Achievements

=In 2001, Cruz served as the playwright-in-residence for the New Theatre in Coral Gables, Florida. =

= = =Anna in the Tropics was the winner of the 2003 Pulitzer and the Steinberg Award for Best New Play. It premiered on Broadway with Jimmy Smits in the lead role in 2004. =

= Cruz has been the recipient Rockerfeller Foundation grant, San Francisco's W. Alton Jones award and a Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays award. =  **Cruz is an alumnus of New Dramatists, has taught play-writing at Brown, University of Iowa and Yale University. Through his work, Cruz has become one of the most revered playwrights of our time. His introduction of Latino themed plays into mainstream American theater has set the stage for playwrights and authors to come. One of the authors that Cruz has directly influenced has been Lin Manuel Miranda.**