22nd Monte Cristo Award Gala

The O’Neill annually bestows its Monte Cristo Award on a prominent artist whose work has had an extraordinary impact on American theater, in memory of its namesake. The annual gala event supports the O’Neill’s mission to develop new work and new artists for the stage.

The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center will present the 22nd Monte Cristo Award to award-winning playwright and screenwriter Lynn Nottage. Nottage, who was in residence at the O’Neill in 2006 while working on her play Ruined, is the first (and remains the only) woman to have two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama – the first for Ruined, and the second for her 2015 play Sweat. The celebratory evening will feature special performances by Quincy Tyler Bernstein, Tonya Pinkins, Jason Bowen, Gabby Beans, Stacey Sargeant, CJ Wilson and Joyce Sylvester, among others.

Past recipients of the Award include actors Geroge C. White, John Logan, Judith Light, Meryl Streep, Michael Douglas, Nathan Lane, Christopher Plummer, James Earl Jones, Jason Robards, Jr., Zoe Caldwell, Brian Dennehy, & Karl Malden; playwrights August Wilson, Wendy Wasserstein, Edward Albee, & Neil Simon; directors Harold Prince & George C. Wolfe; and Arthur & Barbara Gelb and Lin-Manuel Miranda.