Christina Anderson & Mfoniso Udofia to Receive the 2024 Steinberg Playwright Awards

The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust has revealed the names of the two outstanding early-to-mid-career playwrights who will be celebrated with 2024 Steinberg Playwright Awards in the amount of $100,000 each. This year’s recipients of the “Mimi” Awards are Christina Anderson and Mfoniso Udofia.
 
The “Mimi” Awards are presented annually to playwrights in early and middle stages of their careers who have distinctive and compelling voices, and whose work exhibits exceptional talent and artistic excellence. The awards celebrate their accomplishments and honor the promise they hold for the future of American theater.  During the pandemic, the Trust temporarily restructured the awards to reach a greater number of writers, given the impact of the pandemic on playwrights throughout the industry.  In 2022, the Trust returned to the origins of the award by honoring two early-to-mid-career playwrights with an increased monetary prize in acknowledgment of the challenging times facing artists post-pandemic. 
 
"I’m deeply honored to receive this recognition and generous support.  In these uncertain times, the Steinberg Playwright Award is a life-changing gift of freedom and artistic stillness to create and dream,” said Christina Anderson.  “My devotion to theatrical storytelling hasn’t always been an easy calling, but to receive this phone call was a reaffirming moment that I will cherish.  And to join such a remarkable group of past recipients is incredible.  Thank you to the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust for their lasting and impactful contributions to the American Theater and for this extraordinary award."
 
"When I found out I had won the Steinberg Award, my heart genuinely skipped a beat.  I’m in the midst of bringing my entire cycle of Nigerian immigrant plays to Boston in partnership with The Huntington and a host of theaters/partners in the Greater Boston Area,” said Mfoniso Udofia.  “For the past year, I’ve had my head down, focused on ensuring these plays come to life. To receive this award during such a pivotal moment feels truly monumental.  This recognition is not only a vital means of support but also an incredible encouragement—like a wind at a playwright’s back, urging them to 'go, go, go!'  I am deeply humbled and immensely grateful for this honor.  It was unexpected, so welcome, and I still wake up pinching myself in disbelief."

"Christina and Mfoniso are two of the foremost American Playwrights writing today,” said Snehal Desai, Advisory Committee Member, “Their work reverberates with a deep awareness of the complexities of identity—through their characters, they navigate the intersections of race, culture, and history with works that are lyrically hypnotic and formally inventive.  Their transformative voices illuminate untold stories, creating a profound connection between art and the lived experiences of those whose voices we don't often hear on our stages.  Their work is intimate and personal but also expansive and boundless in the ways they interrogate and celebrate our shared humanity."

“Passionate, witty, and profoundly human, both of this year’s recipients are visionary world builders,” said Hana S. Sharif, Advisory Committee Member.  “Christina Anderson and Mfoniso Udofia undoubtedly reflect the best of our canon with their individual excavation of generational hope, pain, and migration. The plays layer the magic of intersecting histories, trauma, joy, and infinite possibilities in characters that slowly unveil themselves to us and somehow ourselves to us.”

“To say 'now more than ever' is possibly a clichéd sentiment, in any context; but right now, as producing seasons shrink and theaters struggle to keep their lights on, as corporations train generative AI on artists' work without permission or compensation, and as our nation reckons with its own soul, our duty to support artists has never been more critical,” said Sarah Lunnie, Advisory Committee Member.  “The Steinberg Committee is proud to celebrate Christina Anderson and Mfoniso Udofia, whose voices are as essential as they are indelible, and whose plays are as illuminating as they are humanizing. Our art form may be ephemeral, but the power and beauty of their work endures, enriching our theater and our public life—yes, now more than ever. With this award we honor their fortitude and vision and humbly ask them to keep going."
 
“The Steinberg Trust is dedicated to shining a light on distinctive and powerful voices, and to investing in the future of American playwriting.  The Steinberg Board of Trustees and the Selection Committee are honored to recognize Christina and Mfoniso, two brilliant playwrights whose transcendent and transformative work will continue to inspire and inform the future of this art form,” said Steinberg Trustee Carole Krumland.

Christina Anderson

Born and raised in Kansas City, Kansas, Christina Anderson is a playwright, screenwriter, and educator. Anderson’s plays include: the ripple, the wave that carried me home, How to Catch Creation, Man in Love, Good Goods, The Ashes Under Gait City, Hollow Roots, Blacktop Sky, and pen/man/ship. Her work has been produced across the country including theaters such as Kansas City Repertory Theatre, The Acting Company, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Geva Theatre, Portland Center Stage, Baltimore Center Stage, and Yale Repertory Theatre. A Tony nominee for Outstanding Book of a Broadway musical, Anderson has received the Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award, the Horton Foote Prize, the Arthur Miller Legacy Award, United States Artists Fellowship, MacDowell Fellowship, Lily Awards Harper Lee Prize, Herb Alpert nomination, Barrymore Nomination for Outstanding New Play, New Dramatist residency, and many other honors. She is the author of Three Plays by Christina Anderson, a collection of her work published by Tripwire Harlot Press. Education: A.B. Brown University and M.F.A. Yale School of Drama. She’s taught playwriting at Rutgers University, SUNY Purchase, Wesleyan University, Brown, and YSD. Since 2019, she’s also been exploring music production under the moniker Purely Magenta, creating hip-hop instrumentals that experiment with groove and form. Current writing project: a book that explores playwriting as an accessible artistic life practice.

Mfoniso Udofia
 

Mfoniso Udofia is a first-generation Nigerian-American storyteller and educator.  Upcoming productions include Sojourners (The Huntington, Round House Theatre), and The Grove (The Huntington).

Sojourners, runboyrun, Her Portmanteau, and In Old Age have been seen at New York Theatre Workshop, American Conservatory Theater, Playwrights Realm, Magic Theater, National Black Theatre, Strand Theater, and Boston Court. Mfoniso has written on acclaimed shows like 13 Reasons Why on Netflix, A League of Their Own on Amazon, Let the Right One In on Showtime, and Pachinko (Peabody Award), Little America, and Lessons in Chemistry (WGA Nomination) on Apple TV+. She has also developed films for HBO, Legendary, and Amazon. Education: BA Wellesley College, MFA American Conservatory Theater. Recipient of the 2017 Helen Merrill Award, 2017-18 McKnight National Residency/Commission, and member of New Dramatists.
 
In 2008, the Trustees created an advisory committee of seven prominent theater professionals to establish the awards criteria, nominate individual candidates, and select recipients.  The 2024 Advisory Committee is comprised of Jeremy B. Cohen, Producing Artistic Director, Ojai Playwrights Conference; Snehal Desai, Artistic Director, Center Theatre Group; Adam Greenfield, Artistic Director, Playwrights Horizons; Sarah Lunnie, Dramaturg; Dámaso Rodriguez, Artistic Director, Seattle Rep; Hana S. Sharif, Artistic Director, Arena Stage; and Nicole A. Watson, Producing Artistic Director, The Playwrights’ Center.
 
The Board of Trustees of The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust is made up of Susan Frunzi, Carole Krumland, James Steinberg, Michael Steinberg, Seth Weingarten, and William Zabel.

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