19+ Lynn Nottage Quotes On Character, Table Of Joy

Lynn Nottage is an American playwright who has won two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama. She is known for her plays that explore the complexities of race, gender, and class in the contemporary United States. Her plays often focus on the stories of marginalized communities and how they interact with the wider world. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Lynn Nottage on love, life, character.

Just because it’s a unique perspective doesn’t mean it can’t offer something universal. — Lynn Nottage

I was repeatedly told that there isn't an African American woman who can open a show on Broadway. I said, 'Well, how do we know? How do we know if we don't do it?' I said, 'I think you're wrong.' — Lynn Nottage

I can't quite remember the exact moment when I became obsessed with writing a play about the seemingly endless war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but I knew that I wanted to somehow tell the stories of the Congolese women caught in the cross-fire. — Lynn Nottage

In the business of war, the role of women is really to maintain normalcy and ensure that there is cultural continuity. — Lynn Nottage

A play that forces us to question our moral responsibility to the victims of human rights abuse. — Lynn Nottage

When you begin a play, you're going to have to spend a lot of time with those characters, so those characters are going to have to be rich enough that you want to take a very long journey with them. That's how I begin thinking about what I want to write about and who I want to write about. — Lynn Nottage

I'm interested in the moments where the audience is restless. I'm interested in the moments where they lean in and become incredibly engaged: the laughter, the silence. All of that is part of how I think about shaping and rewriting the play. — Lynn Nottage

It's much easier to conjure characters strictly from your imagination than to have to think about whether you're representing people in a truthful way. — Lynn Nottage

I want the audience, when they leave, to think of the characters on the stage in three dimensions. I want them to have empathy. I also want them to think about engaging more with where we are culturally. — Lynn Nottage

If you lead with the anger, it will turn off the audience. And what I want is the audience to engage with the material and to listen and then to ask questions. I think that 'Ruined' was very successful at doing that. — Lynn Nottage

I need a release from whatever I'm writing. — Lynn Nottage

I think that when you're first shaping the play and trying to find a character, the initial actors that develop it end up imprinting on it - you hear their voices, you hear their rhythms. You can't help but to begin to write toward them during the rehearsal process. — Lynn Nottage

Hopefully this is going to be a trend, the beginning of a movement to reclaim theater for the artist and not commerce. I think there's a level of fatigue. Artists are tired of having to create work that's then coopted by commercial demands. When you begin souping up the car, the car no longer feels like your own. — Lynn Nottage

African American women in particular have incredible buying power. Statistically, we go to the movies more than anyone. We have made Tyler Perrys career. His films open with $25 million almost consistently. — Lynn Nottage

Plays are getting smaller and smaller, not because playwrights minds are shrinking but because of the economics. — Lynn Nottage

I see the audience as the final collaborator. I think it's kind of bullshit when people say, "I'm not interested in the audience reaction." I'm like, "Then why do you do theater? You can write a book, then you don't have to see how the audience reacts." It's a living, breathing thing. — Lynn Nottage

Each play I write has its own unique origin story. — Lynn Nottage

I wanted to tell the story of these women and the war in the Congo and I couldn't find anything about them in the newspapers or in the library, so I felt I had to get on a plane and go to Africa and find the story myself. I felt there was a complete absence in the media of their narrative. It's very different now, but when I went in 2004 that was definitely the case. — Lynn Nottage

When the play is still evolving I try to be at rehearsal as often as possible, and part of that casting process. You find new things when the language is living in different people's mouths. — Lynn Nottage

Life Lessons by Lynn Nottage

1. Lynn Nottage's work emphasizes the importance of using storytelling to explore and celebrate the lives of marginalized communities.
2. Through her plays, Nottage encourages audiences to think critically about the social and political issues that affect these communities.
3. Her work serves as a reminder that art can be a powerful tool for creating dialogue and inspiring change.