Eboni Booth’s ‘Primary Trust’ Wins 2024 Pulitzer Prize For Drama; Play Was Staged Off Broadway By Roundabout Last Summer

Eboni Booth’s ‘Primary Trust’ Wins 2024 Pulitzer Prize For Drama; Play Was Staged Off Broadway By Roundabout Last Summer

Primary Trust, Eboni Booth’s play that was given an Off Broadway staging by Roundabout Theatre Company last summer, won the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Drama today.

The play was described by the Pulitzer board as “A simple and elegantly crafted story of an emotionally damaged man who finds a new job, new friends and a new sense of worth, illustrating how small acts of kindness can change a person’s life and enrich an entire community.”

The critically acclaimed play follows Kenneth, a 38-year-old bookstore worker who, in the words of Roundabout’s synopsis, “spends his evenings sipping mai tais at the local tiki bar. When he’s suddenly laid off, Kenneth finally begins to face a world he’s long avoided – with transformative and even comical results.”

“This is the story of friendship,” Kenneth says in the play. “Of how I got a new job. A story of love and balance and time. And the smallest of chances.”

Primary Trust beat out two other finalists for the drama prize: Here There Are Blueberries by Moises Kaufman and Amanda Grinch, and Public Obscenities by Shayok Misha Chowdhury.

More arts winners to come…