Lee C. Bollinger, President of Columbia University (left), presents the 2011 Drama prize to Bruce Norris.
Who are the people in your neighborhood? In 1959, a white family moves out. In 2009, a white family moves in. In the intervening years, change overtakes a neighborhood, along with attitudes, inhabitants, and property values. Loosely inspired by Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun", Bruce Norris's pitch-black comedy takes on the specter of gentrification in our communities, leaving no stone unturned in the process.
— from PlaywrightsHorizons.org
Bruce Norris is the author of the play Clybourne Park, which was produced at the Royal Court Theatre and won the Evening Standard Award for Best Play, 2010. Other plays include The Infidel (2000), Purple Heart (2002), We All Went Down to Amsterdam (2003), The Pain and the Itch (2004), and The Unmentionables (2006) all of which had their premieres at Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago. His newest play, titled A Parallelogram, premiered there in July. His work has also been seen at Playwrights Horizons (New York), Lookingglass Theatre (Chicago), Philadelphia Theatre Company, Woolly Mammoth Theatre (Washington D.C.) Staatstheater Mainz (Germany) and The Galway Festival (Ireland), among others. He is the recipient of the Steinberg Playwright Award (2009), and The Whiting Foundation Prize for Drama (2006) as well as two Joseph Jefferson Awards (Chicago) for Best New Work. As an actor he can be seen in the films A Civil Action and The Sixth Sense, and the recent All Good Things. He lives in New York.