Aasif Mandvi, Steven Pasquale, Julie White & More Will Perform at the Steinberg Playwright Awards

The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust will soon present Pulitzer-prize-winning playwright Ayad Akhtar and 2017 Tony Award-nominated playwright Lucas Hnath with 2017 Steinberg Playwright Awards. The acclaimed writers will be honored at the 10th-Annual "Mimi" Awards, presented on Monday, December 4, 2017, at Lincoln Center Theater. The "Mimi" Awards are presented annually to honor the outstanding artistry and accomplishments of some of the most gifted American Playwrights.

The evening will feature performances of their respective work by Emily Donahoe, Andrew Garman, Caroline Hewitt, Jane Houdyshell, Nadine Malouf, Aasif Mandvi, Steven Pasquale, Matthew Rauch, Matthew Saldivar, Bernard White and Julie White.

The Steinberg Playwright Awards are presented biennially to playwrights in early and middle stages of their careers, who have distinctive and compelling voices, and whose current bodies of work exhibit exceptional talent and artistic excellence. The awards celebrate the accomplishments of some of the most gifted up-and-coming American Playwrights and honor the promise they hold for the future of American theatre. Each recipient will receive a cash award of $50,000.

Ayad Akhtar was born in New York City and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He is a novelist and author of American Dervish, published in over 20 languages worldwide. His play DISGRACED won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, ran on Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre, and was nominated for the 2015 Tony Award for Best Play. His plays THE WHO & THE WHAT and THE INVISIBLE HAND received Off-Broadway runs and are currently being produced around the world, garnering nominations for the Evening Standard and Olivier Awards in London this past year. His most recent play, JUNK received its world premiere at La Jolla Playhouse in 2016, winning the Craig Noel Award for Best New Play, and will open on Broadway at Lincoln Center Theatre in the fall of 2017. As a screenwriter, he was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Screenplay for THE WAR WITHIN. He is also the recipient of an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, 2 Obie Awards, a Jeff Award, and the Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Award. Akhtar has received fellowships from MacDowell, Djerassi, The Sundance Institute, Ucross, and Yaddo, where he serves as a Board Director. He is also a Board Trustee at PEN/America and New York Theatre Workshop.

Lucas Hnath's work includes A DOLL'S HOUSE, PART 2; HILLARY AND CLINTON; RED SPEEDO; THE CHRISTIANS; A PUBLIC READING OF AN UNPRODUCED SCREENPLAY ABOUT THE DEATH OF Walt Disney; ISAAC'S EYE; and DEATH TAX. His plays have been produced nationally and internationally, including at Playwrights Horizons, New York Theatre Workshop, Soho Rep, Actors Theatre of Louisville/Humana Festival of New Plays, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, Steppenwolf Theatre, South Coast Repertory, Royal Court Theatre, and on Broadway at the John Golden Theater. He is a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre, a resident playwright of New Dramatists, and New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect. Hnath is a recipient of an Obie, Guggenheim Fellowship, Outer Critics Circle Award for Best New Play, Whiting Award, Kesselring Prize, two Steinberg citations from the American Theatre Critics Association, and a 2017 Tony nomination for Best Play. He currently teaches playwriting at New York University's Department of Dramatic Writing.