The Dramatists Guild of America has announced additional recipients of its annual awards, which will be presented at the Guild’s annual awards ceremony May 6 at Sony Hall.
As previously announced, playwright Christopher Durang, who passed away in April at the age of 75, will be honored posthumously with the 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award. The Guild's Lifetime Achievement Awards, recognizing distinguished lifetime achievement in theatrical writing, will also be presented to the newly announced George C. Wolfe and Emily Mann.
The Hull-Warriner Award, presented annually to an author or team of authors in recognition of a play dealing with controversial subjects involving the fields of political, religious, or social mores of the times, will be given to Jocelyn Bioh for Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, the Harlem-set play seen on Broadway earlier this season. Finalists included Eboni Booth for Primary Trust, Rebecca Gilman for Swing State, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins for The Comeuppance, and Qui Nguyen for Poor Yella Rednecks.
The Frederick Loewe Award, recognizing achievement in a theatrical score presented on or Off-Broadway during the previous calendar year, will be presented to Adam Guettel for Days of Wine and Roses, which played a limited Broadway engagement earlier this season after an acclaimed Off-Broadway run at the Atlantic Theater Company.
Tony nominee Austin Pendleton will receive the Flora Roberts Award—presented to a dramatist in recognition of distinguished work in the theatre and to encourage the continuation of that work—while playwrights Seayoung Yim and Minna Lee will both receive The Lanford Wilson Award, given to a dramatist based primarily on their work as an early career or “emerging” playwright.
The Horton Foote Award, honoring dramatists whose works seek to plumb the ineffable nature of being human, will be presented to Eboni Booth, whose play Primary Trust premiered at Roundabout Theatre Company in summer 2023, and Shayan Lotfi, who will be represented Off-Broadway this spring with the world premiere of What Became of Us at Atlantic Theater Company.
The upcoming celebration will begin at 6:30 PM with cocktails, followed by the awards ceremony. The cocktail hour will feature a performance from the musical trio Bandits on the Run, while awards presenters will include David Adjmi, Nissy Aya, Dave Harris, Mara Isaacs, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, and Robert O’Hara.
Since its inception in 1919, the Dramatists Guild of America has been
the professional association for playwrights, librettists, lyricists,
and composers writing for the American stage.
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