Playwright to address dying with dignity in Hermitage Greenfield Prize commission

Playwright Deepa Purohit stared into her computer camera during a Zoom call, hands in prayer on her chin and shaking her head in disbelief as she heard that she was receiving the 16th Hermitage Greenfield Prize, a $35,000 commission for a new play she had proposed.

Purohit, who previously worked as a Baltimore City middle school teacher and has continued to work as an executive communications coach while beginning her writing career, made her off-Broadway debut last year with the Atlantic Theater Co.’s production of her play “Elyria.” She earned a Drama League Award nomination for the play, which The New York Times described as a “microcosmic tale of the Indian diaspora, crisscrossing continents from Africa to Europe and North America.”

Purohit was recently named director of new works at People’s Light Theatre in Malvern, Pennsylvania.

“This is tremendous,” Purohit said during the online announcement in front of donors and supporters of the Hermitage Artist Retreat. “You probably get this every year, speechless people who sit behind the camera.”

The Hermitage Greenfield Prize is awarded annually by the Hermitage Artist Retreat in collaboration with the Greenfield Foundation and rotates among theater, visual art and music awards (with occasional side steps for other categories). Purohit is the sixth playwriting winner, following Craig Lucas, John Guare, Nilo Cruz, Martyna Majok and Aleshea Harris. In addition to the $35,000 commission prize – which was increased this year from the previous $30,000 – she will get to spend six weeks working and staying at the Hermitage on Manasota Key over the next two years.

During a separate interview, Purohit said the time at the Hermitage is precious.

“I was looking at the pictures of the Hermitage, at the beach, and just the idea of having space and time to work. I live in New York and when I was in my MFA program in playwriting, from 2018 to 2020, I did all my work in my son’s room. So the idea of space is important.”

She was chosen from among four finalists by a panel of three prominent theater artists – director Diane Paulus, artistic director of the American Repertory Theater at Harvard University; playwright Rajiv Joseph; and actor, director, and writer Ruben Santiao-Hudson.

The other finalists were writer, director and actor Zora Howard, a Pulitzer Prize finalist; brothers and musical theater writers Daniel and Patrick Lazour; and writer, performer and activist Britton Smith. Each of them will receive a $1,000 prize and a Hermitage residency.

In a statement, Joseph said Purohit “has shown that she has the ambition and the talent as a playwright to be a real serious voice in the theater.” Santiago-Hudson told the Zoom audience that the selection process “was a wonderful confirmation that our theater is in great hands and the future is indeed very bright.”

The jurors each produce lists of potential recipients and whittle the list down to a handful of finalists who are asked to create proposals of what they might write if they win the commission.

Purohit said the request for proposals came within a few months of the passing of her mother last fall, which led her to an idea about how people face dying with dignity. Her plays have focused on South Asian women.

“My father, who passed away about 10 years ago, taught me lessons about how to take your last breaths. He was very clear and I had never seen anything like that. It was very profound,” she said. Before her death, her mother taught her “that you can decide what kind of quality of life you want and don’t want.”

She said the play will address issues about dying that people talk about privately “but I really feel like our communities in this country don’t talk about it.” Her personal experiences will serve as a jumping-off point “to ask the questions that we could be asking as a society, that we are asking as human beings and communities, what is it to die with dignity. Hospice asks it all the time.”

In a statement, Paulus said each of the finalists submitted “engaging and innovative proposals” and that Purohit “is an artist whom I know will make a major contribution to the theater world and through her project, to our understanding of the existential questions of how we live and die with dignity and care for our elders.”

Purohit will have two years to complete a version of the play that will be performed in some fashion by a Sarasota area theater company. Most of the playwriting prize presentations have been in collaboration with Asolo Repertory Theatre.

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The 2022 Hermitage Greenfield Prize winner, composer Angélica Negrón will present the world premiere of her commission, “Azul Naranja Salado” (“Salty Orange Blue”) at 7:45 p.m. on April 15. The piece, which will be performed by ensembleNEWSRQ with low strings, harps, percussion and electronics on the Hermitage’s Manasota key beach, ties into nature and was written to be performed at sunset.

Purohit will receive her prize and speak during the annual Hermitage Greenfield Prize weekend April 12-15 featuring conversations and other events, including the annual award presentation dinner at 6 p.m. April 14 at Michael’s on East.

For more information about the prize and the Hermitage Greenfield Prize weekend: hermitageartistretreat.org

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This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Rising playwright Deepa Purohit wins 16th Hermitage Greenfield Prize