PEN/Mike Nichols Writing for Performance Award

From the judges’ citation: As a writer, performer, and producer, Tina Fey has captivated audiences for more than 25 years. Her sharp wit, comedic intelligence, and storytelling mastery have established her as one of the great creative voices of this century. Fey found her comedy footing with the Chicago-based group The Second City, and became a household name through her work with Saturday Night Live. Of her formidable instinct, Jimmy Fallon once told the New Yorker, “If she laughs, everyone’s laughing.” After leaving SNL, Fey wrote and starred in Mean Girls, earning critical and popular acclaim. She went on to create the sitcom 30 Rock, playing the role of Liz Lemon. Over 7 seasons and 7 years, the show was recognized with an extraordinary 103 Emmy nominations and 14 wins. Further success came with the highly original The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. And the page loves Fey just as much as the screen does: her memoir Bossypants was an instant success, winning a Grammy nomination and staying on the New York Times Bestseller list for 5 weeks.Of course, comedy can be absolutely serious, and Fey’s work often asks us to question our assumptions and to see others in their multifaceted truth. A defining artist of her generation, Tina Fey gives us much to celebrate, and much to look forward to.

From the judges’ citation: May first came to national attention with Nichols and May, her groundbreaking comedy act with Mike Nichols. The duo perfected the art of improvisation and in doing so changed the nation’s expectations of comedy and, indeed, its sense of humor. After Nichols and May ended in 1961, May wrote several plays, including the celebrated one-act Adaptation. She made her Hollywood directorial debut in 1971 with A New Leaf, which she also wrote and starred in. The only woman director working in the studio system at the time, she stood out immediately as an artist of high caliber and daring ideas. Her subsequent films, including The Heartbreak Kid, Mickey and Nicky, Heaven Can Wait, and Ishtar, revealed a visionary range and complex expressions of human relationships. As a screenwriter she was twice nominated for Academy Awards, for Heaven Can Wait and Primary Colors. As an artist, May transcends any single designation. In 2019 she received a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her portrayal of Gladys Green in The Waverly Gallery, written by Kenneth Lonergan. Writing in Variety, playwright, screenwriter, and director Lonergan said, “Elaine is one of the few polymaths I can think of who does everything she does not only with talent but with genius.” From comedy to drama, as a writer, performer, and director, Elaine May’s work reveals us to ourselves. Throughout her multifaceted career, her contributions to film, television, and theater have thrilled, surprised, and inspired, and her emotionally grounded comedy has invited recognition and reflection. May’s unmatched instinct for storytelling, commitment to artistic excellence, and extraordinary versatility make her a defining figure in contemporary culture.

From the judges’ citation: Tom Stoppard was born in Zlin, Czechoslovakia in 1937 and moved to England, via Singapore and India, with his family in 1946. He began his working life in 1954 as a junior reporter on the Western Daily Press. In 1967, Stoppard’s first full-length play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, was staged by the National Theatre. This play was followed by other award-winning works, including Jumpers, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (with Andre Previn), Travesties, Night and Day, The Real Thing, Hapgood, Arcadia, Indian Ink, The Invention of Love, The Coast of Utopia (a trilogy), Rock’n’Roll, The Hard Problem and Leopoldstadt. His many stage adaptations and translations include Undiscovered Country (Schnitzler), On the Razzle (Nestroy), Rough Crossing (Molnar), The Seagull (Chekhov), Henry IV (Pirandello), Heroes (Sibleyras), Ivanov (Chekhov) and The Cherry Orchard (Chekhov). Stoppard has also written for radio, television, and film. His screen credits, as writer and co-writer, include Brazil, Empire of the Sun, Enigma, and Shakespeare in Love, winner of an Academy Award for best original screenplay. He also directed his own screenplay of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1990), which won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Stoppard received a knighthood in 1997 and in 2000 was awarded the Order of Merit by Her Majesty the Queen.

2020 Tom Stoppard

From the judges’ citation: Tom Stoppard was born in Zlin, Czechoslovakia in 1937 and moved to England, via Singapore and India, with his family in 1946. He began his working life in 1954 as a junior reporter on the Western Daily Press. In 1967, Stoppard’s first full-length play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, was staged by the National Theatre. This play was followed by other award-winning works, including Jumpers, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (with Andre Previn), Travesties, Night and Day, The Real Thing, Hapgood, Arcadia, Indian Ink, The Invention of Love, The Coast of Utopia (a trilogy), Rock’n’Roll, The Hard Problem and Leopoldstadt. His many stage adaptations and translations include Undiscovered Country (Schnitzler), On the Razzle (Nestroy), Rough Crossing (Molnar), The Seagull (Chekhov), Henry IV (Pirandello), Heroes (Sibleyras), Ivanov (Chekhov) and The Cherry Orchard (Chekhov). Stoppard has also written for radio, television, and film. His screen credits, as writer and co-writer, include Brazil, Empire of the Sun, Enigma, and Shakespeare in Love, winner of an Academy Award for best original screenplay. He also directed his own screenplay of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1990), which won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Stoppard received a knighthood in 1997 and in 2000 was awarded the Order of Merit by Her Majesty the Queen.