The Pulitzer Prize Board will consider postponed or cancelled productions as well as shows streamed online for the 2021 drama prize.
The changed rules, announced Thursday, include dramatic works postponed or cancelled due to the pandemic, as well as productions performed outside, online or in other venues. The prize will encompass theatrical productions that were scheduled to or able to open between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2020.
“The spread of the COVID virus has closed theaters but has in no way dampened the creativity of the nation’s playwrights. In this year, of all years, we wanted to honor the work that is being done. The shows are going on, even if the audience is remote,” Pulitzer co-chairs Stephen Engelberg, Editor-in-Chief, ProPublica, and Aminda Marqués Gonzalez, President, Publisher and Executive Editor, Miami Herald said in a statement.
Plays that were postponed in 2020 are required to include proof of the cancellation alongside the script. Work that appeared online or in a non-traditional venue will require the submission of a script as well as production details.
However, creators of the dramatic works can decide to hold off on submitting the work to the Pulitzer Board, as they “can determine when it is ready for award consideration.”
Michael R. Jackson won the most recent Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his musical “A Strange Loop.”
The news was first reported by the New York Times.
