Jackie Sibblies Drury is an American playwright.[1] The New York Times called Drury's 2012 play We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as Southwest Africa, From the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884-1915 "her breakout work".[1][2][3] Her subsequent works include Social Creatures (2013) and Fairview (2018); for the latter, Drury received the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Jackie Sibblies Drury | |
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Born | United States |
Occupation | Playwright, writer |
Language | English |
Education | Yale University (BA) Brown University (MFA) |
Genre | Theatre, drama |
Jackie Sibblies Drury was raised by her Jamaican immigrant mother and grandmother in Plainfield, New Jersey. Drury's mother enrolled her at a private school in New Jersey where she witnessed the persistence of "segregation even in a harmonious community."[4]
Drury attended Yale University, where she majored in literature.[5] She received her MFA in playwriting from Brown University in 2010.[4]
She was a winner of the Windham-Campbell Literature Prize for Drama in 2015.[6]
She was awarded the 2019 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for her play Fairview. The prize has a cash award of $25,000. Fairview was presented Off-Broadway in 2018 by Berkeley Repertory Theatre and Soho Rep.[7][8]
Fairview was also awarded the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for this "hard-hitting drama that examines race in a highly conceptual, layered structure, ultimately bringing audiences into the actors’ community to face deep-seated prejudices."[9]
She received the 2019 Steinberg Playwright Award for Fairview, which includes a $50,000 cash prize.[10]
Drury received PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theatre Award in 2022.[11]