Lynn Nottage | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1964-11-02)November 2, 1964 (age 60) Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation | Playwright, professor |
| Education | Brown University (AB) Yale University (MFA) |
| Notable awards | Pulitzer Prize for Drama (2009, 2017) Obie Award |
| Spouse | Tony Gerber |
| Children | 2 |
Lynn Nottage (born November 2, 1964) is an American playwright whose work often focuses on the experience of working-class people, particularly working-class people who areblack. She has received thePulitzer Prize for Drama twice: in 2009 for her playRuined, and in 2017 for her playSweat. She was the first (and remains the only) woman to have won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama two times.[1]
Nottage is the recipient of aMacArthur "Genius" Fellowship and was included inTime magazine's 2019 list of the 100 Most Influential People.[2] She is currently a professor of playwriting atColumbia University and an artist-in-residence at thePark Avenue Armory.
Lynn Nottage was born on November 2, 1964, inBrooklyn, New York.[3][4] Her mother Ruby Nottage was a schoolteacher and principal; her father Wallace was a child psychologist. She went toSaint Ann's School for elementary school before graduating fromFiorello H. LaGuardia High School.[5] While in high school, she wrote her first full-length play,The Darker Side of Verona, about an African-American Shakespeare company traveling through the South.
She attendedBrown University (A.B., 1986) and theYale School of Drama (M.F.A., 1989). After graduation, Nottage worked inAmnesty International's press office for four years.[6] More recently, Nottage has received honorary degrees from Brown (D.F.A., 2011), theJuilliard School andAlbright College.
Nottage is married to filmmakerTony Gerber, with whom she has two children, Ruby Aiyo and Melkamu Gerber.
Nottage's plays have been produced widely in the United States and throughout the world.
One of her best-known plays isIntimate Apparel.
In 1905 New York, Esther, a Black seamstress, lives in a boarding house for women, and sews intimate apparel for clients who range from wealthy white patrons to prostitutes. One by one, the other denizens of the boarding house marry and move away, but Esther remains, lonely and longing for a husband and a future. Her plan is to find the right man and use the money she's saved to open a beauty parlor where Black women will be treated as royally as the white women she sews for.
Co-commissioned and produced atBaltimore'sCenter Stage, it premiered in February 2003[7] andSouth Coast Repertory.[8] TheOff-Broadway production atRoundabout Theatre Company opened in 2004, starringViola Davis, and receiving critical acclaim. It received the 2004 AUDELCO Viv Award for Playwriting;AUDELCO (Audience Development Committee) recognizes and honors excellence in Black theatre.Intimate Apparel has since been commissioned by the MET / Lincoln Center to be adapted into an opera, and will be composed by Ricky Ian Gordon.
Since 2004,Intimate Apparel has become one of the most produced plays in America.
Ruined dramatizes the plight ofCongolese women survivingcivil war. Set in a small mining town in Democratic Republic of Congo,Ruined follows Mama Nadi, a shrewd businesswoman protecting and profiting from the women she shelters.The play deals with the role of women in war and the societal stigma around Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).
It premiered in 2007 in theGoodman Theatre (Chicago) New Stages Series,[9] and transferred to Off-Broadway at the Manhattan Theatre Club in February 2009.[10]Ruined was awarded the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.Ruined also received the 2009 AUDELCO Viv Award for Dramatic Production of the Year.
On May 13, 2009, Nottage spoke at a public reception inWashington, D.C. following aUnited States SenateForeign Relations joint subcommittee hearing entitled "Confronting Rape and Other Forms of Violence Against Women in Conflict Zones," with case studies on theDemocratic Republic of Congo andSudan.[11]
On October 12, 2009, Nottage spoke at theUnited Nations as part of the ExhibitCONGO/WOMEN Portraits of War: The Democratic Republic of Congo.
By the Way, Meet Vera Stark is a seventy-year journey through the life of Vera Stark, a headstrong African-American maid and budding actress, and her tangled relationship with her boss, a white Hollywood star desperately grasping to hold on to her career. When both women land roles in the sameSouthern epic, the story behind the camera leaves Vera with a surprising and controversial legacy.
