Athol Fugard

South African playwright (born 1932)

Athol Fugard

OIS HonFRSL

Born| Harold Athol Lannigan Fugard
(1932-06-11) 11 June 1932 (age 91)
Middleburg, Cape Province, South Africa
Occupation|

* Playwright
* novelist
* actor
* director
* teacher

Education| University of Cape Town (dropped out)
Period| 1956–present
Genre| Drama, novel, memoir
Notable works| "Master Harold"...and the Boys
Blood Knot
Spouse|

* Sheila Meiring Fugard (m. 1956; div. 2015)
* Paula Fourie (m. 2016)

Children| Lisa, Halle

Athol Fugard OIS HonFRSL (born 11 June 1932) is a South African playwright, novelist, actor, and director widely regarded as South Africa's greatest playwright.[1] He is best known for his political and penetrating plays opposing the system of apartheid. Some of these have also been adapted for film.

His novel Tsotsi was adapted as a film of the same name and won an Academy Award in 2005. It was directed by Gavin Hood.[2]

Acclaimed in 1985 as "the greatest active playwright in the English-speaking world" by Time,[3] Fugard continues to write. He has published more than thirty plays.

Fugard also served as an adjunct professor of playwriting, acting and directing in the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of California, San Diego.[4]

He has received many awards, honours, and honorary degrees, including the 2005 Order of Ikhamanga in Silver from the government of South Africa "for his excellent contribution and achievements in the theatre".[5] He is also an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.[6]

Fugard was honoured in Cape Town with the opening in 2010 of the Fugard Theatre in District Six.[7] He received a Tony Award for lifetime achievement in 2011.[8]

## Early life and education[edit]

Fugard was born as Harold Athol Lanigan Fugard, in Middelburg, Eastern Cape, South Africa, on 11 June 1932. His mother, Marrie (née Potgieter), an Afrikaner, operated a general store and then a lodging house; his father, Harold Fugard, of Irish, English and French Huguenot descent, was a former jazz pianist who had become disabled.[2][9][10]

In 1935, his family moved to Port Elizabeth.[11] In 1938, he began attending primary school at Marist Brothers College.[12] After being awarded a scholarship, Fugard enrolled at a local technical college for secondary education. He studied Philosophy and Social Anthropology at the University of Cape Town,[13] but he dropped out of the university in 1953, a few months before final examinations.[2]

## Early career, marriage and family[edit]

He left home, hitchhiked to North Africa with a friend, and spent the next two years working in east Asia on a steamer ship, the SS Graigaur.[2] During this time he began writing, and he "celebrated" these early times in his 1999 autobiographical play The Captain's Tiger: a memoir for the stage.[14]

In September 1956, he married Sheila Meiring, a University of Cape Town Drama School student whom he had met the previous year.[2][15] Now known as Sheila Fugard, she is a novelist and poet. Their daughter Lisa Fugard is a novelist.[16]

In 1958, the Fugards moved to Johannesburg, where he worked as a clerk in a Native Commissioners' Court. He became "keenly aware of the injustices of apartheid."[2] His good friendship with prominent local anti-apartheid figures had a profound influence on Fugard. His plays' political expression brought him into conflict with the national government; to avoid prosecution, he had his plays produced and published outside South Africa.[15][17] Fugard struggled with alcohol for a time but has been a teetotaler since the early 1980s.[18]

For several years in the late 20th century, Fugard lived in San Diego, California,[19] where he taught as an adjunct professor of playwriting, acting, and directing in the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD).[4][17] For the academic year 2000–2001, he taught at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana as the IU Class of 1963 Wells Scholar Professor.[20]

In 2012, Fugard returned again to South Africa, where he now lives permanently.[21][22]

In 2015, after almost 60 years of marriage, the Fugards divorced. In 2016, in New York City Hall, Fugard married Paula Fourie, a younger South African writer and academic.[23] Fugard and Fourie live in the Cape Winelands region of South Africa with their daughter, Halle Fugard Fourie.[24][25]

## Career[edit]

### Early period[edit]

In 1958, Fugard organised "a multiracial theatre for which he wrote, directed, and acted", writing and producing several plays for it, including No-Good Friday (1958) and Nongogo (1959), in which he and his colleague, black South African actor Zakes Mokae performed.[2] In 1978, Richard Eder of The New York Times criticized Nongogo as "awkward and thin. It is unable to communicate very much about its characters, or make them much more than the servants of a noticeably ticking plot." Eder said, "Queenie is the most real of the characters. Her sense of herself and where she wants to go makes her believable and the crumbling of her dour defenses at a touch of hope makes her affecting. By contrast, Johnny is unreal. His warmth and hopefulness at the start crumble too suddenly and too completely".[26]

After returning to Port Elizabeth in the early 1960s, Athol and Sheila Fugard started The Circle Players,[2] which derives its name from the production of The Caucasian Chalk Circle by Bertolt Brecht.[27]

In 1961, in Johannesburg, Fugard and Mokae starred as the brothers Morris and Zachariah in the single-performance world première of Fugard's play The Blood Knot (revised and retitled Blood Knot in 1987), directed by Barney Simon.[28] In 1989, Lloyd Richards of The Paris Review declared The Blood Knot to be Fugard's first "major play".[29]

### Refusal to stage for "Whites Only" audiences[edit]

In 1962, Fugard found the question of whether he could "work in a theatre which excludes 'Non-Whites'--or includes them only on the basis of special segregated performance-- increasingly pressing". It was made more so by the decision of British Equity to prevent any British entertainer visiting South Africa unless the audiences were allowed to be multi-racial. In a decision that caused him to reflect on the power of art to effect change, Fugard decided that the "answer must be No" to segregation.

> That old argument used to be so comforting; so plausible: 'One person in that segregated, white audience, might be moved to think, and then to change, by what he saw'.

> I'm beginning to wonder whether it really works that way. The supposition seems to be that there is a didactic--a teaching through feeling element in art. What I do know is that art can give meaning, can render meaningful areas of experience, and most certainly also enhances. But teach? Contradict? State the opposite to what you believe and then lead you to accept it?

