Playwright Lynn Nottage Wins MacArthur "Genius" Grant

Playwright Lynn Nottage is among the 24 recipients of this year's "genius awards" from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. She will receive $100,000 a year for the next five years, with no strings attached. The MacArthur Fellows are chosen on the basis of the winners' creativity, originality and potential.

The MacArthur citation hails Nottage as "an original voice in American theater, a playwright whose entertaining and thought-provoking works address contemporary issues with empathy and humor." Born in Brooklyn in 1964, she received a B.A. from Brown University and an M.F.A. from Yale University's School of Drama, where she is currently a visiting lecturer. Nottage's best known play, Intimate Apparel, the story of a young black seamstress in early 20th century New York City, won critical acclaim and numerous awards for its 2004 off-Broadway production starring Viola Davis. That same season, Playwrights Horizons produced Fabulation, Nottage's picaresque narrative starring Charlayne Woodard as a woman who endures reversals of fortune as she escapes the Brooklyn projects for Manhattan. Nottage's other plays include Crumbs from the Table of Joy, Mud River Stone and Por'Knockers, all of which have been produced off-Broadway.

Among the other 2007 MacArthur Fellows are soprano Dawn Upshaw, choreographer Shen Wei, novelist Stuart Dybek, poet Peter Cole and artists Whitfield Lovell and Joan Snyder. Playwright Sarah Ruhl received a "genius grant" last year.