Pulitzer Prize Honoree Tracy Letts Reacts to His Big Win
A calm and collected Tracy Letts took to the phone just after winning the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for August: Osage County, and Broadway.com got one of his first quickie interviews about the prestigious prize. Here's what Letts had to say:
How are you feeling?
I feel tremendous relief, happiness and sadness—all that stuff mixed together. It's a lot of fun!
You were the odds-on favorite to win.
I know, and that's a little more nerve-wracking in some ways, to be the favorite, because you feel like, “Wow, I guess it's mine to lose.”
You've managed to write a three-hour-long crowd pleaser!
I sat down to write a play about my family, loosely based on events from my family's life, and it seemed like a large American play was the best vehicle to do that. So the story dictated the form more than the other way around.
Oh, huge, because we're able to rely on people's connections that go back over a long period of time—all the ensemble work that they've done. The actors playing Mattie Fae [Rondi Reed] and Charlie [Francis Guinan] first played husband and wife 30 years ago. You can't buy that kind of experience and that kind of depth of feeling, which, for a family play, I think is really important.
Did you have in mind from the beginning that August: Osage County would come to Broadway?
No, no. When we work on 'em [at Steppenwolf], we're worried about our little patch of land here in Chicago. It doesn't pay to set our sights beyond that. Once we got the show up and running and saw the impact we were having on audiences, we sort of realized, “We've got something here. This has legs; this could conceivably play a number of different venues.”
You're an experienced actor as well as a playwright. Did you ever think about appearing in August yourself?
No. I've never written plays for me to act in and I've never wanted to act in plays I've written. I try to keep them totally separate. I wouldn't be as good at either one if I tried to do both as the same time.
Do you have a favorite character in August: Osage County?
[Laughs]. Good question. I don't think so. They're all me, to some extent; they're all some part of me. But no, I get a kick out of all of them.
Your dad [Dennis Letts] was so wonderful as the patriarch, Beverly. Losing him must be the bittersweet part of this win.
Absolutely, but he saw this coming, this business with the Pulitzer. So that gives me some comfort, knowing that he was more sure of it than I was.
Are you working on the movie version?
No, not yet. There's talk of that, but I'm working on a new play [Superior Donuts] for Steppenwolf this summer, so that's got me occupied.
For more information on Letts' Pulitzer Prize win, click here.
