Ayad Akhtar News

An American banker has been taken hostage by an isolated militant group in Pakistan. When his ransom goes unpaid, his only hope is to trade on his expertise in international finance to earn his way to freedom. In an unsteady landscape of power and control, this geo-political thriller by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Ayad Akhtar asks, just how free is the free market?

Pulitzer Prize-winning DISGRACED by Ayad Akhtar, directed by Sidonie Garrett, is coming to the Unicorn Theatre this fall.

Kitchen Theatre Company continues its 2017-2018 Season with Brahman/i: A One-Hijra Stand-Up Comedy Show by Aditi Brennan Kapil, a play The Hollywood Reporter called 'a layered, insightful consideration of Indian-American cultural identity, gender and colonialism that happens to take the form of a stand-up comedy routine.' Kitchen Theatre Company's new Producing Artistic Director, M. Bevin O'Gara, directs. Performances of Brahman/i begin at the Kitchen Theatre Company in The Percy Browning Theatre on October 8.

The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust today announced that Pulitzer-prize-winning playwright Ayad Akhtar and 2017 Tony Award-nominated playwright Lucas Hnath are the recipients of 2017 Steinberg Playwright Awards.

Milwaukee Repertory Theater presents The Who & The What, a brilliant new play by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Ayad Akhtar in the Stiemke Studio beginning September 27 through November 5. 

On the docket for L.A. Theatre Works in 2017-18: a season of seven audio theater productions, including an original commission of a 19th century novel about Zionism, a new docudrama about the BP oil spill, two recent Pulitzer Prize-winning plays, the revival of a cautionary tale against fascism, a romantic comedy, and a tribute to I Love Lucy - each featuring a star-studded cast. In addition, LATW will honor Woman in Gold attorney E. Randol Schoenberg and launch the company's 14th national tour.

Disgraced examines the American experience from a variety of viewpoints: a Jewish-American man, an African-American woman, a white woman, and Amir, the play's tragic lead, who is from an Islamic background the child of Middle-Eastern immigrants. Disgraced is an award-winning piece of literature that delivers an intense, intelligent discourse about race and privilege, and a jarring exploration of the stratifications and compartmentalization of American culture.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ayad Akhtar and Tony Award-winning director Doug Hughes discuss Akhtar's newest play before its New York premiere at Lincoln Center Theater. The event will be held as part of Works & Process at the Guggenheim tonight, September 23, 2017 at 7:30 p.m.

In less than a month from closing the hugely successful production of David Mamet's RACE, The Heather tackles Ayad Akhtar's Pulitzer Prize winning drama DISGRACED.

Florida Rep's 20th Anniversary Season will open on schedule despite a brief interruption for Hurricane Irma.

In less than a month from closing the hugely successful production of David Mamet's RACE, The Heather tackles Ayad Akhtar's Pulitzer Prize winning drama DISGRACED. In the tight 85 minutes, liberal pieties will clash violently with starkly conservative attitudes on the subjects of religion, national identity, terrorism and even the state of Israel a gift box, in short, of assorted radioactive topics.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ayad Akhtar and Tony Award-winning director Doug Hughes discuss Akhtar's newest play before its New York premiere at Lincoln Center Theater. The event will be held as part of Works & Process at the Guggenheim on Saturday, September 23, 2017 at 7:30 p.m.

Stop for a moment to think how things have changed; how the election of Donald Trump and the imposition of a travel ban on Muslims and openly anti-immigrant, pro-white nationalist sentiment have torn away at the nation. It is no wonder that Akhtar's searing drama deserves its place on the stage right here, and right now.

On Saturday September 9, 2017, NextStop Theatre Company, a professional black-box theatre near Reston Town Center, opened the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Disgraced by Ayad Akhtar. In the play, audiences experience a New York City dinner party that becomes a powder-keg of prejudice and identity politics surrounding Muslim assimilation in America.

Lincoln Center Theater has announced its first two productions of 2018.

Playwright Ayad Akhtar is one of the darlings of contemporary theater with his Pulitzer Prize winning play "Disgraced" as well as his acclaimed "The Invisible Hand" (my favorite of his) getting production after production around the world. He manages to take on seriously hot button topics and expose them with rich and engaging characters and his "The Who and the What", currently playing at ArtsWest and co-produced with Pratidhwani, is no exception. But his shows are by no means bulletproof. These characters need to be performed with engagement so they really connect with the issues and each other and as a result with the audience and that's where the ArtsWest production fails. They don't fail completely but enough that what could have been a searing social-political family drama comes across like a tepid sit-com.

4th Wall Theatre opens its seventh season with the Houston premiere of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize winner for drama - DISGRACED, by acclaimed award winning playwright, Ayad Akhtar.

Steep Theatre's 17th season will open this fall with the Chicago premiere of Pulitzer Prize winner Ayad Akhtar's The Invisible Hand, directed by Audrey Francis. Akhtar won the Pulitzer for his play Disgraced, which premiered in 2012 at American Theatre Company in Chicago and later played both at the Goodman Theatre and on Broadway. 

The Pussycat Foundation, established in the spirit of Cosmopolitan Magazine editor Helen Gurley Brown, has awarded Northern Stage's Producing Artistic Director Carol Dunne a Genius Grant of $250,000 for her achievements in theater arts, recognizing her as a pioneering artist and artistic director. The Pussycat Foundation awards Genius Grants to individuals who dedicate their lives to transformative work with bold leadership and vision. The dollars awarded to Carol are split evenly between Northern Stage and the New London Barn Playhouse, which Carol led from 2008-2014.