Ayad Akhtar And Lucas Hnath To Be Honored With Steinberg Playwright Awards

The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust today announced that Pulitzer-prize-winning playwright Ayad Akhtar and 2017 Tony Award-nominated playwright Lucas Hnath are the recipients of 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.

"I can't really say anything about this incredible honor without saying a lot about the Steinberg Charitable Trust. Their support has meant a great deal to me over the course of my career. The Trust has created and sponsored programs that have helped me become the playwright I am, and now with this award, they are helping me continue to make theatre - and grow and evolve and take even bigger risks. I'm certainly not alone in my appreciation of the Steinbergs, as so many of my fellow playwrights have benefited and grown because of their support. The Steinberg Trust makes possible much of what I find so vital and exciting about our current theatrical landscape," Hnath said.

"I am so honored to share the company of the amazing artists who've won this award. I am deeply grateful to the Steinberg Trust for this support and very excited about the work this gift will make possible for me," Akhtar said.

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.

"The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust is incredibly honored to recognize the astounding careers of Ayad and Lucas to date. The incredible accolades and recognition their respective work has received in such a short amount of time is remarkable, and we look forward to seeing their innovative words and visions portrayed on stages around the world for years to come," Steinberg board member Jim Steinberg, said.

"Ayad writes fiercely intelligent, startling, witty and provocative plays with three-dimensional human beings caught in conflict. At the same time, he diagnoses what's wrong with the nation we've created, be it America's increasing Islamophobia or its new religion of wealth. Lucas's plays illuminate the unexpected consequences of life-changing decisions made in moments of crisis and passion. Nora returns home 15 years after she famously slammed that door, or an Evangelical pastor changes his mind about Hell in his mega-church. Like Chekhov, Hnath's writing is clear-eyed, revealing and compassionate. He doesn't take sides or provide easy answers. He prompts questions," Kent Thompson, Theatre Director, Producer and Author, said.

"Lucas is a playwright whose piercing honesty and radical imagination have flown audiences deep into the heart of his characters. He's just so good-and I'm always amazed by his ability to tackle subjects as different as American Christianity, and a leap forward to the later years of Nora in A DOLL'S HOUSE, PART 2. As a playwright, screenwriter and novelist, Ayad's masterful use of language creates rich, complex characters wrestling with the vast issues of our day - identity, greed, religion, race and politics. His work is immediate, muscular, bitingly funny, thought-provoking and absolutely vital to the American theater," Molly Smith, Artistic Director of Arena Stage, said.

"Ayad is one of our country's most searing political voices. His writing is potent, observant and smart. His trilogy of seminal plays about Muslim Americans gives immediate voice and visibility to a community often invisible, marginalized and silent. Ayad's spectacularly epic and deft new play, JUNK, explores greed and our class divide. At a moment when the country is confronting national anti-Islam sentiments and the responsibilities of our financial institutions, his plays could not be more relevant. One of the most thrilling theatrical and inventive voices of our generation belongs to Lucas. With ferocious wit and poetry, he possesses an uncanny gift of finding complex humanity in every one of his characters. Whether it's in the church, a swimming pool, or A DOLL'S HOUSE, PART 2, Lucas's plays assault our minds and rip open our hearts, forcing us to confront our moral ambiguities in these complicated times," Chay Yew, Artistic Director of Victory Gardens Theater, said.

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.

The Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award and Steinberg Playwright Awards are presented in alternate years. Past recipients include:

· Sarah Ruhl, Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award, 2016

· Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and Dominique Morisseau, Steinberg Playwright Awards, 2015

· Stephen Adly Guirgis, Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award, 2014

· Annie Baker and Rajiv Joseph, Steinberg Playwright Awards, 2013

· David Henry Hwang, Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award, 2012

· Lisa D'Amour and Melissa James Gibson, Steinberg Playwright Awards, 2011

· Lynn Nottage, Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award, 2010

· David Adjmi, Tarell Alvin McCraney and Bruce Norris, Steinberg Playwright Awards, 2009

· Tony Kushner, Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award, 2008

Along with a monetary award, playwrights receive "The Mimi," a statuette designed by David Rockwell, Tony Award-winning scenic designer and architect.

In 2008, the Board of Directors created an advisory committee of prominent theater professionals to establish the awards criteria, nominate individual candidates and select each recipient. The 2017 Advisory Committee is comprised of Paige Evans, Artistic Director, Signature Theatre Company; Lynne Meadow, Artistic Director, Manhattan Theatre Club; Carole Rothman, Artistic Director, Second Stage Theatre; Molly Smith, Artistic Director, Arena Stage; Kent Thompson, Theatre Director, Producer and Author; Les Waters, Artistic Director, Actors Theatre of Louisville; and Chay Yew, Artistic Director, Victory Gardens Theater.

The Board of Directors of The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust is made up of Carole A. Krumland, James D. Steinberg, Michael A. Steinberg, Seth M. Weingarten, and William D. Zabel.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / WM Photos