ThePulitzer Prize for Drama is one of the seven AmericanPulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters,Drama, andMusic. It is one of the original Pulitzers, for the program was inaugurated in 1917 with seven prizes, four of which were awarded that year.[1] (No Drama prize was given, however, so that one was inaugurated in 1918, in a sense.)[2] It recognizes a theatrical work staged in the U.S. during the preceding calendar year.
Joseph Pulitzer stipulated that the Pulitzer Prize for Drama should be awarded, “…“Annually, for the original American play, performed in New York, which shall best represent the educational value and power of the stage in raising the standard of good morals, good taste, and good manners." The original prize was $1,000.[3]
Until 2007, eligibility for the Drama Prize ran from March 1 to March 2 to reflect the Broadway "season" rather than the calendar year that governed most other Pulitzer Prizes.
The drama jury, which consists of one academic and four critics, attends plays inNew York and in regional theaters. The Pulitzer board can overrule the jury's choice; in1986, the board's opposition to the jury's choice ofthe CIVIL warS resulted in no award being given.[4]
In 1955Joseph Pulitzer, Jr. pressured the prize jury into presenting the Prize toCat on a Hot Tin Roof, which the jury considered the weakest of the five shortlisted nominees ("amateurishly constructed... from the stylistic points of view annoyingly pretentious"), instead ofClifford Odets'The Flowering Peach (their preferred choice) orThe Bad Seed, their second choice.[5]Edward Albee'sWho's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? was selected for the 1963 Pulitzer Prize for Drama by that award's committee. However, the committee's selection was overruled by the award's advisory board, the trustees ofColumbia University, because of the play's then-controversial use ofprofanity and sexual themes. Had Albee been awarded, he would be tied withEugene O'Neill for the most Pulitzer Prizes for Drama (four).
^The Nominating Jury acknowledged their first choice, 'The Civil Wars', was unconventional and "not a play in any traditional sense of the word". The only other option they offered wasHannah and Her Sisters byWoody Allen, which they realized was not a traditional nominee for a drama award, due to it being a film, but thought they would "raise the question of... eligibility" anyway.
Of note,South Pacific won the 1950 Pulitzer for Drama but its source material, James Michener'sTales of the South Pacific, also won the 1948 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Similarly, non-musicalAll the Way Home by Tad Mosel won the 1961 Pulitzer and was based on James Agee's 1957 Pulitzer winning novelA Death in the Family.
The award goes to the playwright, although production of the play is also taken into account. In the case of a musical being awarded the prize, the composer, lyricist and book writer are generally the recipients. An exception to this was the first Pulitzer ever awarded to a musical: whenOf Thee I Sing won in 1932, book authors George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind, as well as lyricist Ira Gershwin, were cited as the winners, while composer George Gershwin's contribution was overlooked by the committee. The reason given was that the Pulitzer Prize for Drama is adramatic award, and not amusical one. However, by 1950 the Pulitzer committee included composer Richard Rodgers as a recipient whenSouth Pacific won the award, in recognition of music as an integral and important part of the theatrical experience.[24]
¹All listed dates are Prize years. Generally, the musical in question opened in New York during either the preceding calendar year or the preceding Broadway season.
The following individuals received two or more Pulitzer Prizes for Drama:
Wins
Playwright
Nominations
4
Eugene O'Neill
4
3
Edward Albee
5
Robert E. Sherwood
3
2
August Wilson
6
George S. Kaufman
2
Lynn Nottage
Thornton Wilder
Tennessee Williams
The following individuals received two or more nominations:
Nominations
Playwright
6
August Wilson
5
Edward Albee
4
Eugene O'Neill
3
Quiara Alegría Hudes
David Henry Hwang
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Tracy Letts
Donald Margulies
Suzan-Lori Parks
Robert E. Sherwood
Sam Shepard
2
Jon Robin Baitz
Gina Gionfriddo
John Guare
A.R. Gurney
Richard Greenberg
Tina Howe
Stephen Karam
George S. Kaufman
David Mamet
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Lynn Nottage
Sarah Ruhl
Neil Simon
Jeanine Tesori
Alfred Uhry
Thornton Wilder
Tennessee Williams
Lynn Nottage is the only female playwright to win the prize twice. She and August Wilson are the only playwrights of color to accomplish this feat.
Jon Robin Baitz, Gina Gionfriddo, John Guare, A.R. Gurney, Richard Greenberg, Tina Howe, Stephen Karam, Sarah Ruhl and Jeanine Tesori have each been named finalists twice without winning. David Henry Hwang is the only person to have been named a finalist thrice without winning. Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeanine Tesori are the only people to be named as a finalist twice for writing/composing a musical, with Miranda winning in 2016.
