Pulitzer Prize for Drama Goes to John Patrick Shanley's Doubt

Playwright John Patrick Shanley has been awarded the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Doubt, which is currently running at the Walter Kerr Theatre. Will Eno's Thom Pain based on nothing currently running in New York at DR2 and Sarah Ruhl's The Clean House were the other nominated finalists in the category.

"I feel relieved because I had to wait all day to find out if I was a hero or a goat," Shanley joked to Broadway.com. "So, it's nice I'm not a goat. I'm not sure I'm a hero, but I'm not a goat."

Set at a Catholic school in the Bronx, Doubt centers on a nun who grows suspicious when a priest begins taking too much interest in the life of a young male student. Is she being overly protective or not protective enough? And can she work within the system to discover the truth?

"I've met many nuns as a result of writing this play," said Shanley." And my first grade teacher, Sister James, who is still alive and still teaching, was my guest for the opening night, and she's just a doll and incredibly intelligent, and one of many invisible women out there living a life of service to others and they deserve to have our acknowledgement and our thanks."

The world premiere of Doubt, directed by Doug Hughes, opened to rave reviews at Manhattan Theatre Club's Stage I on November 23 and ended its extended run there on January 30. The production's entire cast Cherry Jones, Brían F. O'Byrne, Heather Goldenhersh and Adriane Lenox has transferred with the play to the Walter Kerr, where it officially opened on March 31.

Doubt is the first of Shanley's plays to run on Broadway. His other theatrical credits include Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, The Big Funk, Beggars in a House of Plenty, Four Dogs and a Bone, Psychopathia Sexualis, Cellini, Where's My Money and Sailor's Song. Shanley won an Academy Award for his screenplay for Moonstruck, which he has also been adapting into a stage musical. His other film credits include scripts for January Man, Joe Versus the Volcano and Alive.

The jurors in the drama category were Chicago Tribune critic Michael Phillips, Fran Dorn, University of Texas, Austin associate chair of the Department of Theater and Dance, San Francisco Chronicle critic Robert Hurwitt, The New York Times critic Charles Isherwood and former Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Wendy Wasserstein.