Each month Brian James Polak (he/him) talks to playwrights about the things usually left unsaid. In conversations that dive into life’s muck, we learn what irks, agitates, motivates, inspires and—ultimately—what makes writers tick.
On this month’s episode, Brian catches up with the very active Lynn Nottage, who is in the midst of the busiest theatre season of her career. Recently nominated for multiple Tony awards—Clyde’s for Best Play, and MJ the Musical for Best Book to a Musical—she also debuted an operatic version of her play Intimate Apparel at Lincoln Center Theater.
Nottage—who has received two Pulitzers for Drama (for Ruined in 2009 and for Sweat in 2017) and a MacArthur “genius” fellowship—talks to Brian about the little victories in a playwriting career that can motivate a writer through early struggles. She recalls how a class with Paula Vogel focused her on dramatic writing, and why her first play in grad school made Lloyd Richards angry.
Indeed, though she is among the most decorated playwrights alive today, Nottage is careful to note that her career didn’t take off immediately. She discusses the four years she worked for Amnesty International after grad school and the decade-long struggle that followed, as she worked in many different jobs to pay the bills—all of which may have given her the sense of working people’s lives that informs all of her work.
This episode can also be found here.
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