I have never bought a book, read a poem or seen a play because it was by a Pulitzer winner. — Ben Brantley, Former Theatre Critic, The New York Times

As a child of the 60s, I lived through the heyday of Award shows. Family and friends would gather as if for a holiday, dressed in various skeins of finery. We ate and drank heartily, reveled in the appearances of our favorite celebrities and entertainers, and competed for bragging rights as to who among us best understood the whims and wisdom of the voting blocs. (I won more than most.) It didn’t matter what the award was for – we were there for the spectacle.

Literary awards are a slightly different beast than performance-based awards. Writers, as a rule, are not as recognizable or renowned, and tend not to have as direct an influence on the caprices of popular culture. When Ben Brantley, former Chief Theater Critic of The New York Times, says that his literary consumption has not been guided by a work’s status as a Pulitzer Prize winner, I find myself nodding in agreement. It is much easier for me to understand the significance of the award for the writer/playwright than for the audience member. The question therefore becomes what, if anything, does the Pulitzer Prize tell us about a potential theater experience, particularly the three Pulitzer Prize winning shows being produced by the DCPA this season?

The old guard is ably represented by Tennessee Williams’ iconic Southern drama Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Oct 3-Nov 2, 2025).  This play exists in at least three different incarnations in the public’s mind: the three-act-play adapted from the original short story penned by Tennessee Williams in 1952; the 1955 Pulitzer Prize-winning production directed by Elia Kazan; and the notorious 1958 film adaptation, which starred Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor. Each version provides a perspective on a family in a state of decay. The characters lie as easily as they breathe. The story is imbued with a heady sexuality, a deepening sense of menace, and encompasses an exploration of themes which, at the time, shocked the conscience. William’s masterpiece is characterized by the incisiveness, discernment, and fearlessness that distinguishes each of his works. While many aspects of this play have been controversial, its receipt of the Pulitzer Prize has not.

The same cannot be said of 2010 Pulitzer Prize winning Next to Normal (Apr 3-May 3, 2026) by Brian Yorkey. Debate reigned not because of the content of the piece, but because of the process of its selection. This musical was not one of those shortlisted by jurists for consideration; instead, the Pulitzer board rejected the three pieces that were advanced, and supplanted the judgment of the jury with its own. That should not, however, prevent anyone from experiencing the triumph and tragedy of a family struggling with mental illness. The characterizations are rich and nuanced, the relationships are dynamic, the story is provocative, the subject matter is intense. In this instance, the receipt of the Pulitzer swept shadows away from the murky world of mental illness and elevated the conversation of its impact on families to the national consciousness, with pathos, integrity, and wholly original music.

Over a decade later the play English (Apr 17-May 31, 2026) scored the top prize by showcasing a world unfamiliar to many Americans – that of Iranian adults attempting to learn English in order to secure better lives for themselves, their families and their communities. One of the most striking features of this script is how deftly the playwright Sanaz Toosi deals with the challenges inherent in featuring characters whose English-language speaking ability is varied at best and complicated and compromised at worst. She magnificently manipulates language and accents so that the audience always knows when the characters are speaking to each other in their native Farsi and when they are conversing with each other in English. There are no dilettantes here — the stakes are incredibly high for each character. At risk is their future, their very survival. The show is infused with moments of levity but they cannot eclipse the characters’ sense of desperation or of hope as they work to craft lives for themselves that are abundant and full of possibility.

All three shows are extraordinary. They are incredible feats of imagination, artistry and craft. But they are also powerful testaments to the role of theater in the most significant conversations of the times – of any time. They dare to challenge the status quo, to reveal what lurks in the shadows, and to usher new truths into the light. Like Brantley, I have never decided to attend a show based on whether it’s won a Pulitzer, but after this brief introduction, I would certainly entertain doing so.