I thought, well, if I'm going to hit this wall, I might as well be hitting it, you know, hitting my head up against it in ways that are going to feed my spirit.

This is death, sex, and money.

The show from WNYC about the things we think about a lot and need to talk about more.

I'm Anna Salle.

Lynn Nottingh is a big deal playwright.

She's won two Pulitzer Prizes for drama.

But the start of this year was unlike any other for her.

Three of her shows were simultaneously in production in New York,

a play, a musical, and an opera.

I liken it to sort of a creative marathon in which I've spent my

entire life preparing for this moment in which I could juggle three different pieces and not lose

my mind. And when I was looking at my calendar, anticipating it, I thought, oh my God, how am I going to accomplish this?

And when I was in the midst of it, I thought, okay, I've been working my entire life for this moment.

It's just a lot of meditation and breathing and really being in the moment.

That's something that I learned through this process is that when I was in the room, I was in the room with that piece 100%.

And when I left the room and went to the next, I was in that next room with all of myself.

I was very good about compartmentalizing. Otherwise, I think I would have lost my mind.

Lens plays take place all over the world and in different eras. I think I would have lost my mind.

Lens plays take place all over the world and in different eras, but most of them focus on the lives of everyday people.

Sweat, one of the plays that earned her at Pulitzer, is about a working-class community in Pennsylvania in the early 2000s.

Her work, Intimate Apparel, tells the story of a seamstress in 1905, New York.

It's based on the life of Lynn's great-grandmother.

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