By Alex Witchel — The New York Times

In 2008, Tracy Letts won the Pulitzer Prize and the Tony Award for his play “August: Osage County,” a multigenerational drama presided over by a mother whose cancer of the mouth is both literal and figurative.

Sam Shepard, was an American playwright, actor, author, screenwriter, and director whose body of work spanned half a century. Described by New York magazine as "the greatest American playwright of his generation.”

“When I write I don’t aim to shock people, and I’m surprised when I do. But I don’t think that anything that occurs in life should be omitted from art, though the artist should present it in a fashion that is artistic and not ugly. I set out to tell the truth. And sometimes the truth is shocking.” — Tennessee Williams

Martin McDonagh is a British-Irish screenwriter, director, and one of the most acclaimed playwrights of our time whose body of work spans over two decades.  As a playwright he is celebrated for his absurdist black humor and incendiary spirit that challenges the modern theatre aesthetic.