> In other words, can art change a man or woman? No. That is what life does. Art is no substitute for life.[30]

Of the few venues in the country where a play could be presented to mixed audiences, Fugard noted that some were little better than barns. But he concluded that under these circumstances, "every conceivable dignity--audience, producer, act, 'professional' etc.--" was "operative" in the white theatre except one, "human dignity".[31]

Fugard publicly supported the Anti-Apartheid Movement (1959–94) in the international boycott of South African theatres due to their segregated audiences. The results were additional restrictions and surveillance. He had his plays published and produced outside South Africa.[17]

Lucille Lortel produced The Blood Knot at the Cricket Theatre, Off Broadway, in New York City in 1964, "launch[ing]" Fugard's "American career."[32]

### The Serpent Players[edit]

In the 1960s, Fugard formed the Serpent Players, whose name derives from its first venue, the former snake pit (hence the name) at the Port Elizabeth Museum,[17] "a group of black actors worker-players who earned their living as teachers, clerks, and industrial workers, and cannot thus be considered amateurs in the manner of leisured whites", developing and performing plays "under surveillance by the Security Police", according to Loren Kruger's The Dis-illusion of Apartheid, published in 2004.[33] The group largely consisted of black men, including Winston Ntshona, John Kani, Welcome Duru, Fats Bookholane and Mike Ngxolo as well as Nomhle Nkonyeni and Mabel Magada. They all got together, albeit at different intervals, and decided to do something about their lives using the stage. In 1961 they met Athol Fugard, a white man who grew up in Port Elizabeth and who recently returned from Johannesburg, and asked him if he could work with them "as he had the know-how theatrically—the tricks, how to use the stage, movements, everything"; they worked with Athol Fugard since then, "and that is how the Serpent Players got together."[34] At the time, the group performed anything they could lay their hands on in South Africa as they had no access to any libraries. These included Bertolt Brecht, August Strindberg, Samuel Beckett, William Shakespeare and many other prominent playwrights of the time. In an interview in California, Ntshona and Kani were asked why they were doing the play Sizwe Banzi Is Dead, considered a highly political and telling story of the South African political landscape at the time. Ntshona answered: "We are just a group of artists who love theatre. And we have every right to open the doors to anyone who wants to take a look at our play and our work...We believe that art is life and conversely, life is art. And no sensible man can divorce one from the other. That's it. Other attributes are merely labels."[34] They mainly performed at the St Stephen's Hall – renamed the Douglas Ngange Mbopa Memorial Hall in 2013 – adjacent to St Stephen's Church, and other spaces in and around New Brighton, the oldest Black township in Port Elizabeth.

According to Loren Kruger, Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Chicago,

> the Serpent Players used Brecht's elucidation of gestic acting, dis-illusion, and social critique, as well as their own experience of the satiric comic routines of urban African vaudeville, to explore the theatrical force of Brecht's techniques, as well as the immediate political relevance of a play about land distribution. Their work on the Caucasian Chalk Circle and, a year later, on Antigone[17] led directly to the creation, in 1966, of what is still [2004] South Africa's most distinctive Lehrstück [learning play]:The Coat. Based on an incident at one of the many political trials involving the Serpent Players, The Coat dramatized the choices facing a woman whose husband, convicted of anti-apartheid political activity, left her only a coat and instructions to use it.[33]

Clive Barnes of The New York Times panned People Are Living There (1969) in 1971, arguing: "There are splinters of realities here, and pregnancies of feeling, hut [sic] nothing of significance emerges. In Mr. Fugard's earlier plays he seemed to be dealing with life at a proper level of humanity. Here—if real people are living there—they remain oddly quiet about it...The first act rambles disconsolately, like a lonely type writer looking for a subject and the second act produces with pride a birthday party of Chaplinesque bathos but less than Chaplinesque invention and spirit..[The characters] harangue one another in an awkward dislocation between a formal speech and an interior monologue."[35] Mark Blankenship of Variety negatively reviewed a 2005 revival of the same work, writing that it "lacks the emotional intensity and theatrical imagination that mark such Fugard favorites" as "Master Harold"...and the Boys. Blankenship also stated, however, that the performance he attended featuring "only haphazard sketches of plot and character" was perhaps the result of Fugard allowing director Suzanne Shepard to revise the play without showing him the changes.[36]

The Serpent Players conceptualised and co-authored many plays that it performed for a variety of audiences in many theatres around the world. The following are some of its notable and most popular plays:

* Its first production was Niccolò Machiavelli's La Mandragola, directed by Fugard as The Cure and set in the township. Other productions include Georg Buchner's Woyzeck, Brecht's The Caucasian Chalk Circle and Sophocles' Antigone. When the group had turned to improvisation, they came up with classic works such as Sizwe Banzi Is Dead and The Island, emerging as inner experiences of the actors who are also the co-authors of the plays.
* In The Coat, Kruger observes, "The participants were engaged not only in representing social relationships on stage but also on enacting and revising their own dealings with each other and with institutions of apartheid oppression from the law courts downward", and "this engagement testified to the real power of Brecht's apparently utopian plan to abolish the separation of player and audience and to make of each player a 'statesman' or social actor...Work on The Coat led indirectly to the Serpent Players' most famous and most Brechtian productions: Sizwe Banzi Is Dead (1972) and The Island (1973)."[33]

Fugard developed these two plays for the Serpent Players in workshops, working with John Kani and Winston Ntshona,[33] publishing them in 1974 with his own play Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act (1972). The authorities considered the title of The Island, which alludes to Robben Island, the prison where Nelson Mandela was being held, too controversial, so Fugard and the Serpent Players used the alternative title The Hodoshe Span (Hodoshe meaning "carrion fly" in Xhosa).

* These plays "espoused a Brechtian attention to the demonstration of gest and social situations and encouraged audiences to analyze rather than merely applaud the action"; for example, Sizwe Banzi Is Dead, which infused a Brechtian critique and vaudevillian irony-–especially in Kani's virtuoso improvisation-–even provoked an African audience's critical interruption and interrogation of the action.[33]
* While dramatising frustrations in the lives of his audience members, the plays simultaneously drew them into the action and attempted to have them analyse the situations of the characters in Brechtian fashion, according to Kruger.[33]
* Blood Knot was filmed by the BBC in 1967, with Fugard's collaboration, starring the Jamaican actor Charles Hyatt as Zachariah and Fugard himself as Morris, as in the original 1961 première in Johannesburg.[37] Less pleased than Fugard, the South African government of B.J. Vorster confiscated Fugard's passport.[9][38]

Fugard's play A Lesson from Aloes (1978) was described as one of his major works by Alvin Klein of The New York Times,[39] though others have written more lukewarm reviews.

