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Lynn is Born!
Nottage was born in Brooklyn, New York with her mother, Ruby, was a school teacher, and father Wallace Nottage was a child psychologist. -
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Saint Ann's School
Lynn attended this school for elementary. Saint Ann's is a private school most notable for having an art-oriented curriculum. -
First Play
At age eight, she had already written her first play. Her inspiration came from the women in her family. Her grandmother, mother, and other women were the nurses, teachers, activists and artists in the Brooklyn neighborhood where she grew up. -
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New York's High School of Music and Art
One of the most notable graduates of the school. -
The Darker Side of Verona
Lynn wrote her first full-length play during high school about a touring group of African-American actors, touring a Shakespeare production through the South of America. -
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Enrolled in Brown University
She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree -
Yale School of Drama
Lynn continued her studies to earn a Master’s in Fine Arts degree in playwriting. -
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Worked in the Press Office of Amnesty International
Before jumping back into playwriting, Lynn worked as a national press officer.
"I worked on this case at Amnesty called the “Hi-Fi Murders.”...It was a brutal murder case in which two men entered a hi-fi store and ended up murdering the staff in the most gruesome way, forcing them to drink Drano...What made the case unusual was that one of the guys had decided that he didn’t want to be involved and left while it was happening..." -
A . . . My Name Is Still Alice
"In 1992, she contributed a short piece to “A . . . My Name Is Still Alice,” a musical revue produced at Second Stage. Her selection, titled “Ida Mae Cole Takes a Stance,” was “very brave, very bold and very funny,” Second Stage’s Rothman recalls." -
Poof!
The play is about a housewife comes to the end of her rope with her abusive husband; she doesn't expect him to combust spontaneously. Now she has a pile of ashes on the floor and a life to reclaim. -
Heidman Award
"So, I closed my office door and wrote a short play called Poof! There was a flyer sitting on my desk for a short play competition in Louisville. I sent it off, it won, and the Actors Theatre of Louisville produced the play." -
Crumbs from the Table of Joy
It is 1950, and Godfrey Crump has just moved his daughters Ernestine and Ermina up to Brooklyn, New York, from the easy southern heat of Florida. His wife has died, and he packed up his still-reeling family to chase the dream of a religion that will heal his grief, through the guidance of a man who calls himself the Divine Father.
In 1996, the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, Illinois, produced the play. -
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Break from Writing
For nearly 7 years, Lynn stopped writing after Crumbs from the Table of Joy. She came back into the limelight by writing Intimate Apparel. -
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Growing Family
Lynn marries Tony Gerber, who is an American filmmaker and co-founded Market Road Films. They both have two kids, Ruby and Melkamu Gerber. -
Intimate Apparel
"a play about an African American seamstress in turn of the century New York won major awards including the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, the Francesca Primus Prize and the Steinberg Award. In 2004, actress Viola Davis won a Drama Desk Award for her outstanding performance in Intimate Apparel at the Roundabout Theatre Company in New York City." -
Market Road Films
New York-based, independent production company founded by 2-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage and PGA and Emmy Award-winning film director, Tony Gerber. The company’s mission is to bring evocative, visual, and character-driven storytelling to unusual and otherwise untold stories. We work in both fiction, non-fiction, installation, and podcast. -
John Gassner Playwriting Award
Lynn won the award for writing Intimate Apparel
The John Gassner Memorial Playwriting Award Competition fosters new playwrights and scripts through this important competition established by Molly Gassner, wife of theatre historian John Gassner. The Award was created in 1967 to honor the late John Gassner (1903-1967) for his lifetime dedication to all aspects of professional and academic theatre. -
New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award
Lynn won Best Play for Intimate Apparel. -
Pulitzer Prize and Obie Award for Ruined
"A searing drama set in chaotic Congo that compels audiences to face the horror of wartime rape and brutality while still finding affirmation of life and hope amid hopelessness." -
Ruined
This is about the resilience of the human spirit during times of war. Set in a small mining town in Democratic Republic of Congo, this powerful play follows Mama Nadi, a shrewd businesswoman in a land torn apart by civil war. But is she protecting or profiting from the women she shelters? How far will she go to survive? Can a price be placed on a human life? -
Columbia University
She is an Associate Professor in the Theatre Department at Columbia School of the Arts. -
Sweat
Filled with warm humor and tremendous heart, SWEAT tells the story of a group of friends who have spent their lives sharing drinks, secrets, and laughs while working together on the factory floor. But when layoffs and picket lines begin to chip away at their trust, the friends find themselves pitted against each other in a heart-wrenching fight to stay afloat. -
Pulitzer Prize and Obie Award for Sweat
"For a distinguished play by an American author, preferably original in its source and dealing with American life, Fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000)."
"For a nuanced yet powerful drama that reminds audiences of the stacked deck still facing workers searching for the American dream.." -
Ruby Aiyo Gerber graduated at Brown University
Ruby, Lynn's oldest daughter attended the same university as her mother's. She concentrated on Africana Studies and poetry through the lens of Black temporality. Gerber was President of Students for Sensible Drug Policy and co-editor of Bluestockings Magazine. She graduated amidst the covid-19 pandemic.
