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For a distinguished play by an American author, preferably original in its source and dealing with American life, Ten thousand dollars ($10,000).

August: Osage County, by Tracy Letts

Richard Oppel and Tracy Letts

Richard Oppel, Pulitzer Board co-chair (left), presents the 2008 Pulitzer Prize in Drama to Tracy Letts.

Winning Work

August: Osage County

Meet the Westons.

A vanished father. A pill-popping mother. Three sisters harboring shady little secrets.

When the large Weston family unexpectedly reunites after dad disappears, their Oklahoman family homestead explodes in a maelstrom of repressed truths and unsettling secrets. Mix in Violet, the drugged-up, scathingly acidic matriarch, and you’ve got a major new Broadway play that unflinchingly – and uproariously – exposes the dark side of the Midwestern American family.

Fresh from a thrilling, sold-out run at Chicago’s Tony Award-Winning Steppenwolf Theatre, August: Osage County had audiences riveted and critics raving. This thrilling new play by Pulitzer Prize finalist Tracy Letts (Bug, Killer Joe) has been hailed by The New York Times as “hugely entertaining! A ripsnorter full of blistering, funny dialogue, acid-etched characters and scenes of no-holds-barred emotional combat.”

(From www.augustonbroadway.com)

Biography

Tracy Letts (Playwright) became a Steppenwolf Theatre ensemble member in 2002 and was recently named an artistic associate. He has appeared at Steppenwolf in Betrayal, The Pillowman, Last of the Boys, The Pain and the Itch, The Dresser, Homebody/Kabul, The Dazzle, Glengarry Glen Ross (also Dublin and Toronto), Three Days of Rain, Road to Nirvana, Picasso at the Lapin Agile and the Steppenwolf for Young Adults production of The Glass Menagerie. He appeared in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Alliance Theatre Company) directed by ensemble member Amy Morton. Previous Chicago stage credits include The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (A Red Orchid Theatre), Conquest of the South Pole (Famous Door), Bouncers (the Next Lab) and his directorial debut at the Lookingglass Theatre with Great Men of Science Nos. 21 and 22.

He is the author of Man from Nebraska, which was produced at Steppenwolf in 2003 and was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize; Killer Joe, which has been produced in Chicago, London and New York; and Bug, which has played in New York, Chicago and London. He has appeared on television in The District, Profiler, Prison Break, The Drew Carey Show, Seinfeld and Home Improvement. Film appearances include Guinevere, U.S. Marshals and Chicago Cab.

Finalists

Nominated as finalists in Drama in 2008:

The Jury

Peter Marks(Chair )

drama critic

Jeremy McCarter

drama critic

Charles McNulty

drama critic

Lisa Portes

head of MFA Directing and artistic director of Chicago Playworks for Young Audiences

Winners in Drama

2008 Prize Winners

The Washington Post

in exposing mistreatment of wounded veterans at Walter Reed Hospital, evoking a national outcry and producing reforms by federal officials.

David Umhoefer

For his stories on the skirting of tax laws to pad pensions of county employees, prompting change and possible prosecution of key figures.

David Lang

Co-commissioned by the Carnegie Hall Corporation and The Perth Theater and Concert Hall, and premiered October 25, 2007 in Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, New York City (G. Schirmer, Inc.).

Staff

For its exceptional, multi-faceted coverage of the deadly shooting rampage at Virginia Tech, telling the developing story in print and online.