### Yale Rep premieres, 1980s[edit]

The Fugard Theatre in District Six, Cape Town

"Master Harold"...and the Boys, written in 1982, incorporates "strong autobiographical matter"; nonetheless "it is fiction, not memoir", as Cousins: A Memoir and some of Fugard's other works are subtitled.[40] The play deals with the relationship between a 17-year-old white South African and two African men who work for the white youth's family. Its world premiere was performed by Danny Glover, Zeljko Ivanek and Zakes Mokae, at the Yale Repertory Theater in New Haven, Connecticut, in March 1982.[41][42]

The Road to Mecca was presented at the Yale Repertory Theatre, New Haven, Connecticut, in May 1984. Directed by Fugard, the cast starred Carmen Mathews, Marianne Owen, and Tom Aldredge. Along with Master Harold, it proved to be one of Fugard's most acclaimed works.[43][44] It is the story of an elderly recluse in a small South African town who has spent 15 years on an obsessive artistic project.[45]

Fugard appeared in his A Place With the Pigs at the Yale Rep in New Haven CT, in 1987. Inspired by the true story of World War II Soviet deserter, Fugard plays a paranoid who spent four decades hiding with his pigs. As with The Road to Mecca, Fugards critics readily appreciated the metaphor for a life of internal exile.[46]

### Post-apartheid plays[edit]

The first play that Fugard wrote after the end of apartheid, Valley Song, was premiered in Johannesburg, in August, 1995, with Fugard in the role of both a white, and of a coloured, farmer. While they dispute property titles, both share a reverence for the land and fear change.[47] In October 1995, Fugard took the play to the United States with a production by the Manhattan Theatre Club at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey.[48]

In January 2009, Fugard returned to New Haven for the premiere in the Coming Home. Veronika, the granddaughter of Buk, the coloured farmer in Valley Song, leaves the Karoo to pursue a singing career in Cape Town but then returns, after his death, to create a new life on the land for her young son.[49]

The Fugard Theatre, in the District Six area of Cape Town opened with performances by the Isango Portobello theatre company in February 2010 and a new play written and directed by Athol Fugard, The Train Driver, played at the theatre in March 2010.[50]

In April 2014, returned to the stage in the world premiere of his The Shadow of a Hummingbird at the Long Wharf Theatre, New Haven. This short play was performed with an "introductory scene" compiled by Paula Fourie from Fugard's journal writings. With "the playwright digging through these diaries on a set which resembles an old, busy writer's workspace", the scene blends into the main play, which begins when Boba, the grandson of the story-telling grandfather character Oupa (played by Fugard) comes to visit.[51]

### Film[edit]

Fugard's plays are produced internationally and have won multiple awards, and several have been made into films[52] (see Filmography below). Fugard himself performed in the first of these, as Boesman alongside Yvonne Bryceland as Lena, in Boesman and Lena directed by Ross Devenish in 1973.[53]

His film debut as a director occurred in 1992, when he co-directed the adaptation of his play The Road to Mecca with Peter Goldsmid, who also wrote the screenplay.[52] The film adaptation of his novel Tsotsi, written and directed by Gavin Hood, won the 2005 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2006.[52]

Outside of his own work, Fugard has a number of cameo film roles, most notably as General Smuts in Richard Attenborough's Gandhi (1982), and as Doctor Sundesval in Sydney Schanberg's The Killing Fields (1984).

## Plays[edit]

In chronological order of first production and/or publication:[9][54][55][56][57]

* Klaas and the Devil (1956)
* The Cell (play) (1957)
* No-Good Friday (1958)
* Nongogo (1959)
* The Blood Knot (1961); later revised and entitled Blood Knot (1987)
* Hello and Goodbye (1965)
* The Coat (1966)
* People Are Living There (1968)
* The Last Bus (1969)
* Boesman and Lena (1969)
* Friday's Bread on Monday (1970)
* Sizwe Banzi Is Dead (1972) (developed with John Kani, and Winston Ntshona in workshops)
* The Island (1972) (developed with John Kani, and Winston Ntshona in workshops)
* Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act (1972)
* Dimetos (1975)
* Orestes (1978)
* A Lesson from Aloes (1978)

* The Drummer (1980)
* "Master Harold"...and the Boys (1982)
* The Road to Mecca (1984)
* A Place with the Pigs: a personal parable (1987)
* My Children! My Africa! (1989)
* My Life (1992)
* Playland (1993)
* Valley Song (1996)
* The Captain's Tiger: a memoir for the stage (1997)
* Sorrows and Rejoicings (2001)
* Exits and Entrances (2004)
* Booitjie and the Oubaas (2006)
* Victory (2007)
* Coming Home (2009)
* Have You Seen Us (2009)
* The Train Driver (2010)
* The Shadow of the Hummingbird (2014)
* The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek (2016)

|

## Bibliography[edit]

* Statements: [Three Plays]. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press (OUP), 1974. ISBN 0-19-211385-2 (10). ISBN 978-0-19-211385-6 (13). ISBN 0-19-281170-3 (10). ISBN 978-0-19-281170-7 (13). (Co-authored with John Kani and Winston Ntshona; see below.)
* Three Port Elizabeth Plays: Blood Knot; Hello and Goodbye; and Boesman and Lena. Oxford and New York, 1974. ISBN 0-19-211366-6.
* Sizwe Bansi Is Dead and The Island. New York: Viking Press, 1976. ISBN 0-670-64784-5
* Dimetos and Two Early Plays. Oxford and New York: OUP, 1977. ISBN 0-19-211390-9.
* Boesman and Lena and Other Plays. Oxford and New York: OUP, 1980. ISBN 0-19-570197-6.
* Selected Plays of Fugard: Notes. Ed. Dennis Walder. London: Longman, 1980. Beirut: York Press, 1980. ISBN 0-582-78129-9.
* Tsotsi: a novel. New York: Random House, 1980. ISBN 978-0-394-51384-3.
* A Lesson from Aloes: A Play. Oxford and New York: OUP, 1981.
* Marigolds in August. A.D. Donker, 1982. ISBN 0-86852-008-X.
* Boesman and Lena. Oxford and New York: OUP, 1983. ISBN 0-19-570331-6.
* People Are Living There. Oxford and New York: OUP, 1983. ISBN 0-19-570332-4.
* "Master Harold"...and the Boys. New York and London: Penguin, 1984. ISBN 0-14-048187-7.
* Notebooks 1960-1977. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1984. ISBN 0-394-53755-6
* The Road to Mecca: A Play in Two Acts. London: Faber and Faber, 1985. ISBN 0-571-13691-5. [Suggested by the life and work of Helen Martins of New Bethesda, Eastern Cape, South Africa.]
* Selected Plays. Oxford and New York: OUP, 1987. ISBN 0-19-281929-1. [Includes: "Master Harold"...and the Boys; Blood Knot (new version); Hello and Goodbye; Boesman and Lena.]
* A Place with the Pigs: a personal parable. London: Faber and Faber, 1988. ISBN 0-571-15114-0.
* My Children! My Africa! and Selected Shorter Plays. Ed. and introd. Stephen Gray. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand UP, 1990. ISBN 1-86814-117-9.
* Blood Knot and Other Plays. New York: Theatre Communications Group, 1991. ISBN 1-55936-019-4.
* Playland and Other Worlds. Johannesburg: University of the Witwatersrand UP, 1992. ISBN 1-86814-219-1.
* The Township Plays. Ed. and introd. Dennis Walder. Oxford and New York: Oxford UP, 1993. ISBN 0-19-282925-4 (10). ISBN 978-0-19-282925-2 (13). [Includes: No-good Friday, Nongogo, The Coat, Sizwe Bansi Is Dead, and The Island.]
* Cousins: A Memoir, Johannesburg: Witwatersrand UP, 1994. ISBN 1-86814-278-7.
* Hello and Goodbye. Oxford and New York: OUP, 1994. ISBN 0-19-571099-1.
* Valley Song. London: Faber and Faber, 1996. ISBN 0-571-17908-8.
* The Captain's Tiger: A Memoir for the Stage. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, 1997. ISBN 1-86814-324-4.
* Athol Fugard: Plays. London: Faber and Faber, 1998. ISBN 0-571-19093-6.
* Interior Plays. Oxford and New York: OUP, 2000. ISBN 0-19-288035-7.
* Port Elizabeth Plays. Oxford and New York: OUP, 2000. ISBN 0-19-282529-1.
* Sorrows and Rejoicings. New York: Theatre Communications Group, 2002. ISBN 1-55936-208-1.
* Exits and Entrances. New York: Dramatists Play Service, 2004. ISBN 0-8222-2041-5.

