Reading Series, Fall 2009

QUIARA HUDES, playwright

Quiara Alegría Hudes wrote the book for In the Heights, the 2008 Tony Award winner for Best Musical, and is now writing the screenplay for Universal Studios. Her recent play Elliot, A Soldier's Fugue, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. The New York Times called it "that rare and rewarding thing: a theater work that succeeds on every level, while creating something new." Other works include the play 26 Miles (Alliance Theatre) and the musical Barrio Grrrl! (Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts). Hudes' honors include a Tony Nomination for Best Book, the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical, the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Musical, the HOLA Award for Achievement in Playwriting, the Paula Vogel Award in Playwriting, and the Clauder Prize for her first play, Yemaya's Belly.

She has degrees from Yale and Brown Universities, is a resident writer at New Dramatists, a previous Page 73 Playwriting Fellow, and is currently the Aetna New Voices Fellow at Hartford Stage. Her first play was produced when she was thirteen by Philadelphia Young Playwrights; Hudes now serves on their board. She was born and raised in West Philadelphia, where she began composing music and writing.