Elizabeth LeCompte, founding member and director of experimental theater company The Wooster Group, has been chosen as the recipient of this year’s Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, Broadway World reports.

The Gish Prize is given out each year to “a highly accomplished artist from any discipline who has pushed the boundaries of an art form, contributed to social change, and paved the way for the next generation.” The approximate value of the award and cash prize is $300,000, making it one of the largest modern arts awards.

In earning the award, LeCompte joins other female honorees such as playwright Anna Deveare Smith, choreographer Trisha Brown, avant-garde artist Laurie Anderson, writer Suzan-Lori Parks, designer Maya Lin, and lighting designer Jennifer Tipton.

LeCompte started The Wooster Group in 1975 with Spalding Gray. In its 40 year history, the group has performed numerous works of theater, film, video, and dance, often mixing film, video, recorded sound, and architectonic designs into their performances using classical texts.

“I think of the Gish Prize as an affirmation of what The Wooster Group represents and the work we’ve created together over the past forty years,” said LeCompte. “There’s a tendency with theater to think of each show as its own beginning and end, but what’s important to me is the whole thread of the work-the way each piece has a relationship to our past, and to the way the Group continues to change and evolve. I’m deeply grateful to the Gish Prize for recognizing that our company is still in it for the long haul-because this award is going to help us keep creating, as we have since the beginning.”

Gish Prize chair A.M. Homes stated, “Liz LeCompte can’t be summed up as a director. She’s a complete woman of the performing arts, who directs, writes, designs, produces, performs, collaborates, and expands the possibilities of her field. She has become an historic figure by remaining at the forefront for decades; we saw in her the possibility of giving the Prize to an artist who is something like Lillian Gish herself. Through her legacy, Lillian Gish now honors Liz LeCompte, and by accepting this award, LeCompte gives new meaning and new honor to Lillian Gish’s legacy.”

The Gish Prize will be presented to LeCompte on Thursday, November 3 at a ceremony at the Whitney Museum of American Art.