Co-authored with John Kani and Winston Ntshona

* Statements: [Three Plays]. 1974\. By Athol Fugard, John Kani, and Winston Ntshona. Rev. ed. Oxford and New York: OUP, 1978. ISBN 0-19-281170-3 (10). ISBN 978-0-19-281170-7 (13). ["Two workshop productions devised by Athol Fugard, John Kani, and Winston Ntshona, and a new play"; includes: Sizwe Bansi Is Dead and The Island, and Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act.]

Co-authored with Ross Devenish

* The Guest: an episode in the life of Eugene Marais. By Athol Fugard and Ross Devenish. Craighall: A. D. Donker, 1977. ISBN 0-949937-36-3. (Die besoeker: 'n episode in die lewe van Eugene Marais. Trans. into Afrikaans by Wilma Stockenstrom. Craighall: A. D. Donker, 1977. ISBN 0-949937-43-6.)

## Filmography[edit]

Films adapted from Fugard's plays and novel[52]

* Boesman and Lena (1974), dir. Ross Devenish
* Marigolds in August (1980), dir. Ross Devenish
* "Master Harold"...and the Boys (1984), TV movie, dir. Michael Lindsay-Hogg, first broadcast on Showtime[58]
* The Road to Mecca (1991), co-dir. by Fugard and Peter Goldsmid (screen adapt.)
* Boesman and Lena (2000), dir. John Berry
* Tsotsi (2005), screen adapt. and dir. Gavin Hood; 2005 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film[2]
* "Master Harold"...and the Boys (2010), dir. Lonny Price

Film roles[52]

* Boesman and Lena (1974) as Boesman
* The Guest at Steenkampskraal (1977)[59] as Eugene Marais
* Meetings with Remarkable Men (1979)[60] as Professor Skridlov
* Marigolds in August (1980) as Paulus Olifant
* Gandhi (1982) as General Jan Smuts
* The Killing Fields (1984) as Doctor Sundesval
* The Road to Mecca (1991) as Reverend Marius Byleveld

## Selected awards and nominations[edit]

* Praemium Imperiale 2014[61]

Theatre[62]

* Obie Award
* 1971 – Best Foreign Play – Boesman and Lena (winner)[63]
* Tony Award
* 1975 – Best Play – Sizwe Banzi Is Dead / The Island – Athol Fugard, John Kani and Winston Ntshona (nomination)
* 2011 – Special Tony Award Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre (winner)
* New York Drama Critics' Circle Awards
* 1981 – Best Play – A Lesson From Aloes (winner)
* 1988 – Best Foreign Play – The Road to Mecca (winner)[63]
* Evening Standard Award
* 1983 – Best Play – "Master Harold"...and the Boys (winner)
* Drama Desk Awards
* 1982 – "Master Harold"...and the Boys (winner)
* Lucille Lortel Awards
* 1992 – Outstanding Revival – Boesman and Lena (winner)[63]
* 1996 – Outstanding Body of Work (winner)[64]
* The Audie Awards (Audio Publishers Association)
* 1999 – Theatrical Productions – The Road to Mecca (winner)[65]
* Outer Critics Circle Award
* 2007 – Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play – Exits and Entrances (nomination)[63]

Honorary awards

* Writers Guild of America, East Award
* 1986 – Evelyn F. Burkey Memorial Award – (along with Lloyd Richards)
* National Orders Award (South Africa)
* 2005 – The Order of Ikhamanga in Silver – "for his excellent contribution and achievements in the theatre"[5]
* American Academy of Achievement's Golden Plate Award[66]
* 2014 - Golden Plate Award

Honorary degrees

* Yale University, 1983[67]
* Wittenberg University, 1992[68]
* University of the Witwatersrand, 1993[69]
* Brown University, 1995[70]
* Princeton University, 1998[71]
* University of Stellenbosch, 2006[72]

## Reviews[edit]

* Fullerton, Ian (1980), review of Tsotsi, in Cencrastus No. 4. Winter 1980–81, p. 41, ISSN 0264-0856

