Eboni Booth’s “Primary Trust” has won the 2024 Pulitzer Prize in Drama.
Moisés Kaufman & Amanda Gronich’s “Here There Are Blueberries” and Shayok Misha Chowdhury’s “Public Obscenities” were the Pulitzer Drama finalists.
Vinson Cunningham, theater critic of the New Yorker Magazine, was also a finalist in the Pulitzer for Criticism.
From my review of “Primary Trust”:
You might think of Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town” at the outset of “Primary Trust,” when a genial William Jackson Harper as Kenneth describes for us his quaint (fictional) hometown of Cranberry, New York, with its Main Street of church, banks, bowling alley, and his “favorite place on earth” – a tiki restaurant called Wally’s, where he sips mai tais most nights of the week.
Not long into “Primary Trust,” you might switch to thinking of Mary Chase’s “Harvey,” when Kenneth introduces us to his best friend – not an invisible six foot-tall rabbit (as in “Harvey”) but Bert (portrayed by Eric Berryman.) After a few minutes of small talk between Kenneth and Bert at Wally’s, however, Kenneth confides to us that Bert is imaginary. “Exists only in my head. But that doesn’t make him any less real.”….Full review
What the Pulitzer Board says:
“A simple and elegantly crafted story of an emotionally damaged man who finds a new job, new friends and a new sense of worth, illustrating how small acts of kindness can change a person’s life and enrich an entire community.”
From my review
“Here There Are Blueberries” turns the real-life discovery of an ordinary-looking photo album into a riveting detective story, with the characters gathering clues to unravel a series of mysteries, including one of the greatest unsolvable mysteries in history: the Holocaust. It’s the latest extraordinary documentary theater from Moises Kaufman and his Tectonic Theater Project, running at New York Theater Workshop through June 16.”
What the Pulitzer Board says:
“An elegant and harrowing work of documentary theater that examines the provenance of a photo album from Auschwitz and probes the unsolvable mystery of how individuals can insist on normalcy while atrocity lurks outside the frame.”
What the Pulitzer Board says:
“A densely written, deeply-felt drama that examines identity, home, queerness, and language through the lens of a Bengali American reuniting with his family in India.”
From my review of Public Obscenities:
“Written and directed by Shayok Misha Chowdhury, a Bengali American poet and playwright who lives in Brooklyn,”Public Obscenities” focuses on Choton (Abrar Haque), a Bengali American PhD student from California, and his boyfriend Raheem (Jakeem Dante Powell), a Black American cinematographer, who are staying at Choton’s grandfather’s home in Kolkata (the Indian city called Calcutta until 2001). Choton has received a grant to conduct research for his thesis on the local queer community of Kolkata. He seeks out his research subjects on Grindr, and then Raheem films Choton’s interviews with them. In this way, we meet Shou (Tashnuva Anan) and Sebanti (NaFis), who are both nonbinary.” Full review
The five members of the Pulitzer Drama jury:
Janice Simpson (Chair)
Former Director, Arts Journalism Program, Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY
Lisa Fung
Writer, Los Angeles & New York City
Lily Janiak
Theater Critic, San Francisco Chronicle
Tracy Letts*
Playwright, Bedford, N.Y.
Chay Yew
Stage Director/Playwright, New York City
*himself a previous winner of the Pulitzer Prize
