Stephen Adly Guirgis, winner of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Between Riverside and Crazy..., is a longtime member of NYC's LAByrinth Theater Company. His plays have been produced on five continents and throughout the United States. They include the extended, sold-out run of The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, Our Lady of 121st Street (named one of the ten best plays of 2003; Lucille Lortel, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle Best Play nominations), Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train (Edinburgh Fringe First Award, Olivier Nomination as London's Best New Play, Barrymore Award, Detroit Free Press Best Play Award), and In Arabia We’d All Be Kings (Ten Best of '99, Time Out New York critics pick). All four plays were originally produced by LAByrinth, directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman, and are published through Dramatists Play Service and by Faber & Faber. Guirgis was awarded a 2004 TCG fellowship, attended the 2004 Sundance Screenwriter's Lab, was named one of the 25 New Faces of Independent Film by Filmmaker Magazine, and appeared in Entertainment Weekly’s 2005 Summer Must List. He has received new play commissions from Manhattan Theater Club and South Coast Rep, is a member of New Dramatists and the MCC Playwrights Coalition, and has contributed to ESOPUS magazine. Television writing credits include NYPD Blue, The Sopranos, David Milch’s CBS drama Big Apple, and Shane Salerno's NBC drama UC: Undercover. As an actor, he has appeared in Brett C. Leonard’s Guinea Pig Solo, produced at the Public Theatre in New York, and played leading roles in Todd Solondz's Palindromes and Brett C. Leonard’s award-winning Jailbait opposite Michael Pitt.

At New York’s Rikers Island, Angel Cruz is in prison awaiting trial for shooting Reverend Kim. He walks the tightrope between salvation and the point of no return. While in jail he meets Lucius Jenkins, an inmate whose pride and religious zeal defy the bars that hold him prisoner. Their encounter will change each other forever. Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train is a brilliant, visceral examination of morality and justice, questioning the difference between true faith and self-serving uses of religion. Ensemble member Anish Jethmalani directs the season opener to the Guirgis season.

The Ortiz Funeral Home is in big trouble: The body of beloved community activist and nun Sister Rose has been stolen from the viewing room, and waiting for her proper return are some of New York City's most emotionally charged, life-challenged neighborhood denizens, trying to find a place to put their grief, checkered pasts and their uncertain futures. The rest of the crowd in this dark, insightful and very funny comedy inevitably square off on each other, motivated by rage, pain and a scary desire to come clean—perhaps for the first time. Ensemble member Sarah Moeller directs.

The 2016 Stephen Adly Guirgis Season concludes with the Midwest Premiere of The Little Flower of East Orange. When Therese Marie arrives in the emergency room of a small hospital in the Bronx, suffering from hypothermia and in shock, no one there knows her story. To the doctors and nurses, she is just another abandoned elderly woman who can't even tell them her name. But Therese Marie's dementia is not all that it seems. And when her prodigal son, Danny, returns to New York, Therese Marie must fight to maintain her dignity in light of her son's insistence on confronting the ugly secrets of their past. In this unconventional family drama, Stephen Adly Guirgis gives us a mother and son who must face a long family legacy of abuse in order to find the true meaning of grace. Ensemble member and Goodman Theatre Artistic Associate, Steve Scott directs.

As a subscriber, you'll also get to learn more about the life and work of Stephen Adly Guirgis with free readings and events throughout the season. Details regarding our Playwright scholar series events will be announced in 2016.