It premiered Off-Broadway at Second Stage Theatre on May 9, 2011, with direction byJo Bonney.[12] The play is a "funny and irreverent look at racial stereotypes in Hollywood."[13] The play was nominated for the 2012 Drama Desk Award, Outstanding Play.[14] The play ran at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles in September 2012, starringSanaa Lathan, who played the role of the maid who becomes a stage star.[15]
Sweat tells the story of a group of friends who have spent their lives sharing drinks, secrets, and laughs while working together on the factory floor. But when layoffs and picket lines begin to chip away at their trust, the friends find themselves pitted against each other in a heart-wrenching fight to stay afloat.
Nottage received a commission fromOregon Shakespeare Festival and the Arena Stage. The play that she wrote as a result,Sweat, was presented at the festival inAshland, Oregon from July 29, 2015, to October 31, 2015, directed byKate Whoriskey.[16][17] The play takes place in Reading, Pennsylvania, and involves steel workers who have been locked out of their factory workplace.[18] The play was produced at the Arena Stage (Washington, D.C.) from January 15 to February 21, 2016, directed by Whoriskey.[19] Nottage won the 2015–16 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for this play.[20][21][22][23]Sweat premiered Off-Broadway at thePublic Theater on October 18, 2016 (previews), officially on November 3, again directed by Whoriskey. Here, the play was awarded the 2017Obie Award for Playwriting.[24] The play closed on December 18, 2016.[25][26][27]Sweat opened onBroadway atStudio 54 on March 4, 2017, in previews, officially on March 26. This marks Nottage's Broadway debut.[28][29]
Sweat was a finalist for the 2016 Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama.[30][31]Sweat was again a finalist for the 2017 Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History. The award is administered by Columbia University.[32][33] The play won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Her short playPoof! (Heideman Award) was presented in 1993 at the Actors Theatre of Louisville during the Humana Festival of New American Plays.[34][35] It was then broadcast onPBS in 2002, with a cast that featuredRosie Perez andViola Davis.[36][37]Poof! was also recorded for podcast and public radio byPlaying on Air, with a cast that featuredAudra McDonald,Tonya Pinkins, andKeith Randolph Smith with direction bySeret Scott.
Her political satirePor'Knockers premiered in 1995 at theVineyard Theatre, directed by Michael Rogers, featuringSanaa Lathan.
The West Coast premiere of herCrumbs from the Table of Joy, atSouth Coast Repertory in September 1996,[38] earned twoNAACP Theatre Awards for performance.
Mud, River, Stone premiered in 1996 at The Acting Company directed by Seret Scott; it premiered in New York in 1997 atPlaywrights Horizons, directed byRoger Rees. It was a finalist for theSusan Smith Blackburn Award, and won numerous regional theatre awards.
Las Meninas premiered in 2002 at San Jose Rep, directed by Michael Edwards. It was awarded a Rockefeller Grant, as well as the AT&T OnStage Award. It follows the true story of QueenMaria Theresa of Spain (wife ofLouis XIV) and her affair with her African servant, Nabo, a dwarf from Dahomey.
Obie Award-winningFabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine (her companion piece toIntimate Apparel, set one hundred years later), opened Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons in June 2004.[39]
Her playMlima's Tale premiered Off-Broadway at The Public Theater on March 27, 2018, in previews, officially on April 15 in a limited engagement to May 20. Direction is by Jo Bonney. The play concerns an elephant, Mlima, "trapped inside the clandestine international ivory market".Sahr Ngaujah plays Mlima.[40][41]Mlima's Tale was nominated for the 2018Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play, Outstanding Lighting Design (Play or Musical) (Lap Chi Chu) and Outstanding Sound Design (Play or Musical) (Darron L. West).[42] The play was nominated for the 2019Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Play, Outstanding Director (Bonney), Outstanding Lead Actor in a Play (Sahr Ngaujah), Outstanding Costume Design (Jennifer Moeller) and Outstanding Lighting Design (Lap Chi Chu).[43]
Nottage wrote the book for the world premiere musical adaptation ofSue Monk Kidd's novelThe Secret Life of Bees, with music byDuncan Sheik and lyrics by Susan Birkenhead. It premiered at the Off-BroadwayAtlantic Theater Company on May 12, 2019. The musical is directed bySam Gold and featuredSaycon Sengbloh as Rosaleen, Elizabeth Teeter as Lily,LaChanze, Eisa Davis and Anastacia McCleskey.[44] The musical had a workshop at theVassar Powerhouse Theater, Martel Theatre in July 2017, directed by Sam Gold.[45][46]
Nottage wrote a monologue,The Grey Rooster, following a former slave and his slaveholder's cockfighting rooster in post-Civil War Kentucky. It was performed as part of the National Civil War Project's productionOur War, produced in 2014 atArena Stage, directed by Anita Maynard-Losh.
