Berkeley Rep's 'Fairview' Wins Pulitzer Prize For Drama

BERKELEY (CBS SF/AP) A drama originally co-produced and commissioned by Berkeley Repertory Theatre has won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Jackie Sibblies Drury's play "Fairview," is the recipient of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

The play was originally commissioned and produced by Soho Rep and Berkeley Repertory Theatre.

"We couldn't be happier," said Berkeley Rep Managing Director Susan Medak. "It's an important new play."

"Fairview" begins as a contemporary domestic comedy involving a well-off black family and ends with the invisible fourth wall destroyed and the audience pulled down a rabbit hole involving race and identity.

The Pulitzer board called "Fairview" a "hard-hitting drama that examines race in a highly conceptual, layered structure, ultimately bringing audiences into the actors' community to face deep-seated prejudices."

The East Bay regional theater has launched many successful plays. Most recently, "Ain't Too Proud — The Life and Times of the Temptations," premiered at Berkeley Rep, and opened at Broadway's Imperial Theatre, in March.

Fairview was created by New York City-based playwright Sibbles Drury, whose plays include "Really,"
and "Social Creatures." The play was developed in The Ground Floor - Berkeley Rep's Center for the Creation and Development of New Work and premiered at Berkeley Rep in October 2018.