MFA Dramatic Writing alumna Madhuri Shekar MFA ’13 received the Dramatists Guild of America’s Lanford Wilson Award on July 28. The award — named after the Pulitzer Prize-winning, Tony-nominated playwright — is presented annually to a dramatist based primarily on their work as an early career playwright. Watch her acceptance speech on YouTube.

Shekar, an award-winning playwright and screenwriter, has written plays that include In Love and Warcraft (workshopped at SDA), A Nice Indian Boy (workshopped at SDA), Queen, House of Joy and Dhaba on Devon Avenue.  They have been performed at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Center Theatre Group, the Old Globe, the Kennedy Center, among others. Her audio play Evil Eye was named one of the top 10 Audible titles of 2019.