Spotlight on Lynn Nottage

The lives of African-American women are the central themes of the work of Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage, author of "Intimate Apparel," opening this weekend at the Vam York Theater.

Nottage was born in Brooklyn in 1964, and is a graduate of Brown University and the Yale School of Drama. The West Coast premiere of one of her first major works, "Crumbs From the Table of Joy," won two NAACP Awards. From 1993 to 2003, she also penned "Poof," ""Mud, River, Stone," "Por'Knockers," and "Las Meninas."

"Intimate Apparel," her best-known play, was produced off-Broadway in 2004, starring Oscar nominee Viola Davis ("Doubt," "The Help"). The play tells the story of Esther, a 35-year-old African-American seamstress in 1905 New York City, who strikes up a long-distance romance with a man who is working on the Panama Canal.

Nottage wrote a companion piece to "Intimate Apparel," the OBIE Award-winning "Fabulation,or the Re-Education of Undine," which is set 100 years later. She went on to produce the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Drama winner, "Ruined," about the plight of Congolese women surviving civil war.

Nottage received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2005, and a MacArthur Genius Grant in 2007.

"Intimate Apparel" previews tomorrow night. Tickets are $5 and are available only at the box office, beginning at 7 p.m. Get there early to get your seats!!