Lynn Nottage to be Honored at Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's 22nd Monte Cristo Award Gala

The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center will present the 22nd Monte Cristo Award to award-winning playwright and screenwriter Lynn Nottage.  Nottage, who was in residence at the O’Neill in 2006 while working on her play Ruined, is the first (and remains the only) woman to receive two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama - the first for Ruined, and the second for her 2015 play Sweat.   The gala evening in celebration of her theatrical canon will be held at Capitale in New York City on Monday, November 6, 2023.

The celebratory evening is directed by Seret Scott and will feature special performances by Quincy Tyler Bernstein, Tonya Pinkins, Jason Bowen, Gabby Beans, Stacey Sargeant, CJ Wilson and Joyce Sylvester, among others.  The evening’s Gala Committee includes: Michael Douglas & Catherine Zeta-Jones, Stephen & Ruth Hendel, David Henry Hwang, Genia Kaplan Quinn & Dr. Bruce Quinn, Dominique Morisseau, Senator Chris Murphy (CT), The Nederlander Organization, Tom Viertel & Pat Daily, and Constanza Romero Wilson.

The O’Neill annually bestows its Monte Cristo Award on a prominent artist whose work has had an extraordinary impact on American theater, in memory of its namesake. The annual gala event supports the O’Neill’s mission to develop new work and new artists for the stage.

O'Neill Executive Director, Tiffani Gavin, said, “Lynn Nottage is one of the most incredible creative minds of our generation; her emphasis on working class and marginalized individuals - much like Eugene O’Neill himself - has helped countless audiences to see reflections of themselves on the stage, which has made the theater as a whole that much richer for everyone.  We’re thrilled to be celebrating Lynn and her extraordinary body of work this year.”

Tickets for the Monte Cristo Award Gala are available HERE.  For sponsorship opportunities or additional information about the event, call 860-443-5378 ext. 288, or email events@theoneill.org.

About Lynn Nottage

Lynn Nottage is a playwright and a screenwriter, and the first woman in history to win two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama. Her recent work includes the libretto forIntimate Apparel the Opera  [LCT]  , the book for MJ The Musical [Broadway] and Clyde’s [Broadway, 2st]. Other work includes The Watering Hole(Signature), Floyd’s (Guthrie) the book for the musical The Secret Life of Bees (Atlantic Theater), Sweat (Pulitzer Prize, Obie Award, Susan Smith Blackburn Award), which moved to Broadway after a sold out run at The Public Theater, Mlima's Tale (Lortel Award Nomination, Outer Critics Circle Nomination), By the Way, Meet Vera Stark (Drama Desk Nomination, Lilly Award), Ruined (Pulitzer Prize, Obie Award, Lortel Award), Intimate Apparel (American Theatre Critics and New York Drama Critics’ Circle Awards for Best Play), Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine (Lortel Award Nomination, Drama Desk Nomination, Obie Award), Crumbs from the Table of Joy, Las Meninas, Mud, River, Stone, Por’knockers and POOF!. She has also developed This is Reading, a performance installation at the Franklin Street, Reading Railroad Station in Reading, PA. She was a writer and producer on the first season of Netflix seriesShe's Gotta Have It, directed by Spike Lee. Nottage is an Associate Professor at Columbia University School of the Arts, and the recipient of a MacArthur "Genius Grant'' Fellowship, Steinberg "Mimi" Distinguished Playwright Award, Doris Duke Artists Award and PEN/Laura Pels Master Playwright Award, among others. She is also a member of the Dramatists Guild.

About the Monte Cristo Award:

The Monte Cristo Award is presented to a prominent individual each year in recognition of a distinguished career exemplifying Eugene O’Neill’s “pioneering spirit, unceasing artistic commitment, and excellence,” and furthering the American theater.

Past recipients of the Award include actors Geroge C. White, John Logan, Judith Light, Meryl Streep, Michael Douglas, Nathan Lane, Christopher Plummer, James Earl Jones, Jason Robards, Jr., Zoe Caldwell, Brian Dennehy, & Karl Malden; playwrights August Wilson, Wendy Wasserstein, Edward Albee, & Neil Simon; directors Harold Prince & George C. Wolfe; and Arthur & Barbara Gelb and Lin-Manuel Miranda.

About the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center:

The Launchpad of the American Theater, the O’Neill is the country’s preeminent organization dedicated to the development of new works and new voices for the American theater. Founded in 1964, and named in honor of Eugene O’Neill, four-time Pulitzer Prize-winner and America’s only playwright to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, the O’Neill has been home to more than 1,000 new works for the stage and thousands more emerging artists. Scores of projects developed at the O’Neill have gone on to full production at theaters around the world. O’Neill programs include the National Playwrights Conference, National Music Theater Conference, National Critics Institute, National Puppetry Conference, Cabaret & Performance Conference, and National Theater Institute – which offers six credit-earning undergraduate training programs. In addition, the O’Neill owns and operates the Monte Cristo Cottage as a museum open to the public. The O’Neill is the recipient of two Tony Awards and the National Medal of Arts. www.theoneill.org.

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