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First Woman to Win a Pullitzer
Zona Gale was the first woman to win the Pullitzer Prize for drama. She won the award for her play titled Miss Lulu Bett. The play was adapted from her novel as Zona Gale was not only a playwright but an American novelist. -
First African American Woman to Win a Tony Award
Juanita Hall is the first African American to win a Tony Award for Best Supporting Actress in her role in South Pacific. According to Valerie Bradley-Holliday in her bibliography for Hall on blackpast.org, "Hall played “Bloody Mary” for over 1,900 performances of South Pacific" (Bradley-Holliday). -
The Birth of Gay Theatre
According to Darren Blaney in his article titled 1964: The Birth of Gay Theatre, Caffe Cino revolutionized gay theatre and how the characters represented the LGBTQ community by presenting two one act plays. One play was titled The Madness of Lady Bright by Lanford WIlson. The other was The Haunted Host written by Robert Patrick. Despite the strict censorship on gay theatre in this era, these playwrights evaded all rules by premiering their openly gay plays that caught a ton of attention. -
First Openly LGBTQ+ Play
Mark Crowley's The Boys In the Band had great success in the gay community. It first appeared off-broadway and later appeared on broadway. It came out just a year before the Stonewall Riots and is often attributed to the turning point in gay theatre. According to Weldon, Crowley skipped all aspects of slowly dipping his toes into homosexual theatre where gay characters were often the enemy, victim, and then ally. He jumped straight into putting these characters into the spotlight (Weldon). -
Stonewall Riots
According to editors for History.com, the Stonewall Riots followed a police raid at the Stonewall Inn. This raid consisted of manhandling and assaulting patrons, discrimination of persons identifying as LGBTQ, and removing people from the bar who identified as LGBTQ. This caused an uproar in the community and "led to 6 days of protest and violent clashes with law enforcement" (History.com). The Stonewall Riots became a turning point for gay rights activism. -
First Female EGOT Winner
Helen Hayes became the first female EGOT winner on February 19, 1977. An EGOT winner refers to someone who has won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony. There are only 19 people that have been awarded for this to date. She is also referred to as The First Lady of American Theatre. -
GLAAD Was Formed
GLAAD stands for the gay and lesbian alliance against defamation. According to The Essential Theatre written by Oscar Brockett, "GLAAD was formed to combat defamatory media coverage and representations of gays and lesbians stemming from the onset of the AIDS epidemic. Since then, GLAAD has had a powerful impact on the stage and screen representation of gays and lesbians"(Brockett, 254). This provided support during the Aids epidemic at this time and is still helpful today. -
First Woman To Win A Tony Award
Wendy Wasserstein was the first woman to win a Tony Award solo for her play "The Heidi Chronicles" in 1989 (Brockett, 249). Her play also won the 1989 Pulitzer Prize. According to Charles Isherwood in his article Wendy Wasserstein Dies at 55; Her Plays Spoke to a Generation, Wasserstein grew up in a generation where men were predominately on stage so she filled the stage with women. -
Angels in America
Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes is a two part play. Millennium Approaches came out in 1991 and Perestroika came out in 1992. According to Oscar Brockett in his textbook The Essential Theatre, "The two parts, which require several hours to perform, treat not only AIDS but also the crisis that faces America as concern for self overwhelms the needs of others, even loved ones" (Brockett, 255). It holds a deserving spot in LGBTQ history and helped shaped gay theatre. -
Women's Voices Theatre Festival
According to New York Times write Charles Isherwood, the Women's Voices Theatre Festival debuted in 2015 and was a 3 month festival dedicated to showcasing new plays and musical written by women. More than 50 of Washington D.C.'s professional theatre companies presented a world premiere production (Charles Isherwood).This festival promotes gender equality and gives women a chance to present their work that is often undermined.