Voices From a Changing Nation
Projects from our ongoing “Voices From a Changing Nation” series
Priyanka SHetty’s #Charlottesville Is workshopped in April & Opens in July, 2023 at 2023 Capital Fringe Festival
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Paula Vogel selects RACHEL LYNETT’s
”Apologies to Lorraine Hansberry (You too August Wilson)”
as the winner of the 14th annual yale drama series prize (2021)
“The award is presented in cooperation with Yale University Press and is sponsored by the David Charles Horn Foundation. The winner receives the David Charles Horn Prize of $10,000, as well as publication of the winning play by Yale University Press ...”
“The fourteenth winner of the Yale Drama Series prize explores “Blackness” and the reasons why joy and peace might be harder to get than we think.”
- https://yalebooks.co.uk/book/detail/apologies-to-lorraine-hansberry-you-too-august-wilson
"(The) submissions were incredibly gifted and aesthetically diverse…," said judge Paula Vogel. "The winning play, Apologies to Lorraine Hansberry (You Too August Wilson) by Rachel Lynett, is a taut examination of the impact of racism in a future African American state after the next Civil War in America … How do the community members of a fictional "Bronx Bay" protect Blackness? Who gets to define Blackness in a gated Black community? And ultimately, in policing Blackness, what families and relationships are torn asunder in this new world? With a metatheatrical playfulness and a direct inclusion of actors and audience alike, Rachel Lynett's play exposes the many layers to the notion of race in order to awaken us."
Rachel Lynett: “When I wrote Apologies to Lorraine Hansberry (You Too August Wilson), I wanted to break as many “rules” as I could. As someone who is multiracial and multicultural, I often feel by existing, I am sometimes breaking the rules and I wanted to write a play that reflected that.”
More Info
Voices Festival Productions
presents a STAGED READING of APOLOGIES
part of its continuing initiative
VOICES FROM A CHANGING NATION
About the artiSTS
Rachel Lynett (she/they) is a queer Afro-Latinx playwright who writes dark comedies about complex, complicated women of color. Rachel is the 2021 recipient of the Yale Drama Prize for their play, Apologies to Lorraine Hansberry (You Too August Wilson), and the 2021 recipient of the National Latinx Playwriting award for their play, Black Mexican. Their play, White People by the Lake was a 2022 Blue Ink Award finalist.