Nottage is a Pulitzer Prize winner for Ruined, a play about the plight of women in the civil war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo. Her works also include Fabulation, Intimate Apparel and Las Meninas. The Oregon Shakespeare Festival will present the premiere of her play Sweat in 2015. Hwang will serve as the program's director. The Tony Award winner and Pulitzer Prize nominee is the author of M. Butterfly, Yellow Face, Golden Child, Chinglish and Kung Fu, as well as the books of the musicals Aida, Tarzan and the 2002 revival of Flower Drum Song.
Columbia's M.F.A. program in playwriting, which began in 1965, includes a series of workshops and performances and concludes with a year-long mentorship. A favorite playwright is enlisted by the student to counsel them in the process of writing and producing a thesis play, which is then presented at Columbia’s "New Plays Now Festival." Hwang and Nottage have both served as mentors in the program.
To learn more about arts programs at colleges and universities across the country, including Columbia, visit PlaybillEDU.com.