^abc"Drama". The Pulitzer Prizes (pulitzer.org). Retrieved 2013-12-20.
^Hohenberg, John (1974).The Pulitzer prizes: a history of the awards in books, drama, music, and journalism based on the privates files over 6 decades. New York, NY: Columbia Univ. Press.ISBN978-0-231-03771-6.
^Fischer, Heinz-Dietrich & Erika J. Fischer.The Pulitzer Prize Archive: A History and Anthology of Award-Winning Materials in Journalism, Letters, and Arts München: K.G. Saur, 2008.ISBN3-598-30170-7ISBN9783598301704 p. 246
^Fischer, Heinz-D.; Fischer, Erika J. (2008).The Pulitzer Prize Archive: A History and Anthology of Award-winning Material in Journalism, Letters and Arts — Chronicle of the Pulitzer Prizes for Drama: Discussions, Decision and Documents. Berlin: K.G. Saur. p. 4.ISBN9783598301926.
^Fischer, Heinz-D.; Fischer, Erika J. (2008).The Pulitzer Prize Archive: A History and Anthology of Award-winning Material in Journalism, Letters and Arts — Chronicle of the Pulitzer Prizes for Drama: Discussions, Decision and Documents. Berlin: K.G. Saur. p. 58.ISBN9783598301926.
^Fischer, Heinz-D.; Fischer, Erika J. (2008).The Pulitzer Prize Archive: A History and Anthology of Award-winning Material in Journalism, Letters and Arts — Chronicle of the Pulitzer Prizes for Drama: Discussions, Decision and Documents. Berlin: K.G. Saur. p. 58.ISBN9783598301926.
^Fischer, Heinz-D.; Fischer, Erika J. (2008).The Pulitzer Prize Archive: A History and Anthology of Award-winning Material in Journalism, Letters and Arts — Chronicle of the Pulitzer Prizes for Drama: Discussions, Decision and Documents. Berlin: K.G. Saur. p. 65.ISBN9783598301926.
^Fischer, Heinz-D.; Fischer, Erika J. (2008).The Pulitzer Prize Archive: A History and Anthology of Award-winning Material in Journalism, Letters and Arts — Chronicle of the Pulitzer Prizes for Drama: Discussions, Decision and Documents. Berlin: K.G. Saur. p. 70.ISBN9783598301926.
^Fischer, Heinz-D.; Fischer, Erika J. (2008).The Pulitzer Prize Archive: A History and Anthology of Award-winning Material in Journalism, Letters and Arts — Chronicle of the Pulitzer Prizes for Drama: Discussions, Decision and Documents. Berlin: K.G. Saur. pp. 84, 85.ISBN9783598301926.
^Fischer, Heinz-D.; Fischer, Erika J. (2008).The Pulitzer Prize Archive: A History and Anthology of Award-winning Material in Journalism, Letters and Arts — Chronicle of the Pulitzer Prizes for Drama: Discussions, Decision and Documents. Berlin: K.G. Saur. p. 108.ISBN9783598301926.
^Fischer, Heinz-D.; Fischer, Erika J. (2008).The Pulitzer Prize Archive: A History and Anthology of Award-winning Material in Journalism, Letters and Arts — Chronicle of the Pulitzer Prizes for Drama: Discussions, Decision and Documents. Berlin: K.G. Saur. p. 112.ISBN9783598301926.
^Fischer, Heinz-D.; Fischer, Erika J. (2008).The Pulitzer Prize Archive: A History and Anthology of Award-winning Material in Journalism, Letters and Arts — Chronicle of the Pulitzer Prizes for Drama: Discussions, Decision and Documents. Berlin: K.G. Saur. p. 117.ISBN9783598301926.
^Fischer, Heinz-D.; Fischer, Erika J. (2008).The Pulitzer Prize Archive: A History and Anthology of Award-winning Material in Journalism, Letters and Arts — Chronicle of the Pulitzer Prizes for Drama: Discussions, Decision and Documents. Berlin: K.G. Saur. p. 9.ISBN9783598301926.
^Fischer, Heinz-D.; Fischer, Erika J. (2008).The Pulitzer Prize Archive: A History and Anthology of Award-winning Material in Journalism, Letters and Arts — Chronicle of the Pulitzer Prizes for Drama: Discussions, Decision and Documents. Berlin: K.G. Saur. p. 122.ISBN9783598301926.
^The Pulitzer committee recommendedEdward Albee'sWho's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? *, but the Pulitzer board, who have sole discretion in awarding the prize, rejected the recommendation, due to the play's perceived vulgarity, and no award was given instead. Klein, Alvin. "Albee's 'Tiny Alice,' The Whole Enchilada".The New York Times. May 24, 1998: CT11.
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