The Most-Popular Playwright In America Is An Unexpected Name

Lauren Gunderson recently topped the annual list of American Theatre magazine’s ranking of the country’s most-produced playwrights. (She was second only to August Wilson, who is deceased. Shakespeare receives so many productions every year he is no longer included on the list). Her placement there was remarkable for a number of reasons. She’s one of only a handful of women to make the list, and at 35, she is relatively young to appear there.  But Gunderson took the theater world by surprise primarily because she has never had a major production in New York.