2018 Kennedy Prize | Ayad Akhtar Receives Kennedy Prize for Drama at Columbia
Channel: ColumbiaLearn
Date: 2018-04-26

Columbia University and Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith are pleased to announce that Junk by Ayad Akhtar is the 2018 winner of the Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History.

Ambassador Smith created the prize to honor the life and legacy of her brother, the late senator from Massachusetts. It is announced each year on or near his birthday, February 22.

Produced by Lincoln Center Theater, Junk premiered on Broadway at the Vivian Beaumont Theater in New York City on October 5, 2017 and ran through January 7, 2018. Junk was first produced by La Jolla Playhouse in La Jolla, CA in 2016. Akhtar is a 2002 graduate of Columbia University’s School of the Arts.

The Kennedy prize is given annually through Columbia University to a new play or musical of merit that enlists theater’s power to explore the past of the United States and participates meaningfully in the great issues of our day through a public conversation grounded in historical understanding, which is essential to the functioning of a democracy. Read more about the prize: https://kennedyprize.columbia.edu/