Playwright of SCR-commissioned play ‘Rabbit Hole’ wins a Pulitzer

After 77 performances on Broadway and a Tony Award nomination for Best Play, the South Coast Repertory commissioned production “Rabbit Hole” garnered playwright David Lindsay-Abaire the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Drama on Monday.

The award marks the first play commissioned by the theater to receive the honor.

The play — which focuses on a couple coping with the tragic loss of their young son — was first performed as a staged reading at South Coast Repertory’s 8th Annual Pacific Playwrights Festival in May 2005 and was later produced by Broadway’s Manhattan Theatre Club, opening on Feb. 2, 2006.

Considered the most prestigious prize for American playwriting, the award recognizes “a distinguished play by an American author, preferably original in its source and dealing with American life,” according to the Pulitzer Prize website.

Lindsay-Abaire was in disbelief when his press agent called to say, “I think you won the Pulitzer” early Monday morning.

“I was stunned, surprised and, of course, thrilled when I got the news,” said Lindsay-Abaire, who was working out lyrics for the musical production of “Shrek” when he got the call. “My phone has been ringing off the hook…. South Coast Repertory left me the sweetest message.”

But it was “Sex and the City” star Cynthia Nixon — whose performance as Becca in “Rabbit Hole” earned her a Tony Award — who gave Lindsay-Abaire the official news just minutes later. That evening, the playwright was at Balthazar Restaurant in New York City celebrating his win — which included a $10,000 cash prize — with family and friends.

Lindsay-Abaire is working on a screenplay of the script, set to be released in 2009 by Fox Searchlight Productions as a movie starring Nicole Kidman as the boy’s mother.

In 2001, South Coast Repertory commissioned and premiered Lindsay-Abaire’s “Kimberly Akimbo,” a comedy that received the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Playwriting.

He also wrote the screenplay for the computer animated film “Robots.”