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The 2018 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Drama

Finalist: Everybody, by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins

For a contemporary take on a classic morality play that offers a playful and colloquial examination of the human condition in the face of mortality.

Nominated Work

Everybody

By

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, who The New York Times calls “one of this country’s most original and illuminating writers,” comes back to Signature for the second production of his residency with the world premiere of Everybody. Directed by Lila Neugebauer, this modern riff on the 15th Century morality play Everyman follows Everybody (chosen from amongst the cast by lottery at each performance) as he or she travels down a road toward life's greatest mystery.

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, who The New York Times calls "one of this country’s most original and illuminating writers," comes back to Signature for the second production of his residency with the world premiere of "Everybody." Directed by Lila Neugebauer, this modern riff on the 15th Century morality play Everyman follows "Everybody" (chosen from amongst the cast by lottery at each performance) as he or she travels down a road toward life's greatest mystery.

-- from the Signature Theatre's website

Biography

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (Playwright). Credits include "War" (LCT3/Lincoln Center Theater), "Gloria" (Vineyard Theatre; Pulitzer Prize finalist), "Appropriate" (Signature Theatre; Obie Award), "An Octoroon" (Soho Rep; Obie Award) and "Neighbors" (The Public Theater). He is a Residency Five Playwright at Signature Theatre and under commissions from LCT3/Lincoln Center Theater, MTC/Sloan and the Steppenwolf Theatre Company. His recent honors include the MacArthur Fellowship, the Windham-Campbell Prize for drama, the Benjamin Danks Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation Theatre Award, the Steinberg Playwriting Award and the Tennessee Williams Award. He currently teaches in the Hunter College playwriting MFA program, where he is a Master-Artist-in-Residence.

Winners

Prize Winner in Drama in 2018:

Martyna Majok

An honest, original work that invites audiences to examine diverse perceptions of privilege and human connection through two pairs of mismatched individuals: a former trucker and his recently paralyzed ex-wife, and an arrogant young man with cerebral palsy and his new caregiver. Drama

Finalists

Nominated as finalists in Drama in 2018:

Tracy Letts

A shocking drama set in a seemingly mundane city council meeting that acidly articulates a uniquely American toxicity that feels both historic and contemporary.

The Jury

Dominic Papatola(Chair)

Theater Critic

Karen d’Souza

Theater Writer

Quiara Alegría Hudes*

playwright

Linda Winer

Theater Critic

Winners in Drama

2017

Lynn Nottage

For a nuanced yet powerful drama that reminds audiences of the stacked deck still facing workers searching for the American dream.
2016

Lin-Manuel Miranda

A landmark American musical about the gifted and self-destructive founding father whose story becomes both contemporary and irresistible.
2015

Stephen Adly Guirgis

A nuanced, beautifully written play about a retired police officer faced with eviction that uses dark comedy to confront questions of life and death.
2014

Annie Baker

A thoughtful drama with well-crafted characters that focuses on three employees of a Massachusetts art-house movie theater, rendering lives rarely seen on the stage.
See All Drama

2018 Prize Winners

Investigative Reporting

Staff of The Washington Post

For purposeful and relentless reporting that changed the course of a Senate race in Alabama by revealing a candidate’s alleged past sexual harassment of teenage girls and subsequent efforts to undermine the journalism that exposed it.
See All 2018 Winners