## See also[edit]

* Novels portal

* South Africa under apartheid

## Notes[edit]

1. ^ Smith, David (12 August 2014). "Athol Fugard: 'Prejudice and racism are still alive and well in South Africa'". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 April 2020.
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i McLuckie, Craig (3 October 2003). "Athol Fugard (1932–)". The Literary Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on 25 August 2008. Retrieved 29 September 2008.
3. ^ Andie Miller (October 2009). "From Words into Pictures: In conversation with Athol Fugard". Eclectica. Retrieved 9 April 2020.
4. ^ a b "Athol Fugard". University of California, San Diego (UCSD). Archived from the original on 15 May 2008. Retrieved 1 October 2008.
5. ^ a b "Harold Athol Lanigan Fugard (1932 -)". 2005 National Orders Awards. South African Government Online (info.gov.za). 27 September 2005. Archived from the original (World Wide Web) on 21 November 2008. Retrieved 4 October 2008.
6. ^ "Fellows". Royal Society of Literature. Archived from the original on 27 April 2015. Retrieved 4 October 2008.
7. ^ "The Fugard Theatre". Creative Feel. March 2019. Retrieved 9 April 2020.
8. ^ "Athol Fugard". Encyclopædia Britannica. 24 November 2019. Retrieved 9 April 2020.
9. ^ a b c Fisher, Iain. "Athol Fugard: Biography". Athol Fugard: Statements. iainfisher.com. Retrieved 1 October 2008.
10. ^ Fisher gives Fugard's full birth name as "Harold Athol Lanigan Fugard", spelling Fugard's middle name as Lanigan, following Dennis Walder, Athol Fugard, Writers and Their Work (Tavistock: Northcote House in association with the British Council, 2003). It is spelled as Lannigan in Athol Fugard, Notebooks 1960–1977 (New York: Theatre Communications Group, 2004) and in Stephen Gray's Athol Fugard (Johannesburg and New York: McGraw-Hill, 1982) and many other publications. The former spelling (single n) seems more authoritative, however, as it is also used by Marianne McDonald, a close UCSD colleague and friend of Fugard, in "A Gift for His Seventieth Birthday: Athol Fugard's Sorrows and Rejoicings" Archived 24 July 2008 at the Wayback Machine, Department of Theatre and Dance, University of California, San Diego, rpt. from TheatreForum 21 (Summer/Fall 2002); in Fugard's National Orders Award (27 September 2005) from the government of South Africa, presented to "Harold Athol Lanigan Fugard (1932 –)"; and in his "Full Profile" in Who's Who of Southern Africa (2007).
11. ^ Fugard, Athol (2000). Dennis Walder, and introd (ed.). The Township Plays. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. pp. xvi. ISBN 978-0-19-282925-2. (Google Books limited preview.)
12. ^ "History: St Dominic's Prior School...Marist Brothers College". St Dominic's Priory School. Archived from the original (World Wide Web) on 15 March 2009. Retrieved 5 October 2008.
13. ^ "Boesman and Lena – Author Biography". Retrieved 31 October 2010.
14. ^ Wertheim, Albert (2000). The Dramatic Art of Athol Fugard: From South Africa to the World. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2000. pp. 215, 224–38. ISBN 978-0-253-33823-5. (Google Books limited preview.)
15. ^ a b Fugard, Sheila. "The Apprenticeship Years: Athol Fugard issue". Twentieth Century Literature. 39.4 (Winter 1993). findarticles.com. Retrieved 4 October 2008.
16. ^ Mudge, Alden (1 January 2006). "African Odyssey: Lisa Fugard Explores the Moral Ambiguities of Apartheid". First Person: Interview. Bookpage.com. Archived from the original on 11 October 2008. Retrieved 2 October 2008.
17. ^ a b c d e McDonald, Marianne (April 2003). "Introd. of Athol Fugard" (YouTube Video clip). Times Topics, The New York Times. Retrieved 1 October 2008. [Times Topics menu includes link to UCSD YouTube clip of Athol Fugard's lecture, "A Catholic Antigone: an episode in the life of Hildegard of Bingen", Eugene M. Burke C.S.P. Lectureship on Religion and Society, University of California, San Diego (UCSD).]
18. ^ Fugard, Athol (31 October 2010). "Once upon a life: Athol Fugard". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 1 November 2010. Retrieved 31 October 2010.
19. ^ Fugard, Athol & Serena Davies (8 April 2007). "My Week: Athol Fugard". Telegraph.co.uk. London. Retrieved 29 September 2008.[permanent dead link]
20. ^ Fugard, Athol; Bruce Burgun (29 September 2000). "Conversation on line with South African Dramatist Athol Fugard". Indiana University at Bloomington. Archived from the original on 11 September 2008. Retrieved 29 September 2008. (RealAudio clip of interview.)
21. ^ "Athol Fugard Gets Personal In 'Shadow of the Hummingbird' At Long Wharf". Hartford Courant. 23 March 2014. Retrieved 24 October 2014.
22. ^ Samodien, Leila (17 July 2014). "Athol Fugard wins prestigious award". Cape Times. Retrieved 24 October 2014.
23. ^ "Congratulations Athol Fugard & Paula Fourie". Creative Feel. 13 May 2016. Retrieved 16 November 2017.
24. ^ van der Merwe, Elna (7 October 2022). "Aangaande Athol, Paula en Babyboy Kleintjies". Vrye Weekblad (in Afrikaans). Retrieved 9 February 2023.
25. ^ Fourie, Paula (6 October 2022). "'n Bedrywige Woordfees vir Paula Fourie met Taliep, Babyboy Kleintjies en Athol". LitNet. Retrieved 9 February 2023.
26. ^ Eder, Richard (4 December 1978). "'Nongogo,' a Drama". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 10 May 2020.
27. ^ Kruger, Loren (2004). "Chapter 5: The Dis-illusion of Apartheid: Brecht in South Africa". Post-Imperial Brecht Politics and Performance, East and South. Cambridge Studies in Modern Theatre. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 215–80. ISBN 978-0-521-81708-0. (Google Books.)
28. ^ Gussow, Mel (24 September 1985). "Stage: 'The Blood Knot' by Fugard". The New York Times. Retrieved 5 October 2008.
29. ^ Richards, Lloyd (1989). "Athol Fugard, The Art of Theater No. 8". The Paris Review. Interviews. Vol. Summer 1989, no. 111\. ISSN 0031-2037. Retrieved 10 May 2020.
30. ^ Fugard, Athol (1984). Notebooks 1960–1977. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. p. 59\. ISBN 0-394-53755-6.
31. ^ Fugard (1984), p. 60
32. ^ "Athol Fugard: Biography". The Internet Off-Broadway Database. Archived from the original on 15 March 2009. Retrieved 2 October 2008.
33. ^ a b c d e f Kruger, Loren (2004). "Chapter 5: The Dis-illusion of Apartheid: Brecht in South Africa". Post-Imperial Brecht Politics and Performance, East and South. Cambridge Studies in Modern Theatre. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 217–18. ISBN 978-0-521-81708-0. (Google Books limited preview.)
