled by any New York theatrical institution.

Henley's Crimes of the Heart was produced by MTC in 1980 and received the 1981 Pulitzer. MTC subsequently produced Henley's The Miss Firecracker Contest, The Lucky Spot, The Debutante Ball, and Abundance.

Margulies received the 2000 Pulitzer for Dinner With Friends. MTC is producing the New York premiere of his play Time Stands Still, which begins previews tomorrow at MTC's Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (261 West 47th Street), and later this spring will produce the Broadway premiere of his play Collected Stories. These will mark the seventh and eighth collaborations between Margulies and MTC. Other productions include: What's Wrong with This Picture?, The Loman Family Picnic, Sight Unseen (twice), Collected Stories (Off-Broadway), and Brooklyn Boy.

Shanley received the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Doubt which received its world premiere at MTC. Other Shanley works that MTC has produced include Women of Manhattan, Italian-American Reconciliation, Beggars in the House of Plenty, Four Dogs and a Bone, Psychopathia Sexualis, Where's My Money?, Defiance, and Romantic Poetry.

The three will discuss their experiences in the theatre and give readings from the new book The Play that Changed My Life, which each has contributed essays to.

The Times' Arts & Leisure Weekend is a four-day celebration of the arts featuring TimesTalks interviews between New York Times journalists and celebrated guests from film, media, music, television and theater.

The panel discussion will be held from 2-3:15 PM. Immediately after the discussion, the three playwrights will be on hand to autograph copies of The Play That Changed My Life.

To purchase tickets to the "Pulitzer Playwrights" panel discussion, CLICK HERE. For more information on Arts & Leisure Weekend, please visit www.ArtsandLeisureWeekend.com.

Under the leadership of Artistic Director Lynne Meadow and Executive Producer Barry Grove, MTC has become one of the country's most prominent and prestigious theatre companies. MTC productions have earned a total of 16 Tony Awards and six Pulitzer Prizes, an accomplishment unparalleled by any New York theatrical institution. MTC has their Broadway home at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (261 West 47th Street) and an Off-Broadway theatre at New York City Center - Stage I (131 West 55th Street). Renowned MTC productions include Ruined; The American Plan; Top Girls; Come Back, Little Sheba; Blackbird; Translations; Shining City; Rabbit Hole; Doubt; Proof; The Tale of the Allergist's Wife; Love! Valour! Compassion!; A Small Family Business; Sylvia; Putting It Together; Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune; Crimes of the Heart; and Ain't Misbehavin'.

For more information on MTC, please visit www.ManhattanTheatreClub.com.