Playwright Bruce Norris speaks at the first rehearsal for Clybourne Park. Photo by Evren Odcikin.
Playwright Bruce Norris speaks at the first rehearsal for Clybourne Park. Photo by Evren Odcikin.

San Francisco Theater NewsBruce Norris, 50,  has won the Pulitzer Prize for drama for Clybourne Park, a play about race relations in America. The announcement was made on Monday and included winners in 13 journalism categories and 7 arts categories.

The play enjoyed its West Coast premiere earlier this year at the American Conservatory Theater here in San Francisco.

From a statement just issued by A.C.T.: “This award doesn’t come as a big surprise to us at A.C.T. The play and the production were a critical favorite and a runaway hit with our audience, beating its goal by a record 140%. And it generated some of the liveliest postshow discussions and panels in recent A.C.T. history.”

Acclaimed local director Jonathan Moscone, who helmed A.C.T.’s production said: “I am over the moon about Bruce winning this award. Clybourne Park is one of the most piercingly intelligent, theatrically exciting and authentically provocative plays to be written in a long time, and I consider it a career highlight for me to have been able to work on it.”

According to the Pulitzer web site, the drama prize ($10,000) is awarded “for a distinguished play by an American author, preferably original in its source and dealing with American life.”

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After seeing Clybourne Park back in January I wrote in my review,  “must-see theater . . . squirminess never felt so entertaining.” It’s one of those plays that sneaks up on you, and it was quite memorable, not only the material — contemporary, edgy, jarring — but also the superb performances from a cast that pretty much blew me away on that evening. I awarded it 4.5 out of 5 stars (alas, with no cash prize) – I’m awaiting a call from the Pulitzer steering committee any moment now.

Congratulations to Bruce Norris, and also A.C.T. for staging such a ground-breaking piece of work.