Chicago playwright Tracy Letts wins the Pulitzer Prize for drama

The Chicago playwright Tracy Letts has won the Pulitzer Prize in drama for "August: Osage County," cementing his position among the top tier of living American playwrights and making an inarguable case that "August" is among the most important works of literature ever to emerge from Letts' adopted home town."This is just terrific," Letts said Monday. "I'm happy, sad, all of those things."This is the first time ever that a playwright who lives in Chicago has won the Pulitzer for a play that premiered in Chicago. Several other Pulitzer winners have had Chicago connections. David Mamet's "Glengarry Glen Ross" won the Pulitzer in 1984, but that play began in London. And David Auburn's Pulitzer Prize-winning "Proof" was set on Chicago's South Side, but did not premiere here. The honor, which was widely predicted but officially announced in New York on Monday afternoon, is the most prestigious American award for dramatic literature. It honors the play, as distinct from the Steppenwolf Theatre Company production that bowed to critical and popular acclaim in Chicago last summer and continues to do profitable business on Broadway. The Pulitzer has a bittersweet aspect for Letts. His father, the actor Dennis Letts, appeared in the original cast of "August" in both Chicago and New York. The elder Letts died in February, after a battle with lung cancer. "My dad was much more sure of this than me," Letts said. "He was telling me some months ago that this was a shoo-in. But I didn't believe him." The award interrupted a scheduled Steppenwolf reading of Letts' latest play, "Superior Donuts." "It's in rough shape," Letts said of his newest drama. "It's teaching me a lot of humility. Which is good, because I am going to be impossible." Playwright Tracy Letts in a rehearsal space at Steppenwolf offices on North Avenue. (Tribune photo by Alex Garcia) The Broadway production of "August: Osage County" plays at the Imperial Theatre in New York through April 20, then at the Music Box next door from April 29. Contact Telecharge for tickets. Dennis Letts (1934-2008): Actor's dream came true in his son's play. Steppenwolf's confounding sage: A profile of Tracy Letts by Tribune critic Sid Smith from July 2007.CHRIS JONES' REVIEW: "August: Osage County" is only more intense as it opens on Broadway. Rare but true: Analysis of Steppenwolf's return to the Great White Way. in Steppenwolf Theatre Company | Permalink
SOURCE: http://leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com/the_theater_loop/2008/04/tracy-letts.html
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