Quiara Alegría Hudes | |
|---|---|
 Hudes in 2021 | |
| Born | (1977-09-22)September 22, 1977 (age 48) Philadelphia,Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Education | |
| Years active | 2003–present |
| Notable works | In the Heights |
| Notable awards | Pulitzer Prize for Drama 2012Water by the Spoonful |
| Children | 2 |
| Website | |
www | |
Quiara Alegría Hudes (born September 22, 1977) is an American playwright, producer, lyricist and essayist. She is best known for writing thebook for themusicalIn the Heights (2007), and screenplay forits film adaptation. Hudes' first play in herElliot Trilogy,Elliot, a Soldier's Fugue was a finalist for the 2007Pulitzer Prize for Drama. She received the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Drama forWater by the Spoonful, her second play in that trilogy.
Hudes was born in 1977 inPhiladelphia,Pennsylvania,[1] to aJewish father and aPuerto Rican mother.[2] They raised her inWest Philadelphia, where she began writing and composing music as a child.[3] She studied at the Mary Louise Curtis Branch ofSettlement Music School, taking piano lessons with Dolly Krasnopolsky.[4] Hudes has said that, although she is of "Puerto Rican and Jewish blood", she was "raised by two Puerto Rican parents." Her birth parents separated and her step-father was a Puerto Rican entrepreneur.[5]
Hudes graduated fromCentral High School in Philadelphia, and then studied music composition atYale University as a first generation college student,[6] where she earned herBA degree in 1999.[7] She subsequently completed graduate work atBrown University, where she received anMFA in playwriting in 2004.[8] She is a resident writer atNew Dramatists and a previous Page 73 Playwriting Fellow.
In 2012, Hudes was a visiting playwright atWesleyan University inMiddletown, Connecticut. She returned in 2014, serving as the Shapiro Distinguished Professor of Writing and Theater until 2017.[9]
The originalOff-Broadway production ofIn the Heights received theLucille Lortel Award andOuter Critics Circle Award for Best Musical.[10] It was named Best Musical byNew York magazine, Best of 2007 byThe New York Times, and theHispanic Organization of Latin Actors HOLA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Playwriting.
In 2010, she was named a Fellow byUnited States Artists.[11] Hudes's firstchildren's book,In My Neighborhood, was published by Arthur Levine Books, an imprint ofScholastic Inc, in 2010.
On October 27, 2011, Hudes was the first Latina woman to be inducted into Central High School's Alumni Hall of Fame. In October 2016, a new musical she wrote along with singer/songwriterErin McKeown titledMiss You Like Hell opened at theLa Jolla Playhouse, directed by Lear deBessonet and starringDaphne Rubin-Vega.[12]
Hudes' first play,Yemaya's Belly, received the 2003 Clauder Competition for New England Playwriting, the Paula Vogel Award in Playwriting, and the Kennedy Center/ACTF Latina Playwriting Award. It had productions at Miracle Theatre (2004),[13] and the Portland Stage Company (2005) andSignature Theatre (2005).[14][15]
Elliot, a Soldier's Fugue was aPulitzer Prize finalist in 2007.[16] The play premiered at Page 73 Productions at the Off-Broadway Culture Project in 2006,[17] and ran at the Alliance Theatre, Atlanta, Georgia in 2006.[18][19]The New York Times reviewer wrote that the play was a "rare and rewarding thing: a theater work that succeeds on every level, while creating something new."[17] It was planned as the first play in a trilogy.
Her play26 Miles received its world premiere at The Alliance Theatre in Atlanta in March 2009, directed by Kent Gash.[20]
Her children's musicalBarrio Grrrrl! appeared atThe Kennedy Center in 2009.
Hudes collaborated withLin-Manuel Miranda on this Broadway musical; she wrote the book and he composed the music and lyrics. It won the 2008Tony Award for Best Musical and was a finalist for the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.[16] Hudes also wrote the screenplay for thefilm adaptation of the same title, which premiered in 2021.
In 2012, her playWater by the Spoonful, which returns to the characters in Elliot, won the Pulitzer Prize after its premiere at the Hartford Stage Company.[21][22] In this play Hudes attempts to bring two worlds together through technology and reality.Water by the Spoonful consists of multiple scenes that take place in an online chat room and in the real world with face-to-face interaction. As the play develops, Hudes brings the two worlds together by creating turning points in the play along with connecting characters from different worlds to each other in different ways.
The Happiest Song Plays Last, the third in the Elliot trilogy, received its world premiere at theGoodman Theater in Chicago on April 13, 2013.[23][24] It was produced Off-Broadway at Second Stage in March 2014.[25] When the production moved toSecond Stage Theatre, the production team includedRuben Santiago-Hudson as director, Michael Carnahan as set designer, Karen Perry as costume designer,Rui Rita as lighting designer, and Leon Rothenberg as sound designer.[26]
Lulu's Golden Shoes was produced by Flashpoint Theater Company in Philadelphia in 2015.[27]
Originally performed by 56 orchestral musicians, three actors, and eight dancers,The Good Peaches is a "girl versus nature musical play."[28] It was performed in April 2016 at the Cleveland Play House.[29]
Daphne’s Dive premiered Off-Broadway at the Signature Theater on May 16, 2016, directed byThomas Kail and featuringSamira Wiley,Daphne Rubin-Vega, Vanessa Aspillaga and Carlos Gomez.[30]
Hudes wrote the book andErin McKeown the music for the musical,Miss You Like Hell, which premiered atLa Jolla Playhouse in fall of 2016. Called "An immigration musical for the new Trump era" by theLA Times,[31] the play is about a mother and daughter traveling across the country for seven days and addressing their fractured relationship.
Hudes was the screenwriter forLin-Manuel Miranda's animated musical movieVivo,[32] released onNetflix on August 6, 2021.
| Year | Title | Writer | Producer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | In the Heights | Yes | Yes | Based on the musical book by her andLin-Manuel Miranda; also cameos in "Finale" |
| Vivo | Yes | No |
| Year | Award | Category | Work | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Pulitzer Prize for Drama | Elliot, a Soldier's Fugue | Nominated | [33] | |
| Outer Critics Circle Award | Outstanding New Off-Broadway Musical | In the Heights | Nominated | ||
| 2008 | Tony Award | Best Original Score | Nominated | ||
| 2009 | Pulitzer Prize for Drama | Nominated | |||
| 2012 | Water by the Spoonful | Won | |||
| 2018 | Drama Desk Award | Outstanding Lyrics | Miss You Like Hell | Nominated | |
| Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Book of a Musical | Nominated | |||
| Outstanding New Score | Nominated | ||||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
