Kushner hits jackpot

Tony Kushner has been awarded a $200,000 playwriting prize. (That's worth 20 of them Pulitzers.)
Read all about it here in the *New York Times*, which explains all about the Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award, which is to be given biennially, with a pair of $50K grants going out to early-career playwrights in the alternating years.

Neither half of *Angels in America* is performed as often as they should be, in Bobo's HO ... though even taking *Homebody/Kabul* and "Caroline, or Change* into account -- good as they are -- Kushner has not had the _extended_ impact on _mainstream_ theater-production habits as, for example and at various times, Pete Gurney, Terry McNally and Neil LaBute have had. (Cite your own examples. And making the list of most-produced scripts in *American Theatre* every year is no guarantee of long-term respect. Bobo certainly doesn't have a better or more articulate candidate in mind.Ironically, Kushner (with Spielberg's *Munich* and upcoming Abe Lincoln project) has been working more in movies than in the theater. Let's look forward to when he starts writing playscripts again.)

www.nytimes.com/2008/09/16/theater/16kush.html

Terry Teachout of the WSJ weighs in as well.