Paula Vogel is an American playwright. She is known for her provocative explorations of complex social and political issues. Much of her work delves into themes of psychological trauma, abuse, and the complexities of human relationships. She has received the Pulitzer Prize as well as nominations for two Tony Awards. In 2013 she was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.
Suzan-Lori Parks is an American playwright, screenwriter, musician and novelist. Her play Topdog/Underdog won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2002; Parks was the first African-American woman to receive the award for drama. She was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2023.
Elizabeth Becker Henley is an American playwright, screenwriter, and actress. Her play Crimes of the Heart won the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the 1981 New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best American Play, and a nomination for a Tony Award. Her screenplay for Crimes of the Heart was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Mary Beth Hurt is a retired American actress of stage and screen. She is a three-time Tony Award-nominated actress.
The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds is a play written by Paul Zindel, a playwright and science teacher. Zindel received the 1971 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and a New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for the work.
Judith Lee Ivey is an American actress and theatre director. She twice won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play: for Steaming (1981) and Hurlyburly (1984). She also received Best Actress In A Play nomination for Park Your Car in Harvard Yard (1992) and another Best Featured Actress in a Play nomination for The Heiress.
Lucille Lortel was an American actress, artistic director, and theatrical producer. In the course of her career Lortel produced or co-produced nearly 500 plays, five of which were nominated for Tony Awards: As Is by William M. Hoffman, Angels Fall by Lanford Wilson, Blood Knot by Athol Fugard, Mbongeni Ngema's Sarafina!, and A Walk in the Woods by Lee Blessing. She also produced Marc Blitzstein's adaptation of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's Threepenny Opera, a production which ran for seven years and according to The New York Times "caused such a sensation that it...put Off-Broadway on the map."
Amy Beth Dziewiontkowski, known professionally as Amy Ryan, is an American actress. She began her professional stage career in 1987 and made her Broadway debut in 1993 as a replacement in the original production of Wendy Wasserstein's The Sisters Rosensweig. She was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her performances in Uncle Vanya (2000) and A Streetcar Named Desire (2005), and the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for Doubt: A Parable (2024).
Dael Orlandersmith is an American actress, poet and playwright. She is known for her Obie Award-winning Beauty's Daughter and the 2002 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Drama, Yellowman.
Lynn Nottage is an American playwright whose work often focuses on the experience of working-class people, particularly working-class people who are Black. She has received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama twice: in 2009 for her play Ruined, and in 2017 for her play Sweat. She was the first woman to have won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama two times.
Manhattan Theatre Club (MTC) is a theatre company located in New York City, affiliated with the League of Resident Theatres. Lynne Meadow has been the company’s Artistic Director and visionary since 1972. Barry Grove joined the company in 1975 and was Meadow’s partner until 2023. Chris Jennings is now Executive Director. Manhattan Theatre Club has grown since its founding in 1970 from an Off-Off Broadway showcase into one of the country's most acclaimed theatre organizations.
Talley's Folly is a 1980 play by American playwright Lanford Wilson. The play is the second in The Talley Trilogy, between his plays Talley & Son and Fifth of July. Set in a boathouse near rural Lebanon, Missouri in 1944, it is a romantic comedy following the characters Matt Friedman and Sally Talley as they settle their feelings for each other. Wilson received the 1980 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the work. The play is unlike Wilson's other works, taking place in one act with no intermission, set in ninety-seven minutes of real time, with no set change.
Lois Arlene Smith is an American actress whose career spans eight decades. She made her film debut in the 1955 drama film East of Eden, and later played supporting roles in a number of movies, including Five Easy Pieces (1970), Resurrection (1980), Fatal Attraction (1987), Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), Falling Down (1993), How to Make an American Quilt (1995), Dead Man Walking (1995), Twister (1996), Minority Report (2002), The Nice Guys (2016), Lady Bird (2017), and The French Dispatch (2021).
Laila Robins is an American stage, film and television actress. She has appeared in films including Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987), An Innocent Man (1989), Live Nude Girls (1995), True Crime (1999), She's Lost Control (2014), Eye in the Sky (2015), and A Call to Spy (2019). Her television credits include regular roles on Gabriel's Fire, Homeland, and Murder in the First, playing Pamela Milton in the final season of The Walking Dead (2022), and Colonel Grace Mallory in The Boys (2019–2024) and Gen V (2023).
Mia Dillon is an American actress.
Crimes of the Heart is a 1986 American black comedy drama film directed by Bruce Beresford from a screenplay written by Beth Henley adapted from her Pulitzer Prize-winning 1979 play. It stars Diane Keaton, Jessica Lange, Sissy Spacek, Sam Shepard, Tess Harper, and Hurd Hatfield. The film's narrative follows the Magrath sisters, Babe, Lenny and Meg, who reunite in their family home in Mississippi after Babe is arrested for shooting her husband. Each sister is forced to face the consequences of the "crimes of the heart" she has committed.
Dinner with Friends is a play written by Donald Margulies. It premiered at the 1998 Humana Festival of New American Plays and opened Off-Broadway in 1999. The play received the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Lynne Meadow is an American theatre producer, director and a teacher. She has been the artistic director of the Manhattan Theatre Club since 1972.
Jean Isabel Smith, credited professionally as J. Smith-Cameron, is an American actress. She gained prominence for her roles as Janet Talbot in the Sundance TV series Rectify (2013–2016) and Gerri Kellman in the HBO series Succession (2018–2023), the latter of which earned her two Primetime Emmy Award nominations.
Martyna Majok is a Polish-born American playwright who received the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play Cost of Living. She emigrated to the United States as a child and grew up in New Jersey. Majok studied playwriting at the Yale School of Drama and Juilliard School. Her plays are often politically engaged, feature dark humor, and experiment with structure and time.