34. ^ a b "'Art is Life and Life is Art'. An interview with John Kani and Winston Ntshona of the Serpent Players from South Africa", in Ufahamu: A Journal of African Studies [Internet], 6(2), 1976, pp. 5–26. Available from: eScholarship, University of California. Retrieved 26 July 2017.
35. ^ Barnes, Clive (19 November 1971). "Theater: People Are Living There'". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 10 May 2020.
36. ^ Blankenship, Mark (17 June 2005). "People Are Living There". Variety. Retrieved 10 May 2020.
37. ^ Fugard, Athol (1983). Notebooks 1960–1977. Craighall: A. D. Donker, 1983. ISBN 0-86852-011-X. "Back in S'Kop after five weeks in London for BBC TV production of The Blood Knot. Myself as Morrie, with Charles Hyatt as Zach. Robin Midgley directing. Midgley reduced the play to 90 minutes...Midgley did manage to dig up things that had been missed in all the other productions. Most exciting was his treatment of the letter writing scene – 'Address her' – which he turned into an essay in literacy...Zach sweating as the words clot in his mouth..."
38. ^ Dennis Walder, "Crossing Boundaries: The Genesis of the Township Plays", Special issue on Athol Fugard, Twentieth Century Literature (Winter 1993); rpt. findarticles.com. Retrieved 4 October 2008.
39. ^ Klein, Alvin (13 February 1994). "THEATER; 'Hello and Goodbye,' Early Fugard Play". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 10 May 2020.
40. ^ Wertheim, Albert (2000). The Dramatic Art of Athol Fugard: From South Africa to the World. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. pp. 225. ISBN 978-0-253-33823-5. (Google Books limited preview.)
41. ^ "Yale to Stage Premiere of Fugard Play". The New York Times. 21 February 1982. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 24 May 2022.
42. ^ Rich, Frank (17 March 1982). "THEATER: WORLD PREMIERE OF FUGARD' NEW PLAY". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 24 May 2022.
43. ^ Arnott, Christopher (8 May 2018). "Fugard's 'A Lesson From Aloes' Ends Hartford Stage's 2017-18 Season". courant.com. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
44. ^ Rich, Frank. "Stage: 'To Mecca,' By Athol Fugard" The New York Times, 15 May 1984
45. ^ Rich, Frank; Times, Special To the New York (3 April 1987). "STAGE: FUGARD'S 'PLACE WITH THE PIGS'". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 24 May 2022.
46. ^ Rich, Frank (15 May 1984). "STAGE: 'TO MECCA,' BY ATHOL FUGARD (Published 1984)". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 May 2022.
47. ^ Valley Song Summary.
48. ^ Valley Song Summary.
49. ^ Gans, Andrew (11 August 2008). "Fugard's Coming Home Will Premiere at Long Wharf Theatre". Playbill.
50. ^ Dugger, Celia W. (13 March 2010). "His Next Act: Driving Out Apartheid's Ghost". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 24 March 2010. Retrieved 25 April 2010.
51. ^ "Fugard's Hummingbird Flies". New Haven Independent. Retrieved 24 May 2022.
52. ^ a b c d e "Filmography" in Athol Fugard at AllMovie. Retrieved 3 October 2008.
53. ^ "Boesman and Lena (1973)". BFI. Archived from the original on 4 August 2021. Retrieved 24 May 2022.
54. ^ Fisher, Iain. "Athol Fugard: Plays" (World Wide Web). Athol Fugard: Statements. iainfisher.com. Retrieved 1 October 2008. "Some of his plays are grouped together. Sometimes this is based on the subject matter (the Port Elizabeth plays), sometimes it is based on a period and style (the Statement Plays)..But no category is complete, and there is overlap (The Township and The Statement Plays) and some plays do not easily fit into any categories."
55. ^ Fisher observes in the Fugard "Biography" section of Athol Fugard: Statements that South African writer and critic Gray, Stephen classifies many of Fugard's dramatic works according to chronological periods of composition and similarities of style: "Apprenticeship" ([1956–]1957); "Social Realism" (1958–1961); "Chamber Theatre" (1961–1970); "Improvised Theatre" (1966–1973); and "Poetic Symbolism" (1975[–1990]).
56. ^ Stephen Gray, ed. (1991). File on Fugard. London: Methuen Drama. ISBN 978-0-413-64580-7.
57. ^ Fugard, Athol (1990). Stephen Gray, and introd (ed.). My Children! My Africa! and Selected Shorter Plays. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press. ISBN 1-86814-117-9.
58. ^ Master Harold...and the Boys at AllMovie. Retrieved 3 October 2008.
59. ^ The Guest at Steenkampskraal at AllMovie. Retrieved 4 October 2008.
60. ^ Meetings with Remarkable Men at AllMovie. Retrieved 3 October 2008.
61. ^ "STIAS Fellow Athol Fugard receives prestigious 2014 prize". Stellenbosch University. 16 July 2014. Retrieved 17 July 2014.
62. ^ A list of Fugard's Broadway theatre award nominations may be found at the IBDB. "Athol Fugard: Awards". Internet Broadway Database. Archived from the original on 4 March 2007. Retrieved 1 October 2008.
63. ^ a b c d "Athol Fugard: Award Nominations; Award(s) Won". The Internet Off-Broadway Database. Archived from the original on 15 March 2009. Retrieved 2 October 2008.
64. ^ "Lucille Lortel Awards Archive: 1986–2000". Lortel Archives. Archived from the original on 21 March 2009. Retrieved 2 October 2008.
65. ^ "The Audie Awards: 1999". Writers Write, Inc. Archived from the original (World Wide Web) on 2 May 1999. Retrieved 2 October 2008.
66. ^ "Athol Fugard Biography and Interview". www.achievement.org. American Academy of Achievement.
67. ^ "Yale University: Honorary Degree Honorands: 1977–2000" (PDF). Yale University. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 October 2008. Retrieved 4 October 2008.
68. ^ "Honorary Degree Recipients: 1948–2001". Wittenberg University. Archived from the original on 14 August 2007. Retrieved 4 October 2008.
69. ^ "Honorary Graduates: 1920s to 2000s" (World Wide Web). University of the Witwatersrand. Archived from the original on 3 August 2008. Retrieved 4 October 2008.
70. ^ "News release 94–185" (World Wide Web) (Press release). Brown University News Bureau (Sweeney). 24 May 1995. Retrieved 4 October 2008.
71. ^ "Honorary Degrees Awarded by Princeton University: 1940s to 2000s" (World Wide Web). Princeton University. Archived from the original on 21 September 2008. Retrieved 4 October 2008.
72. ^ Enwemeka, Zeninjor (21 April 2006). "Stellenbosch honours Athol Fugard". IOL. Retrieved 23 September 2017.

