PHOTO CALL: Tony Kushner Receives Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award

By Matthew Blank
October 24, 2008

Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner was honored with the first Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award on Oct. 21.

Issued by the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, the award includes a $200,000 prize, the largest theatre award in the country.

Nicknamed "The Mimi," the trophy was designed by David Rockwell. The Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award will be awarded every two years. During alternating years, the trust will issue $50,000 awards to two newer playwrights.

In addition to the two-part epic Angels in America, Kushner's other works include A Bright Room Called Day, Slavs!: Thinking About the Longstanding Problems of Virtue and Happiness, Henry Box Brown and The Mirror of Slavery.

His newest piece, entitled The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism With a Key to the Scriptures, will be produced at Minneapolis' Guthrie Theater in 2009.

Here is a look at the Tuesday evening ceremony held at Rockefeller Center's 620 Loft & Garden:

Steppenwolf Theatre Company Artistic Director Martha Lavey		Denver Center Theatre Artistic Director Kent Thompson

David Rockwell		Bernard Gersten and Robert LuPone

Oskar Eustis, with wife Laurie, and Ben Shenkman

From left: Ben Shenkman, Aasif Mandvi, Tony Kushner and Linda Emond

All photos by Aubrey Reuben