Stephen Adly Guirgis wins Steinberg Playwright Award

With their abrasive characters and often profane language, the plays of Stephen Adly Guirgis aren’t crowd-pleasers in the conventional sense. The New York playwright specializes in chronicling the rougher side of city life, and has earned critical raves and a Tony Award nomination for his work.

On Tuesday, Guirgis received another accolade when he was named the recipient of the biennial Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award, an honor that comes with a monetary prize of $200,000. Guirgis is expected to pick up the award, which honors a playwright’s body of work, at a ceremony in New York on Nov. 17.

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FOR THE RECORD
A previous version of this post misspelled Guirgis’ middle name, Adly, as Adley, and said the award is biannual. It is biennial.
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The award is organized by the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust. Guirgis said in a statement that he was humbled to receive the honor: “We live in a world of, ‘Take the money and run.’ This award is especially meaningful and inspiring to me personally because the message here seems to be, ‘Take the money, and STAY.’”

Guirgis’ plays include “The Mother... with the Hat,” which ran on Broadway in 2011; “Our Lady of 121st Street”; and “In Arabia, We’d All Be Kings.” The playwright has had a long association with New York’s LAByrinth Theater Company, where he has worked with John Ortiz and the late Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Previous winners of the Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award include David Henry Hwang in 2012 and Lynn Nottage in 2010.

Twitter: @DavidNgLAT