## References[edit]

* The Amajuba Resource Pack Archived 14 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine. The Oxford Playhouse and Farber Foundry: In Association with Mmabana Arts Foundation. Oxford Playhouse, October 2004. Retrieved 1 October 2008. Downloadable PDF. ["Photographs by Robert Day; Written by Rachel G. Briscoe; Edited by Rupert Rowbotham; Overseen by Yael Farber." 18 pages.]
* Athol Fugard. Special issue of Twentieth Century Literature 39.4 (Winter 1993). Index. Findarticles.com. <http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0403/is_n4_v39>. Retrieved 4 October 2008. [Includes: Athol Fugard, "Some Problems of a Playwright from South Africa" (Transcript. 11 pages).]
* Blumberg, Marcia Shirley, and Dennis Walder, eds. South African Theatre As/and Intervention. Amsterdam and Atlanta, Georgia: Editions Rodopi B.V., 1999. ISBN 90-420-0537-8 (10). ISBN 978-90-420-0537-2 (13).
* Fugard, Athol. A Lesson from Aloes. New York: Theatre Communications Group, 1989. ISBN 1-55936-001-1 (10). ISBN 978-1-55936-001-2 (13). Google Books. Retrieved 1 October 2008. (Limited preview available.)
* –––, and Chris Boyd. "Athol Fugard on Tsotsi, Truth and Reconciliation, Camus, Pascal and 'courageous pessimism'...", The Morning After: Performing Arts in Australia (Blog). WordPress. 29 January 2006. Retrieved 4 October 2008. ["An edited interview with South African playwright Athol Fugard (in San Diego) on the publication of his only novel Tsotsi in Australia, 29 January 2006."]
* –––, and Serena Davies. "My Week: Athol Fugard"[dead link]. The Telegraph, 8 April 2007. Retrieved 29 September 2008. [The playwright describes his week to Serena Davies, prior to the opening of his play Victory at the Theatre Royal, Bath (telephone interview).]
* Gray, Stephen. Athol Fugard. Johannesburg and New York: McGraw-Hill, 1982. ISBN 0-07-450633-1 (10). ISBN 978-0-07-450633-2 (13). ISBN 0-07-450615-3 (10). ISBN 978-0-07-450615-8 (13).
* –––, ed. and introd. File on Fugard. London: Methuen Drama, 1991. ISBN 0-413-64580-0 (10). ISBN 978-0-413-64580-7 (13).
* –––. My Children! My Africa! and Selected Shorter Plays, by Athol Fugard. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, 1990. ISBN 1-86814-117-9.
* Kruger, Loren. Post-Imperial Brecht Politics and Performance, East and South. Cambridge Studies in Modern Theatre. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004. ISBN 0-521-81708-0 (10). ISBN 978-0-521-81708-0 (13). (Google Books; limited preview available.)
* McDonald, Marianne. "A Gift for His Seventieth Birthday: Athol Fugard's Sorrows and Rejoicings". Department of Theatre and Dance. University of California, San Diego. Rpt. from TheatreForum 21 (Summer/Fall 2002). Retrieved 2 October 2008.
* McLuckie, Craig (Okanagan College). "Athol Fugard (1932–)". The Literary Encyclopedia. 8 October 2003. Retrieved 29 September 2008.
* Morris, Stephen Leigh. "Falling Sky: Athol Fugard's Victory". LA Weekly, 31 January 2008. Retrieved 29 September 2008. (Theatre review of the American première at The Fountain Theatre, Los Angeles, California.)
* Spencer, Charles. "Victory: The Fight's Gone Out of Fugard"[dead link]. The Telegraph, 17 August 2007. Retrieved 30 September 2008. [Theatre review of Victory at the Theatre Royal, Bath.]
* Walder, Dennis. Athol Fugard. Writers and Their Work. Tavistock: Northcote House in association with the British Council, 2003. ISBN 0-7463-0948-1 (10). ISBN 978-0-7463-0948-3 (13).
* Wertheim, Albert. The Dramatic Art of Athol Fugard: From South Africa to the World. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000. ISBN 0-253-33823-9 (10). ISBN 978-0-253-33823-5 (13).
* –––, ed. and introd. Athol Fugard: A Casebook. [Casebooks on Modern Dramatists]. Gen. Ed., Kimball King. New York: Garland Publishing, 1997. ISBN 0-8153-0745-4 (10). ISBN 978-0-8153-0745-7 (13). (Out of print; unavailable.) [Hardcover ed. published by Garland Publishing; the series of Casebooks on Modern Dramatists is now published by Routledge, an imprint of Taylor & Francis, and does not include this title.]

## External links[edit]

* "Athol Fugard". Faculty profile. Department of Theatre and Dance. University of California, San Diego. (Lists Athol Fugard: Statements: An Athol Fugard site by Iain Fisher as "Personal Website"; see below.)
* Athol Fugard at AllMovie
* Athol Fugard at the Internet Broadway Database
* Athol Fugard at IMDb
* Athol Fugard at the Internet Off-Broadway Database (IOBDb)
* Athol Fugard at Times Topics in The New York Times. (Includes YouTube Video clip of Athol Fugard's Burke Lecture "A Catholic Antigone: An Episode in the Life of Hildegard of Bingen", the Eugene M. Burke C.S.P. Lectureship on Religion and Society, at the University of California, San Diego, introduced by Professor of Theatre and Classics Marianne McDonald, UCSD Department of Theatre and Dance, April 2003 [Show ID: 7118]. 1:28:57 [duration].)
* Athol Fugard at WorldCat
* "Athol Fugard Biography" – "Athol Fugard", rpt. by bookrags.com (Ambassadors Group, Inc.) from the Encyclopedia of World Biography. ("2005–2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.")
* "Athol Fugard (1932– )" at Britannica Online Encyclopedia (subscription based; free trial available)
* "Athol Fugard (1932– )" – Complete Guide to Playwright and Plays at Doollee.com
* Athol Fugard: Statements: An Athol Fugard site by Iain Fisher. (Listed as "Personal Website" in UCSB faculty profile; see above.)
* "Books by Athol Fugard" at Google Books (several with limited previews available)
* "Full Profile: Mr Athol 'Lanigan' Fugard" in Who's Who of Southern Africa. Copyright 2007 24.com (Media24). (Includes hyperlinked "News Articles" from 2000 to 2008.)
* "Interviews: South Africa's Fugards: Writing About Wrongs". Morning Edition. National Public Radio. NPR RealAudio. 16 June 2006. (With hyperlinked "Related NPR stories" from 2001 to 2006.)
* Richards, Lloyd (Summer 1989). "Athol Fugard, The Art of Theater No. 8". Paris Review. Summer 1989 (111).
* "Athol Fugard" in the Encyclopaedia of South African Theatre and Performance
* Nancy T. Kearns collection of Athol Fugard materials, 1983–1996, held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

