It may seem like Black Theatre is experiencing another renaissance. On May 9th, however, The Eugene O’Neill Center will present one of the architects of this renaissance and so many other key moments in theater’s history, with its most prestigious honor.
George C. Wolfe will receive the coveted Monte Cristo Award during a gala dinner at the Edison Ballroom. The award is in its 16th year. Past recipients of the award include: Meryl Streep, Christopher Plummer, Michael Douglas, Kevin Spacey, and James Earl Jones.
Wolfe is more than a legend in theater – He embodies the modern theatrical experience over the last generation. His first major play The Colored Museum, found a home at The Public Theater in 1986.
By 1992 he would go on to write and direct Jelly’s Last Jam, based on the story of jazz musician Jelly Roll Morton. It made its Broadway debut in 1992 with Wolfe directing the production as well as writing the book.
But before you pigeon-hole the talented playwright and director, know his resume explains beyond race, and genres. He directed the Tony Award-winning Angels in America: Millenium Approaches, Elaine Stritch At the Liberty, and Bring Da’ Noise, Bring Da’ Funk, which ushered Savion Glover into the international spotlight.
Currently, he is directing Shuffle Along starring the incomparable Audra McDonald, Billy Porter, and Brian Stokes Mitchell, to name a few people. That show opens April 28th.
It is rare to find an artist so entrenched in the history and current iterations of the theater.
A little more about the Monte Cristo Awards:
The Monte Cristo Award honors a theater artist who exemplifies Eugene O’Neill’s “pioneering spirit, unceasing artistic commitment, excellence, and accomplishment.” A groundbreaking playwright and the only American dramatist to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, Eugene O’Neill set his masterpiece Long Day’s Journey Into Night at his childhood home, the Monte Cristo Cottage, in New London, CT.
