Pulitzer Prize for Drama (Article)

The most prestigious of all drama awards, it was created in 1917 by Joseph Pulitzer to honor “the original American play performed in New York which shall best represent the educational value and power of the stage in raising the standards of good morals and good manners.” The drama Pulitzer, given by the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University, is a playwright's award, given to a script and not a production, and carries much weight since there is only one category. The winner cannot be based on a previous play (eliminating most musicals from winning), and the committee can withhold the award one year if it deems no works are worthy of it. Over the years the Pulitzer's decisions have often been criticized, and displeasure with them prompted the founding of the New York Drama Critics Circle and its awards. The script no longer need be produced in New York to win, allowing regional theatre premieres to be eligible. All of the Pulitzer winners have their own entry. They are: 1918: Why Marry?; 1920: Beyond the Horizon; 1921: Miss Lulu Bett; 1922: Anna Christie; 1923: Icebound; 1924: Hell‐Bent for Heaven; 1925: They Knew What They Wanted; 1926: Craig's Wife; 1927: In Abraham's Bosom; 1928: Strange Interlude; 1929: Street Scene; 1930: The Green Pastures; 1931: Alison's House; 1932: Of Thee I Sing; 1933: Both Your Houses; 1934: Men in White; 1935: The Old Maid; 1936: Idiot's Delight; 1937: You Can't Take It with You; 1938: Our Town; 1939: Abe Lincoln in Illinois; 1940: The Time of Your Life; 1941: There Shall Be No Night; 1943: The Skin of Our Teeth; 1945: Harvey; 1946: State of the Union; 1948: A Streetcar Named Desire; 1949: Death of a Salesman; 1950: South Pacific; 1952: The Shrike; 1953: Picnic; 1954: The Teahouse of the August Moon; 1955: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof; 1956: The Diary of Anne Frank; 1957: Long Day's Journey into Night; 1958: Look Homeward, Angel; 1959: J. B.; 1960: Fiorello!; 1961: All the Way Home; 1962: How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying; 1965: The Subject Was Roses; 1967: A Delicate Balance; 1969: The Great White Hope; 1970: No Place to Be Somebody; 1971: The Effects of Gamma Rays on Man‐in‐the‐Moon Marigolds; 1973: That Championship Season; 1975: Seascape; 1976: A Chorus Line; 1977: The Shadow Box; 1978: The Gin Game; 1979: Buried Child; 1980: Talley's Folly; 1981: Crimes of the Heart; 1982: A Soldier's Play; 1983: 'night, Mother; 1984: Glengarry Glen Ross; 1985: Sunday in the Park with George; 1987: Fences; 1988: Driving Miss Daisy; 1989: The Heidi Chronicles; 1990: The Piano Lesson; 1991: Lost in Yonkers; 1992: The Kentucky Cycle; 1993: Angels in America, Part I: Millennium Approaches; 1994: Three Tall Women; 1995: The Young Man from Atlanta; 1996: Rent; 1998: How I Learned to Drive; 1999: Wit; 2000: Dinner with Friends; 2001: Proof; 2002: Topdog/Underdog; 2003: Anna in the Tropics; 2004: I Am My Own Wife; and 2005: Doubt, A Parable.