Pulitzer Prize Winner- Page 2

[StickToPriest]

Posted: 4/16/07 at 3:25pm

I'll never understand the rules. If I'm not mistaken, isn't the work supposed to have had its first public performance in the year preceding the awarding of the Prize?

According to Wikipedia, RABBIT HOLE was "commissioned by South Coast Repertory and first presented at its Pacific Playwrights Festival reading series in 2005."

Wouldn't that have made it eligible for the 2006 Pulitzer?

[whatever2]

Posted: 4/16/07 at 3:25pm

the pulitzer board is basically journalists, either in management or academia. this has to be one of the more challenging categories for them ...

that said: why ignore your own panel of experts in an area that challenges you?

[StickToPriest]

Posted: 4/16/07 at 3:28pm

I know. Why even have the jury if they're just gonna disregard their nominations?

[jv92]

Posted: 4/16/07 at 3:30pm

Margo I really hate to say it, but I disagree with you. It's an adaptation. They paid for the rights. They put it underneath their names. It's okay, or at least it should be. (I think it should be.) I'm sure there were bits from Tales of the South Pacific that are word for word in South Pacific. Oklahoma!'s (which recieved I believe a special citation in 1943) dialouge, while brilliant, if often Lynn Riggs with some Hammerstein thrown in with the exception of several things he completely invented. I'm not saying Rabbit Hole was bad. It was enjoyable and was a safe pick. Grey Gardens would have been a bolder move.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 4/16/07 at 3:33pm

A "reading series" is not the same as a fully staged production. A play can have a hundred readings and workshops without it having any effect on its eligibility. The only date that matters is the opening date of the first professional fully staged production open to the paying public. For RABBIT HOLE, that was last February at the Biltmore.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 4/16/07 at 3:34pm

Only the first act of GREY GARDENS was eligible. The second act is mostly verbatim the documentary - i,e, the dialogue was not written by a writer. TALES OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC was a book. OKLAHOMA! wasn't eligible because it was based on an existing play...

Apples and Oranges...

[slimandslam]

Posted: 4/16/07 at 3:39pm

Nominated as finalists in this category were: "Orpheus X" by Rinde Eckert, "Bulrusher" by Eisa Davis, and "Elliot, a Soldier's Fugue" by Quiara Alegría Hudes.

Anyone want to put in a good word for any of these plays? None of them showed up on playbill.com's shortlist-article from last Friday.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 4/16/07 at 3:39pm

The reason OKLAHOMA got a "special citation" and not the prize itself is that it took dialogue word for word from the play GREEN GROW THE LILACS. Play adaptations have always been frowned upon by the committee, but in this instance, they decided to throw OKLAHOMA a minor citation (which doesn't exist anymore) because of its unique and revolutionary synthesis of song, dance and choreography to tell the same story. By the same token, GREY GARDENS by borrowing so much dialogue from its source material was almost certainly ineligible for the top prize. The board doesn't give out special citations anymore (or at least hasn't in decades and besides I'd hardly call anything in GREY GARDENS "revolutionary" to the art of theatre), so GREY GARDENS was simply out of luck as far as the Pulitzer was concerned.

Updated On: 4/16/07 at 03:39 PM

[whatever2]

Posted: 4/16/07 at 3:40pm

> anyone want to put in a good word for these ...

that's a TERRIFIC question!

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 4/16/07 at 3:50pm

Eckert is a very promising up-and-coming young avant garde playwright and composer best known for his Obie winning AND GOD CREATED GREAT WHALES a few seasons ago. I don't know his OEDIPUS X.

ELLIOT, A SOLDIER'S FUGUE is also by a very young promising writer that played at the Culture Project last year and was a highly original poetic anti-war work that was critically lauded (I think it was nominated as Best Play at one of the main off-Broadway awards).

I am not familar with BULRUSHER by Eisa Davis.

Updated On: 4/16/07 at 03:50 PM

[slimandslam]

Posted: 4/16/07 at 3:54pm

Well, here's a link to the Times' review (by Andrea Stevens) when Bulrusher premiered at Urban Stages last March.
Bulrusher - review

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 4/16/07 at 3:59pm

"Lindsay-Abaire's FUDDY MEERS and KIMBERLY AKIMBO are far more accomplished and clever works that RABBIT HOLE, that displayed a unique artistic voice missing from the latter work, so OF COURSE the Pulitzer honors this play"

I totally agree, also, I don't know who were the other nominees, but if "Rabbit Hole" won, I truly think it must have been a slow year.

[slimandslam]

Posted: 4/16/07 at 4:00pm

And here's a link to the Times' review (by Phoebe Hoban) of Elliott, a Soldier's Fugue. It played at the Culture Project last February.
Elliot, a Solder's Fugue - review

[slimandslam]

Posted: 4/16/07 at 4:05pm

To complete the mainstream-reviews trifecta: Orpheus X hasn't played in New York, so here's the Boston Globe review (by Ed Siegel) from last March's production at A.R.T.
Orpheus X - Boston Globe review

[professor]

Posted: 4/16/07 at 5:00pm

Here's a link to the ART's page for Orpheus X, with pictures and synopsis.
Orpheus X

[bwaygal1]

Posted: 4/16/07 at 5:07pm

At least it wasn't Spring Awakening! Amen!

[sidneybruhl]

Posted: 4/16/07 at 5:40pm

I'm happy that they gave a Pulitzer in drama this year and that it went to "Rabbit Hole." I loved the show when I saw it in NYC feel it is as deserving as plays like "Proof" and "Lost in Yonkers," though not quite in the same league of something like "I Am My Own Wife."

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 4/16/07 at 8:08pm

I, for one, am thrilled Rabbit Hole won.

Was it perfect? No.

But it WAS, in my opinion, the best new play of last season.

I can't wait to see the film version.

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 4/19/07 at 11:13pm

Very interesting L.A. Times article dissecting the decision to shun the three finalists and choose a play that had a Broadway production. Also, there are some interviews in here with the three playwrights who lost out.
Pulitzer's 'Rabbit' out of a hat move

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 4/19/07 at 11:17pm

Just so you know, that link doesn't work.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 4/20/07 at 1:26am

Where's the Threader who said it would be SPRING AWAKENING no doubt?
Not even a nomination, it's no RENT.

Congrats to RABBIT HOLE.