New $200K Playwriting Prize Goes to Kushner

Tony Kushner is the first recipient of the Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award, a new prize carrying a $200,000 cash gift, the New York Times reported Tuesday. The award, which will be formally presented in a ceremony Wednesday, is the biggest theater prize in the country, and is being issued by the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust. Mr. Kushner, who won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for "Angels in America: Millennium Approaches," is a two-time Tony Award winner. He has also won Olivier and Emmy awards.

The Steinberg prize will be awarded every two years. In off years, the trust will issue two $50,000 awards for emerging playwrights, the newspaper reported.