Last month, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright (and Broadway Briefing’s Showperson of the Year) Lynn Nottage was presented with the Celebrating Women Award by the New York Women’s Foundation. Nottage was recognized alongside Huma Abedin, author and chief of staff to Hillary Rodham Clinton, as well as Loretta J. Ross, an activist and renowned professor at Smith College, and the Women’s Community Justice Association.
Each year, the Celebrating Women Award honors those who have created a positive impact on women and girls. Nottage is one of only three playwrights to have received the prestigious award; Whoopi Goldberg and V (formerly known as Eve Ensler) are among the past recipients.
In thinking about the change she’s made, what first comes to mind for Nottage isn’t her award-winning body of work. Instead, she immediately brings up the lessons she’s passed on to the next generation. “It’s really hard at this point in my life to think about legacy, but if I’ve done anything, I think it’s mentoring and uplifting other women of color in my field,” Nottage told Broadway News. “I try to be that support system that I felt — when I was coming through the ranks — was [only] there intermittently.”
