Alumna Caridad Svich inducted into College of Fellows of the American Theatre

Caridad Svich ’85 was inducted in the College of Fellows of the American Theatre; she was one of 16 theatre professionals in the 2025 class that included playwright August Wilson (inducted posthumously) and actor André De Shields.

Svich currently serves as artistic director of new play development at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in New York City and is collaborating with composer Stephen Schwartz, lyricist Gordon Greenberg and actor Antonio Banderas on a musical about Pablo Picasso. Recent books include “Toward a Future Theatre” and the edited anthology “Transmedia Theatre Plays.” Her film “Fugitive Dreams,” co-written with and directed by Jason Neulander and based on her play of the same name, garnered acclaim at festivals in 2020 and 2021 and was publicly released in 2024.

A prolific writer in English and Spanish, Svich has written more than 100 plays, short works and translations. Her list of awards and honors is long. She received a 2012 OBIE Award for Lifetime Achievement in the theatre, a 2012 Edgerton Foundation New Play Award and the 2011 American Theatre Critics Association Primus Prize. She has won the National Latino Playwriting Award twice and has been short-listed for the PEN Award in Drama four times. In 2018, Caridad received the Ellen Stewart Award for Career Achievement in Professional Theatre by the Association for Theatre in Higher Education and in 2023 received the Flora Roberts Award from The Dramatists Guild.

Svich, who received the 2016 Distinguished Alumni Award in Theatre from the College of Arts + Architecture, said, “One of the things I learned at UNC Charlotte was to follow my own creative path and curiosities as an artist to trust my instincts and to strive for excellence always.”