Westport Country Playhouse Hosts Conversation with Lynn Nottage

'A Conversation with Lynn Nottage,' two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, will be hosted by Westport Country Playhouse on Sunday, September 29, at 4 p.m., in the Playhouse's Jason Robards Theatre. The free-of-charge event is in advance of the Playhouse staging of Nottage's play, 'Mlima's Tale,' October 1 - 19, directed by Mark Lamos, Playhouse artistic director, who will facilitate the conversation. The Westport production is the first since the play's world premiere at The Public Theater in 2018.

Nottage and Lamos will discuss 'Mlima's Tale,' the playwright's career, and her body of work in the hourlong program. 'A Conversation with Lynn Nottage' is free-of-charge by reservation and open to the public. To reserve tickets, contact the Playhouse box office at 203-227-4177 or by email atrsvp@westportplayhouse.org. Up to four tickets may be reserved with each reservation.

'Mlima's Tale' is about a magnificent and beloved Kenyan elephant named Mlima hunted for his coveted ivory tusks. As traffickers maneuver the illicit ivory market, from Kenya to Vietnam to China, the animal's invincible spirit follows their path of desire, greed, crime, and corruption.

'Mlima's Tale,' according to Lamos, 'speaks to us, the human community, about our treatment of sensitive and sentient animal communities torn apart by men. As these animal communities disappear from the face of the earth, the art of live theater can truly connect us to them, to their spirits, and to the people propelled by poverty and capitalism who benefit from their slaughter.'

Playwright Lynn Nottage won the Pulitzer Prize for two of her plays, 'Ruined' and 'Sweat.' 'Ruined' also received an Obie, Lucille Lortel Award, New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, Drama Desk Award, and Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Play (Manhattan Theatre Club, Goodman Theatre). 'Sweat' also earned an Obie Award, Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, Tony nomination and Drama Desk nomination. Her play, 'Mlima's Tale,' premiered off-Broadway at The Public Theater in 2018. Other plays include 'Intimate Apparel' (New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play; Roundabout Theatre, Baltimore Centerstage, South Coast Repertory, Westport Country Playhouse); 'Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine' (Obie Award; Playwrights Horizons, London's Tricycle Theatre); 'Crumbs from the Table of Joy'; 'Las Meninas'; 'Mud, River, Stone'; 'Por'knockers'; and 'Poof!' Nottage is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2007 MacArthur Foundation 'Genius Grant,' the National Black Theatre Festival's August Wilson Playwriting Award, the 2004 PEN/Laura Pels Award for Drama, and the 2005 Guggenheim Grant for Playwriting, as well as fellowships from the Lucille Lortel Foundation, Manhattan Theatre Club, New Dramatists, and New York Foundation for the Arts. She is a member of The Dramatists Guild, an alumna of New Dramatists, and a graduate of Brown University and the Yale School of Drama, where she is a visiting lecturer. www.lynnnottage.net

For more information and reservations, call the Westport Country Playhouse box office at (203) 227-4177, or toll-free at 1-888-927-7529, visit Westport Country Playhouse, 25 Powers Court, off Route 1, Westport, or at www.westportplayhouse.org. Stay connected to the Playhouse on Facebook (Westport Country Playhouse), follow on Twitter (@WCPlayhouse), or view Playhouse videos on YouTube (WestportPlayhouse).

Photo Credit: Lynn Savarese