Theater News

John Patrick Shanley to Receive WGA’s Lifetime Achievement Award

John Patrick Shanley
(© Joseph Marzullo/WENN)
John Patrick Shanley
(© Joseph Marzullo/WENN)

John Patrick Shanley will receive the Writers Guild of America’s Ian Hunter Award for lifetime achievement in writing, according to a report in Variety.

The award will be presented at the Writers Guild Awards ceremony at New York’s Hudson Theater on February 7. As previously announced, Shanley has been nominated in the WGA category of Best Adapted Screenplay for his adaptation of his play Doubt, competing against Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire), Peter Morgan (Frost/Nixon), Jonathan and Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight), Eric Roth (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button).

The play version of Doubt won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony for Best New Play, among other awards. The film version has also received several honors, including an Oscar nomination. Shanley’s numerous other credits inclue the Oscar-winning screenplay to Moonstruck and the plays Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, Beggars in the House of Plenty, Dirty Story, and the book to the recent musical, Romantic Poetry.