Alumna Playwright a 2011 Pulitzer Finalist: Lisa D'Amour's "Detroit" Earns Prestigious Citation

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May 23, 2012

Premiered at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theater in September 2010, Detroit is described by the Pulitzer jury as “a contemporary tragicomic play that depicts a slice of desperate life in a declining inner-ring suburb where hope is in foreclosure.”

Lisa D'Amour (M.F.A. in Playwriting, 1996) was one of three Pulitzer Prize finalists in drama for her play Detroit. Premiered at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theater in September 2010, Detroit is described by the Pulitzer jury as “a contemporary tragicomic play that depicts a slice of desperate life in a declining inner-ring suburb where hope is in foreclosure.” Detroit will be produced on Broadway in early fall of 2011 under the direction of Austin Pendleton. This marks D'Amour's Broadway debut.

An Obie Award winner, D'Amour plays include Hide Town, Anna Bella Eema, Nita and Zita, Night Sky, Red Death, Tale of the West Texas Marsupial Girl, 16 Spells to Charm the Beast, and The Cataract.

D'Amour also creates interdisciplinary work with close collaborator, Katie Pearl. Most recently, they presented their dance-theater piece Terrible Things at PS122. In June 2011, they will premiere How to Build a Forest, in which they will assemble and disassemble a simulated forest on stage over the course of an 8 hour work day. D'Amour's and Pearl's work has been commissioned by The Whitney Museum of Art, The Mitchell Center for the Arts (Houston) and Brookfield Properties (NYC) and has been presented by HERE Arts Center, The Walker Arts Center (Minneapolis), ArtSpot Productions (New Orleans) and the Fuse Box Festival (Austin).

Clybourne Park by Bruce Norris was awarded the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. John Guare's A Free Man of Color was also a finalist for the prestigious award.