Nottage contributed to the "dance-theatre musical" writtenStephen Flaherty andLynn Ahrens titledIn Your Arms which premiered at theOld Globe Theatre, San Diego, in September 2015. The piece consists of ten vignettes and was directed and choreographed byChristopher Gattelli. Her vignette is titledA Wedding Dance and was performed by Marija Juliette Abney and Adesola Osakalumi with The Company.[47]
Nottage wrote the book for a jukebox musical centered onMichael Jackson and titledMJ the Musical, originally aiming to premiere on Broadway in 2020; previews were delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the musical premiering in February 2022. MJ is currently running on Broadway, London's West End and is touring the United States. It is set to premiere in Sydney and in Hamburg in Spring 2025.[48]
Nottage co-conceivedThis is Reading, an immersive transmedia project exploring the decline and rebirth of Reading, Pennsylvania: the setting of Nottage's playSweat.[49] This site-specific multimedia installation blended live performance and visual media, occupying the Franklin Street Railroad Station in Downtown Reading in May 2017, re-animating the long vacant building. Using as its foundation, the hardships, challenges, and triumphs of people living in and around Reading,This is Reading weaved individual stories into one cohesive tale of the city. It was produced in association with Market Road Films, the Labyrinth Theater Company and Project&.
This Is Reading was conceived by Nottage, and co-created by an award-winning team of artists, including filmmakerTony Gerber, director Kate Whoriskey and Choreographer Rennie Harris. The creative team included composer Kashaka, projection designer Jeff Sugg, set designer Deb O, costume designer Jennifer Moeller, lighting designer Amith Chandrashaker, sound designer Nick Kourtides, muralist Katie Merz and producers Jane M. Saks, Blake Ashman-Kipervaser, Allison Bressi and Santo D. Marabella.
She is the co-founder of a production company,Market Road Films, whose most recent projects includeThe Notorious Mr. Bout, directed by Tony Gerber and Maxim Pozdorovkin (Premiere/Sundance 2014);First to Fall, directed by Rachel Beth Anderson (Premiere/ IDFA, 2013); andRemote Control (Premiere/Busan 2013–New Currents Award).
Over the years, she has developed original projects for HBO, Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, Showtime, This is That, andHarpo Productions.[50]
Nottage was a producer and writer for the first season ofShe's Gotta Have It.
The Guardian noted:
"Nottage's two decades of work has garnered praise for bringing challenging and often forgotten, stories onto the stage. ...Ruined explored the use of rape as a weapon against women in the Democratic Republic of Congo, whileIntimate Apparel focused on a lonely Black seamstress working in New York in 1905... Future areas the 51-year-old is keen to explore in her plays includes the American prison industrial complex, which is "destroying the lives of so many men of colour" but is barely talked about in the national conversation or on the stage. Yet Nottage also expressed disappointment that her work was constantly defined by both her own race and gender, unlike her white male counterparts."[51]
Awards
Nominations
Other awards
Fellowships, commissions, and residencies
Tony Award-winning theater director Bartlett Sher presenting the Golden Plate Award to Lynn Nottage, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, at the Banquet of the Golden Plate Award ceremonies at the St. Regis in New York City.
