2024 Pulitzer Prize Predictions

I haven't plugged anything on here in a while, but I posted my Pulitzer thoughts/predictions on TikTok last month

In hearing other people's hopes/predictions since then, I do wonder if Flex has a better shot than I gave it credit for (I have it on my "honorable mentions" list). If so, I wouldn't be mad! I liked Flex a lot.

I also heard several people throw out Wet Brain as a potential winner after I posted this, which I was surprised by. I had mixed feelings about the play, so maybe that's just my taste influencing my predictions, but I'm not convinced. We'll see!

I'm also continuously warring with myself about whether Stereophonic is too high up on my predictions list or not. As I said in the video, I think it's an intuitive pick in some ways, and counterintuitive in other ways - and I go back and forth basically by the day lol. Again, we'll see!

Otherwise though, I pretty much stand by everything I said!

Updated On: 5/5/24 at 10:28 PM

infinite life

school pictures

the comeuppance

Winner - Primary Trust

Finalists

-Public Obscenities

-Here There Are Blueberries

Omg I’m just realizing the ending of Mary Jane and The Ally are the same

I believe the eligibility deadline is the calendar year, so The Ally would be eligible next year

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "Eligibility is for the 2023 calendar year and USUALLY limited to shows that had their world premiere in 2023 but sometimes there's some fungibility there."



Yes and no. There's a certain degree of fungibility backward in time, but not forward. Plays that had their world premiere in 2024 (like The Ally) are categorically ineligible for today's prize.

The grey area comes in when you're looking at plays that have had PAST productions. And even that is based on a clearly defined rule, it's just that there isn't much transparency to the public. The rule is that the playwright can only ever submit the play for consideration 1 time, but they're not required to submit it following the world premiere. They can choose to wait and submit it in a later year instead -- the only caveat being that there has to be *a* production of the play (In the US, I think?) in the year that they chose to submit it. So if something premiered out of town in 2022 but had it's NY premier in 2023, they might wait to submit it for the NYC production in the hopes of either (a) getting more attention/buzz and/or (b) getting more time to improve the piece.

The problem is, the list of submissions isn't made public, so we don't know which ones might have submit previously and which ones submit this year.

EDIT: Also worth noting that the jury of 5 only chooses the finalists, while the Pulitzer BOARD (of about 18 people) chooses the winner from those selections. So the winner is effectively decided by 23 people.

Updated On: 5/6/24 at 01:09 PM

The way that it works is simple, but obscured to the public. A play is eligible if it had a production in the calendar year, AND it has to be manually submitted to the committee for consideration, usually by the producing entity of the play.

For example, The Minutes was able to be selected in 2018 because Steppenwolf submitted the literature for the play with their production in 2017. Something like Manahatta most likely was not submitted until the 2023 calendar year because the text was not finished and the author did not wish for the text to be submitted until it had its full New York premiere. But it's impossible to say for sure because those submissions are not made public.

The rules must have changed in recent years, because previously a work did not have to be submitted in order to be eligible. Major works (a vague term for Broadway and Off-Broadway shows) were automatically considered, but submitting merely guaranteed consideration and was helpful for less-high-profile works.

https://www.pulitzer.org/page/drama-submission-guidelines-and-requirements

Winner: Primary Trust

Finalists: Public Obscenities and Here There Are Blueberries

Just announced on the livestream

It looks like they were going to stage A Primary Trust at the Donmar this summer but cancelled it?

https://www.whatsonstage.com/news/uk-premiere-of-skeleton-crew-replaces-primary-trust-in-donmar-warehouse-season_1580645/

That play was such a sappy pile of mush. Summer 1976 should have won