Lynn Nottage’s Sweat Wins 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Drama; 'I Wish I Had a Better Vocabulary, So I Could Describe How Good This Is'

Lynn Nottage’s drama Sweat, currently on Broadway at Studio 54, is the winner of the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. This marks Nottage’s second Pulitzer win; she won in 2009 for her play Ruined. Nottage will receive a prize of $10,000.

"I am elated and surprised," Nottage told Broadway.com after learning of her win. "I ran through a bevy of emotions when I found out. I wish I had a better vocabulary, so I could describe how good this is."

Sweat is based on Nottage's research and interviews with residents of one of the poorest cities in the country, Reading, PA. The play, set in 2000 and 2008, tells the story of a group of friends who have spent their lives sharing drinks, secrets and laughs while working together on the factory floor. When layoffs and picket lines begin to chip away at their trust, the friends find themselves pitted against each other in a fight to stay afloat.

"The people of Reading, Pennsylvania welcomed me with open arms, and they continue to welcome me and to have belief in the resurrection of their city. I hesitate to use the word resilience because I feel like I am talking in clichés, but that’s what they have," Nottage said. "I think [this Pulitzer] will change the journey of this play. I am gratified because I want it to have a wider audience, especially since this is tough subject matter without box office stars."

Sweat made its world premiere at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in the summer of 2015; it was co-commissioned with Arena Stage through OSF’s American Revolutions program. Sweat ran at Washington, D.C.'s Arena Stage from January-February 2016. That run was followed up by a New York premiere at the Public Theater from October-December 2016. Kate Whoriskey has remained onboard as director for each mounting.

The Broadway run of Sweat, which opened at Studio 54 on March 26, stars Johanna Day, Carlo Alban, James Colby, Khris Davis, John Earl Jelks, Will Pullen, Alison Wright, Lance Coadie Williams and Michelle Wilson.

Sweat marks Nottage's Broadway debut. Her other plays include Crumbs from the Table of Joy, Intimate Apparel, Mud, River, Stone, Antigone Project and By the Way, Meet Vera Stark, and, of course, Ruined, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2009.

The finalists for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Drama were A 24-Decade History of Popular Music by Taylor Mac and The Wolves by Sarah DeLappe.

In other theater-related Pulitzer news: the prize for criticism went to drama critic Hilton Als of The New Yorker.