For the second year in a row, a play originating from Chicago has won the Pulitzer Prize for drama.
Last year, the winner was Tracy Lett's "August: Osage County" from the Steppenwolf. This year, as widely predicted, Lynn Nottage's play "Ruined," a play set in an African brothel, won the award.
Commissioned and first produced by the Goodman Theatre, "Ruined" is set in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the year 2000. The play centers on a shrewd businesswoman running a prostitution house and the two young women who come to her seeking refuge.
"Even though this play seems to be about a subject that might be terrifying or downbeat, it's a play you need to see," said Robert Falls, the Goodman's artistic director, reports WBEZ. "It's a play that will illuminate and entertain and take you to an area you might not have thought about."
"Ruined" is the first Goodman commission ever to win the Pulitzer.
"We were involved with this play right from its beginnings three or four years ago," said Falls, according to the Tribune. "It was clear right away that this was an extraordinary new American play."
Congratulations also go out to John McCormick, Marie Dillon, and Bruce Dold of the Chicago Tribune, who were all nominated as finalists in Editorial Writing for their work on reporting corruption in the governor's office and calling for legislative action.
Read also, Chicago Tribune's Chris Jones' review of the show, which he called "gripping, gut-wrenching" when it opened at the Goodman last fall.
Matt Bartosik, editor of Off the Rocks' next issue, prefers 'theatre' over 'theater'.
