Primary Trust starts October 5!
By Neena Arndt
On May 6, 2024, Columbia University announced the winners of 23 Pulitzer Prizes, each in a different category. Among them was Eboni Booth, earning the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Primary Trust. In winning this prize, she joins a long list of storied playwrights who have won the award since its inception in 1918.
The Pulitzer (pronounced PULL-it-zer) Prizes are named after Hungarian-American newspaper publisher and politician Joseph Pulitzer, who willed $250,000 to Columbia University to establish both the prizes and the Columbia School of Journalism. Although the first prizes were awarded in 1917, no drama prize was awarded that year. In 1918, however, Jesse Lynch Williams won for his play Why Marry?, a comic examination of the mores of marriage. Just three years later, Zona Gale became the first woman to win the prize, but it wasn’t until the 21st century that Suzan-Lori Parks became the first Black woman to win: her play Topdog/Underdog was honored in 2002. Seven years later, in 2009, Lynn Nottage won for Ruined, which had been developed as part of the Goodman’s New Stages festival in 2007 and had its world premiere in the Goodman’s Owen Theatre in 2008. Since then, Katori Hall and Jackie Sibblies Drury became the third and fourth Black women to win the prize, while Nottage notched a second win for Sweat. With her 2024 win, Booth becomes the fifth Black woman and the 20th woman to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Booth began her career as an actor working both in theaters around New York and on television, appearing in The Good Fight and The Americans, among others. In recent years she has expanded her career to include playwriting, quickly racking up fellowships, workshops and productions of her plays. Upon winning the Pulitzer, she now sits in the exalted company of writers like Eugene O’Neill (Long Day’s Journey into Night) and Tennessee Williams, (The Glass Menagerie) as well as living legends such as Paula Vogel (How I Learned to Drive), Annie Baker (The Flick) and Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton).
The prize honors “a distinguished play by an American author, preferably original in its source and dealing with American life.” Each year, the Pulitzer Prize Board assembles a jury for each category, selecting experts in that field. Those juries then select a winner in their respective categories. Plays must have had their world premieres in the previous calendar year, and must be written by authors who are citizens or permanent residents of the United States, or who have made the United States their longtime primary home. Prize winners are awarded $15,000 and a place in the history books.
Primary Trust, which depicts a New York man undergoing unprecedented changes in his life, is undoubtedly a “distinguished play by an American author.” Prior to the May announcement, the Goodman had already programmed the play as part of its 2024/2025 Season; no one knew that the play would receive this award. Although most excellent plays never win a Pulitzer, and therefore a play’s Pulitzer status can’t be used to judge it, the prize remains a prominent accolade, and the Goodman is thrilled to produce this extraordinary work that has been so recently honored.
Neena Arndt is the Literary Manager and Dramaturg for Goodman Theatre.
