Ashland, Ore. — The 2017 Pulitzer Prize for drama was awarded Monday to the writer of a play commissioned and produced at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
Pulitzer prize winner Lynn Nottage wrote the play Sweat which premiered at OSF in 2015.
The play was part of a program at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival called American Revolutions which features plays about moments of change in U.S. history.
Sweat in particular is set in the years 2000 and 2008, focusing on the deindustrialization of the Rust Belt in the town of Reading, Pennsylvania.
Nottage went there personally to see how people’s lives were changed by the loss of jobs and damage to the community.
Alison Carey who is the director of the program American Revolutions says she’s not surprised Sweat led to a Pulitzer Prize.
“I think what makes Sweat so great is the way that we can all recognize in the characters… people we know, things we felt, moments we’ve been afraid of, moments that have brought us joy,” Carey said.
Carey says Nottage was good at creating characters that are very human and the play helped people to realize they aren’t alone in times of economic uncertainty.
After its debut at OSF, Sweat is now running on Broadway.
Nottage also won a drama Pulitzer Prize back in 2009.
According to Carey, Nottage is the first woman to win the drama pulitzer prize twice.
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