* v
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Plays by Athol Fugard

* Blood Knot (1961, revised 1987)
* Hello and Goodbye (1965)
* Boesman and Lena (1969)
* Sizwe Bansi Is Dead (1972)
* The Island (1972)
* A Lesson from Aloes (1978)
* Marigolds in August (1980)
* "Master Harold"...and the Boys (1982)
* The Road to Mecca (1984)
* The Train Driver (2010)
* The Shadow of the Hummingbird (2014)

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* e

Evelyn F. Burkey Award

1970s|

* Fred Coe (1978)
* Barbara Schultz (1979)

1980s|

* Walter Cronkite (1980)
* Elmer Lower (1981)
* Herman Brodkin (1982)
* Alan Wagner (1983)
* Leonard Wasser (1984)
* Jerome B. Lurie (1985)
* Athol Fugard & Lloyd Richards (1986)
* Edwin Newman (1987)
* Andy Rooney, Local 1101 & District 1 of the Communications Workers of America (1988)
* Horton Foote (1989)

1990s|

* Art Buchwald (1990)
* George Schaefer (1991)
* Jacqueline Babbin (1992)
* Arthur Miller (1993)
* Joan Ganz Cooney (1994)
* Dennis Potter (1995)
* Ken Saro-Wiwa (1996)
* Sidney Lumet (1997)
* Judy Crichton (1998)
* David Brown (1999)

2000s|

* Václav Havel (2000)
* Tom Fontana (2001)
* Colin Callender (2002)
* Martin Scorsese (2003)
* John McCain (2004)
* Claire Labine (2005)
* Museum of Television and Radio (2006)
* Joan Didion (2007)
* Walter Bernstein (2008)
* Committee to Protect Journalists (2009)

2010s|

* Edward Albee (2010)
* Archive of American Television (2011)
* Not presented (2012)
* Not presented (2013)
* James Schamus (2014)
* Norman Lear (2015)
* Al Franken (2016)
* Not presented (2017)
* Not presented (2018)
* Franklin Leonard (2019)

2020s|

* Not presented (2020)
* Not presented (2021)
* Dick Cavett (2022)
* Not presented (2023)

* v
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* Dora Chamberlain / Ira and Rita Katzenberg / Jules Leventhal / Burns Mantle / P. A. MacDonald / Vincent Sardi Sr. (1947)
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* Ruth Green (1951)
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* Danny Kaye / Beatrice Lillie (1953)
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* Mrs. Martin Beck / New York Shakespeare Festival (1958)
* Russel Crouse and Howard Lindsay / John Gielgud / Cast of La Plume de Ma Tante (1959)
* Burgess Meredith and James Thurber / John D. Rockefeller III (1960)
* David Merrick / The Theatre Guild (1961)
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* Alan Bennett, Peter Cook, Jonathan Miller and Dudley Moore / Irving Berlin / W. McNeil Lowry (1963)
* Eva Le Gallienne (1964)
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* Leonard Bernstein / Carol Burnett / Rex Harrison / The National Theatre Company of Great Britain / The Negro Ensemble Company (1969)
* Noël Coward / Lynn Fontanne and Alfred Lunt / New York Shakespeare Festival / Barbra Streisand (1970)
* Ingram Ash / Elliot Norton / Playbill / Roger L. Stevens (1971)
* Fiddler on the Roof / Ethel Merman / Richard Rodgers / The Theatre Guild-American Theatre Society (1972)
* The Actors Fund of America / John Lindsay / Shubert Organization (1973)
* Actors' Equity Association / A Moon for the Misbegotten / Candide / Peter Cook and Dudley Moore / Harold Friedlander / Bette Midler / Liza Minnelli / Theatre Development Fund / John F. Wharton (1974)
* Al Hirschfeld (1975)

1976–2000|

* George Abbott / Richard Burton / Circle in the Square Theatre / Thomas H. Fitzgerald / Mathilde Pincus (1976)
* Cheryl Crawford / Equity Liberty Theatre / Barry Manilow / National Theatre of the Deaf / Diana Ross / Lily Tomlin (1977)
* Irving Berlin / Stan Dragoti and Charles Moss (1978)
* Walter F. Diehl / Eugene O'Neill Memorial Theater Center / Henry Fonda / Richard Rodgers (1979)
* Richard Fitzgerald / Helen Hayes / Mary Tyler Moore / Hobe Morrison (1980)
* Lena Horne (1981)
* Radio City Music Hall / The Actors Fund of America / Warner Communications (1982)
* No award (1983)
* A Chorus Line / Peter Feller / La Tragedie de Carmen (1984)
* Yul Brynner / New York State Council on the Arts (1985)
* No award (1986)
* George Abbott / Jackie Mason (1987)
* Brooklyn Academy of Music (1988)
* No award (1989)
* No award (1990–1992)
* Oklahoma! (1993)
* Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy (1994)
* Carol Channing / National Endowment for the Arts / Harvey Sabinson (1995)
* No award (1996)
* Bernard B. Jacobs (1997)
* Edward E. Colton / Ben Edwards (1998)
* Uta Hagen / Arthur Miller / Isabelle Stevenson (1999)
* Dame Edna: The Royal Tour / T. Edward Hambleton (2000)

2001–present|

* Paul Gemignani (2001)
* Julie Harris / Robert Whitehead (2002)
* Cy Feuer / Russell Simmons' Def Poetry Jam on Broadway (2003)
* James M. Nederlander (2004)
* Edward Albee (2005)
* Sarah Jones / Harold Prince (2006)
* No award (2007)
* Robert Russell Bennett / Stephen Sondheim (2008)
* Jerry Herman (2009)
* Alan Ayckbourn / Marian Seldes (2010)
* Athol Fugard / Philip J. Smith (2011)
* Actors' Equity Association / Hugh Jackman (2012)
* Bernard Gersten / Ming Cho Lee / Paul Libin (2013)
* Jane Greenwood (2014)
* John Cameron Mitchell / Tommy Tune (2015)
* Sheldon Harnick / Marshall W. Mason / National Endowment for the Arts / Miles Wilkin (2016)
* James Earl Jones (2017)
* John Leguizamo / Andrew Lloyd Webber / Chita Rivera / Bruce Springsteen (2018)
* Rosemary Harris / Marin Mazzie / Terrence McNally / Sonny Tilders and Creature Technology Company / Jason Michael Webb / Harold Wheeler (2019)
* The Broadway Advocacy Coalition / David Byrne's American Utopia / Freestyle Love Supreme / Graciela Daniele (2020/21)
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