Photos: Samuel D. Hunter Honored at Page 73 Gala 2026

Playwright and MacArthur “Genius” Samuel D. Hunter was honored at the Page 73 Gala 2026, celebrating the nonprofit renowned for its work fostering playwrights early in their careers. Check out photos below!

The gala was held at Joe’s Pub in front of an audience that included Brendan Fraser, who won the Oscar for the film adaptation of Hunter’s play The Whale; Tony nominee and Pultizer Prize finalist Martyna Majok (Cost of Living); Tony nominee Brian J. Smith (The Glass Menagerie); and two Tony nominees who presented Hunter with his honor: Gideon Glick (To Kill a Mockingbird), who starred in Hunter’s plays The Few and The Harvest; and Micah Stock, who starred on Broadway last Fall in Hunter’s Little Bear Ridge Road opposite Laurie Metcalf, which marked Hunter’s Broadway debut as a playwright and is buzzed for nominations at this year's Tony Awards.

Two-time Tony Award winner Laurie Metcalf, currently starring on Broadway in Death of a Salesman, sent a video greeting in Hunter’s honor, calling her work alongside the playwright on Little Bear Ridge Road “one of the best experiences I’ve ever had in my career,” citing his spirit of collaboration and his wicked sense of humor.

In Sam’s acceptance speech, his remarks included the following: “If Page 73 hadn’t given me permission to say to myself “maybe I’m a real playwright” back in 2010, God knows if I would have gone on to write any of the plays I’ve written in the last sixteen years, small stories about quiet lives in Idaho that miraculously have found homes here in New York. And this has been true for every playwright in the canon, someone early on had to give them that permission to say “maybe I’m a real playwright.” Someone gave Arthur Miller that permission, someone gave August Wilson that permission, someone gave that permission to Lynn Nottage and Tony Kushner and Tennessee Williams and Suzan Lori-Parks. Unless there are companies like Page 73 out there taking chances on new playwrights and new work—and these companies are dropping like flies these days—we will cease to have a contemporary American canon. Period. That’s not my opinion, that’s reality.”

In 2010, Page 73 gave then-NYC-unproduced playwright Samuel D. Hunter his first NYC production. Page 73’s production of Hunter’s play Jack’s Precious Moment led to a turning point in his career, which has since soared with countless productions in New York City and across the US and internationally including The Whale (Drama Desk Award, Lucille Lortel Award), A Case for the Existence of God (New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award), A Bright New Boise (Obie Award), Greater Clements, Lewiston/Clarkston and Grangeville, among others. In Fall 2026, Hunter made his West End debut with his play Clarkston starring Joe Locke, which received a WhatsOnStage Award nomination for Best New Play. 

Since 1997, Page 73 has been identifying, developing, and producing the next generation of American playwrights, launching the careers of Pulitzer Prize winner Quiara Alegría Hudes (Water by the Spoonful; In the Heights), Pulitzer Prize finalists Heidi Schreck (What the Constitution Means to Me) and Clare Barron (Dance Nation), and Tony and Pulitzer Prize winner Michael R. Jackson (A Strange Loop).