The Alchemy of Adaptation

Lynn Nottage is the first woman in history to win two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama. Recent work includes the libretto for the opera Intimate Apparel (Lincoln Center Theater), the book for the musical MJ (Broadway), Clyde’s (Broadway, 2ST), and book for the musical The Secret Life of Bees. Other credits include the performance installation (as co-curator) of The Watering Hole at the Signature Theater; Mlima’s Tale; Sweat (Pulitzer Prize, Obie, Evening Standard Award, Susan Smith Blackburn Prize); By the Way, Meet Vera Stark (Lilly Award); Ruined (Pulitzer Prize, Obie, Lortel, NY Drama Critics’ Circle, AUDELCO, Drama Desk and OCC awards); Intimate Apparel (American Theatre Critics and NY Drama Critics’ Circle). She is the recipient of a PEN/Laura Pels Master Dramatist Award, Doris Duke Artist Award, American Academy of Arts and Letters Award, MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellowship. She is a Professor at Columbia University School of the Arts, and is a member of the Theater Hall of Fame and the Dramatists Guild.

Marlon James is the author of the New York Times-bestseller Black Leopard, Red Wolf, which was a finalist for the National Book Award for fiction in 2019. His novel A Brief History of Seven Killings won the 2015 Man Booker Prize. It was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and won the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature for fiction, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for fiction, and the Minnesota Book Award. James is also the author of The Book of Night Women, which won the 2010 Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the Minnesota Book Award, and was a finalist for the 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award in fiction and an NAACP Image Award. His first novel, John Crow’s Devil, was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for first fiction. He is the creator of the five-part HBO thriller, Get Millie Black, adapted from his own short story of the same name.

Lisa Kron wrote the book and lyrics for musical Fun Home in collaboration with composer Jeanine Tesori which won five 2015 Tony awards including Best Book, Score, and Musical, and was finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Lisa’s other plays include In The Wake, Well, and the Obie Award winning 2.5 Minute Ride. She received a Tony nomination for Best Actress in Well and a Lortel Award for her turn in Foundry Theater’s acclaimed production of Good Person of Szechuan. Other honors include: Guggenheim, Sundance and MacDowell fellowships, a Doris Duke Performing Artists Award, Cal Arts/Alpert Award and the Kleban Prize. Lisa was a writer on seasons 2 & 3 of the HBO series Somebody Somewhere. She currently working with director Barrie Kosky on a theatrical adaptation of the I.B. Singer short-story Yentl, the Yeshiva Boy, and with filmmaker Kirsten Johnson on a film about Susan Sontag.