TCG Announces The Publication of Lynn Nottage’s RUINED

Theatre Communications Group (TCG) is pleased to announce the publication of Lynn Nottage's much honored and acclaimed new play Ruined, winner of this year's Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play is set in the brutally war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, in a rainforest bar and brothel where shrewd matriarch Mama Nadi both protects and profits from the women whose bodies have become battlegrounds between government soldiers and rebel forces alike.  Winner of Best Play in 2009: Drama Desk Award, Lucille Lortel Award, OBIE Award, New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, Outer Critics Circle Award.

The play was developed through the author's pilgrimage to Africa where countless interviews and interactions resulted in a portrait of the lives of the women and girls caught in this ongoing tragedy. In the tradition of Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage, Nottage uses both music and humor, as she tells a story that is at once politically timely and devastatingly human. The book, is available in paperback and hardcover, includes the play's three original songs, and portraits of the Congolese women, photographed moments after they shared their stories with Nottage.

Ruined recently ended its run at Manhattan Theatre Club (where it began performances in January), in a world-premiere co-production with Chicago's Goodman Theatre. Kate Whoriskey, who directed the production and developed the play with Nottage in Africa, writes in the book's introduction: "All of us who spend our lives in theater know that it has an incredible capacity for illuminating the unseen, reshaping history, bringing out empathy and providing social commentary... Once in a great while a project seems to get enough of the elements right that it becomes a memorable piece of theater. Ruined is one of those pieces."

Lynn Nottage's other plays include Intimate Apparel (New York Drama Critics' Award for
Best Play), which was the most widely produced play of 2005-06 theater season in America; Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine (OBIE Award); Crumbs from the Table of Joy; Las Meninas; Mud, River, Stone; Por'knockers and POOF! She is recipient of numerous awards, including a 2007 MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship.

Theatre Communications Group (TCG) is the national organization for the American theatre.  TCG is dedicated to nurturing professional, not-for-profit American theatre institutions, artists, and audiences, and to fulfilling its mission to strengthen, nurture and promote professional, not-for-profit field.  TCG initiatives include a variety of artistic, management, international and advocacy programs.  TCG's many publications offer a national resource for reference, opinion, and debate on theatre and the performing arts today. TCG publishes American Theatre magazine, ARTSEARCH, and books on theatre and performing arts. Please visit our website and online bookstore at www.tcg.org.

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