Iowa CITY – The University of Iowa and its alumni have earned many writing awards and recognitions over the years, with more than 50 Pulitzer Prize winners or finalists; eight poet laureates of the United States; 20 MacArthur Genius Grant recipients; and numerous Oscar winners or nominees for their work in the film industry.
With its famous Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Nonfiction Writing Program, International Writing Program, Iowa Playwrights’ Workshop, and other writing-related centers and workshops, the UI is ranked fifth nationally in ” writing in the disciplines” from US News & World Report. tying with Yale University as the only public institution on the list.
And yet, the iconic writing campus has never had a student from its Iowa Playwrights Workshop win a Tony Award since the program was founded in 1971.
But that could change on Sunday.
David Adjmi (Photo courtesy of the University of Iowa)
Former UI Theater MFA student and Iowa Playwrights Workshop alum David Adjmi’s play “Stereophonic” is nominated for a record 13 awards at the 2024 Tony Awards, which recognize excellence in live Broadway theater. Adjmi’s play, which chronicles the trials of a promising rock band, is not only nominated for a record number of Tony Awards, but is a favorite to win the “best play” category.
“He was an exceptional writer. His talent was very clear,” said UI Director of Graduate Studies Art Borreca, who co-directs the Playwrights Workshop and taught Adjmi when he was in Iowa in the late 1990s. “It was clear he had a talent.” really strong voice; which he wrote in a very theatrical way.
“It was pretty clear that he was, you know, exceptional.”
Borreca Art (University of Iowa)
‘Professional care’
After graduating from Sarah Lawrence College in New York, Adjmi enrolled in the Iowa Playwrights Workshop in 1998, the same year Borreca began directing the program.
“I remember he applied to the program in 1998 in the fall of 1998,” Borreca told The Gazette. “He was one of the students admitted as part of that first class for which I was primarily responsible.”
Even then, as a student, Adjmi was already receiving “a lot of professional attention,” requiring a balance that UI professors aimed to help him achieve. “He was trying to juggle, and we were trying to help him juggle, being a student with someone who is already being invited to develop his work professionally,” Borreca said.
David Adjmi attends the 2024 Drama Desk Awards on Monday at the NYU Skirball Center in New York. (Efren Landaos/Sipa USA via KeynoteUSA)
After earning her MFA from UI in 2001, Adjmi joined the Juilliard School’s American Playwrights Program and began producing work for and through institutions such as the Sundance Institute, London’s Royal Court Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre, the Lincoln Center Theater and the Royal Shakespeare Company in the United Kingdom, among many others.
UI Department of Theater Arts Chair Mary Beth Easley said that even before arriving at Iowa five years ago, she was not only a big fan of the university but also of Adjmi’s work.
“He did a lot of really interesting work off-Broadway,” Easley said, citing that history to explain why Adjmi finds this recent recognition for “Stereophonic” “remarkable and somewhat disconcerting.”
“This is a commercial award, and he’s always been considered a brilliant playwright, and not so much commercial, but brilliant in terms of pushing boundaries in the kinds of things he writes,” Easley said. “And that’s why, for him, it’s an invitation to commercial theater.”
Mary Beth Easley (University of Iowa)
Although “Stereophonic” features a rich repertoire of original music (and is nominated for a Tony for best original score), it is not technically a musical, according to Borreca, who said that makes the play’s Broadway debut even more awesome.
“It’s very difficult to produce a non-musical on Broadway,” he said. “There just aren’t many produced, because Broadway has really become about musicals.”
Borreca, who has kept in touch with Adjmi, cited an interview his former student recently gave about the experience of producing a play in a historic and iconic setting.
“When they moved to the John Golden Theater on Broadway to start working on the show, David really started crying, because he was overwhelmed by the sense of history and legacy,” Borreca said. “The fact that he was in a Broadway theater to do his job, which is something he never expected to happen.”
‘An affirmation’
In addition to Adjmi’s Broadway debut, another UI Theater alumna and playwright, Jen Silverman, will premiere her play, The Roommate, on Broadway in August, ushering in another first-time writing in UI’s growing list of literary exploits.
“I imagine this is the first time in a year that we’ve had two playwrights on Broadway at the same time,” Easley said, “which is notable.”
As for “Stereophonic,” which follows with “fast-paced intimacy” the story of a 1976 rock band on the cusp of stardom but at risk of breaking up, the Tony nominations run the gamut.
Its record 13 nominations include: Best Play, Best Original Score, Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role, Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role, Best Scenic Design, Best Costume Design, Best Lighting Design, Best Design sound, better direction and better orchestrations.
In the actor category, three of the five total nominees are in “Stereophonic.” In the actress category, two of the five total nominees are in it.
In a preview of the awards show, Michael Paulson of the New York Times reports that “Stereophonic” has “earned some of the best reviews of the season and seems certain to take the Tony Award for best play.” Given that more than half of the voters surveyed by Paulson favored “Stereophonic,” he said it seems unlikely that the play’s competitors will overtake it.
“Look for this play to win more Tony Awards than any musical on Sunday night,” Paulson said of “Stereophonic.”
Tony, a UI alumnus
Although the UI has never had one if its Iowa Playwrights Workshop students win a Tony, UI graduate Tennessee Williams did so 20 years before the Iowa Playwrights Workshop was founded and Hancher Auditorium opened on campus.
He won it for The Rose Tattoo in 1951. Williams, who earned his bachelor’s degree in English from the UI in 1938, a year before the campus conferred his first MFA from the School of Fine Arts, also won two Pulitzer Prizes for his theater plays. “A Streetcar Named Desire” and “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.”
In UI’s most recent history, punctuated by the obstacles of a devastating 2008 flood and the pandemic that hit the county in 2020, Easley said the theater department has been able to overcome and pivot with creativity and determination.
And he recognized the broader importance that a first Tony could mean for the playwrights program.
“Art should be very happy and proud right now,” he said of Borreca. “Because it is an affirmation of the work he did. … David is very friendly and kind and he speaks very carefully about his stay here. And that’s why I also want Art to recognize that this moment is also part of his legacy.”
how to watch
The 77th annual Tony Awards will air live on KeynoteUSA at 7 p.m. Iowa time on Sunday. The show will also air at 7 pm on Paramount+ with Showtime.
Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.
Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com
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