Fairview by Jackie Sibblies Drury wins the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play, which was produced at Soho Rep and deals with issues of race and family — and one particular family preparing for an important dinner, will be remounted at Theatre for a New Audience in June.
Pulitzer citation calls the play “a hard-hitting drama that examines race in a highly conceptual layered structure, ultimately bringing audience into the actors’ community to face deep-seated prejudice.”
The Pulitzer Prize board named two finalists in the category: Heidi Schreck’s What the Constitution Means to Me (now playing on Broadway), and Clare Barron’s Dance Nation.
The Jury:
Misha Berson (Chair)
Theater critic, teacher, author and lecturer, Seattle, Wa.
Gina Gionfriddo
Playwright, New York, N.Y.
Henry D. Godinez
Professor of Theatre, Northwestern University; resident artistic associate, Goodman Theatre
Wendy C. Goldberg
Artistic Director, National Playwrights Conference, Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center
Peter Marks
Chief theater critic, The Washington Post
Theater Awards 2019 Calendar and Guide
Below is the complete list of prior Pulitzer Drama winners, with links to their citations (Since 1983, the Pulitzers have made public the finalists, which has become its own form of accolade.)
2018
Cost of Living by Martyna Majok
“An honest, original work that invites audiences to examine diverse perceptions of privilege and human connection through two pairs of mismatched individuals: a former trucker and his recently paralyzed ex-wife, and an arrogant young man with cerebral palsy and his new caregiver.”
Finalists:
2017
Sweat by Lynn Nottage
“For a nuanced yet powerful drama that reminds audiences of the stacked deck still facing workers searching for the American dream.”
Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda
Between Riverside and Crazy, by Stephen Adly Guirgis
A nuanced, beautifully written play about a retired police officer faced with eviction that uses dark comedy to confront questions of life and death.
Finalists:
The Flick, by Annie Baker
A thoughtful drama with well-crafted characters that focuses on three employees of a Massachusetts art-house movie theater, rendering lives rarely seen on the stage.
Finalists:
Disgraced, by Ayad Akhtar
A moving play that depicts a successful corporate lawyer painfully forced to consider why he has for so long camouflaged his Pakistani Muslim heritage.
Water by the Spoonful, by Quiara Alegría Hudes
An imaginative play about the search for meaning by a returning Iraq war veteran working in a sandwich shop in his hometown of Philadelphia.
Clybourne Park, by Bruce Norris
For “Clybourne Park,” a powerful work whose memorable characters speak in witty and perceptive ways to America’s sometimes toxic struggle with race and class consciousness.
Next to Normal, by Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey
A powerful rock musical that grapples with mental illness in a suburban family and expands the scope of subject matter for musicals.
Ruined, by Lynn Nottage
A searing drama set in chaotic Congo that compels audiences to face the horror of wartime rape and brutality while still finding affirmation of life and hope amid hopelessness.
