| 40th Annual Lucille Lortel Awards - Sunday, May 4, 2025 | |
| Posted by: Official_Press_Release 05:54 pm EST 01/16/25 | |
|
|
|
| 40TH ANNUAL LUCILLE LORTEL AWARDS SET FOR SUNDAY, MAY 4, 2025 ALICE CHILDRESS TO BE POSTHUMOUSLY INDUCTED ONTO THE PLAYWRIGHTS' SIDEWALK. NEW FEDERAL THEATRE WILL BE RECOGNIZED FOR THEIR OUTSTANDING BODY OF WORK. PLAYWRIGHTS HORIZONS GENERAL MANAGER CAROL FISHMAN TO BE HONORED FOR HER SERVICE TO OFF-BROADWAY. New York, NY (Thursday, January 16, 2025) – The Annual Lucille Lortel Awards – the only New York theatre award to exclusively honor Off-Broadway – are set to celebrate four decades of recognizing Off-Broadway excellence with the annual ceremony scheduled for Sunday, May 4, 2025, 7:00PM at NYU Skirball. Special Award recipients for 2025 have also been announced. The Lortel Awards are produced by the Off-Broadway League and the Lucille Lortel Theatre, with additional support provided by TDF. The event will, as always, be open to the public, with tickets available for purchase beginning Thursday, April 3, at tickets.nyu.edu or at the NYU Skirball box office Tuesday – Saturday 12pm–6pm. 2025 Special Award Recipients •Playwrights' Sidewalk: Alice Childress •Outstanding Body of Work: New Federal Theatre •Edith Oliver Service to Off-Broadway: Carol Fishman 2025 Key Lortel Awards Dates •April 1, 2024 – March 31, 2025: 2024 – 2025 Off-Broadway Season •Tuesday, April 1 Lortel Award Nominations Meeting •Wednesday, April 2 Lortel Award Nominations Announced •Wednesday, April 23 Nominees Breakfast •Sunday, May 4 40th Annual Lucille Lortel Awards Ceremony The Off-Broadway League's Lortel Awards Administration Committee (Jeremy Adams, Alana Canty-Samuel, Tisa Chang, Carol Fishman, George Forbes, Kenneth Naanep, Ralph Peña, Catherine Russell, Michael Sag, Jonathan Whitton, Casey York, and Jeffrey Shubart, Chair) and the Lucille Lortel Theatre (George Forbes, Jeffrey Shubart, Nancy Hurvitz, Alana Canty-Samuel, Maura Le Viness, Karla Liriano, and Rascher Alcasid ) produce the Lortel Awards Ceremony. Acclaimed writer/director Michael Heitzman directs the Lortel Awards. Representatives of the Off-Broadway League, Actors' Equity Association, Stage Directors & Choreographers Society, United Scenic Artists, the Lucille Lortel Theatre, in addition to theatre journalists, academics and other Off-Broadway professionals, serve on the Voting Committee. For updates and news visit www.LortelAwards.org . Follow the Lortel Awards (#LortelAwards) on X (https://twitter.com/Lortel_Theatre ), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/lorteltheatre ), and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/LortelTheatre ). Subscribe to the Lortel Awards YouTube channel to watch clips from previous ceremonies. ABOUT ALICE CHILDRESS Born in 1916 and raised during the Harlem Renaissance under the watchful eye of her beloved maternal grandmother, Alice Childress grew up to become first an actress and then a playwright and novelist. A founding member of the American Negro Theatre, she wrote her first play, FLORENCE, in 1949. The script was written in one night on a dare from close friend and actor Sidney Poitier, who had told Alice that he didn't think a great play could be written overnight. She proved him wrong, and the play was produced Off-Broadway in 1950. Childress became in 1952 the first African-American woman to see her play (GOLD THROUGH THE TREES) professionally produced in New York. In 1955, Childress' play TROUBLE IN MIND was a critical and popular success from the beginning of its run Off-Broadway at the Greenwich Mews Theatre, and it immediately drew interest from producers for a Broadway transfer. In an ironic twist echoing the tribulations of the characters in the play itself, the producers wanted changes to the script to make it more palatable to a commercial audience. Childress refused to compromise her artistic vision, and the play never opened on Broadway, ending her chances of being the first African-American woman playwright to have a work on Broadway. TROUBLE IN MIND received a well-reviewed Off-Broadway revival in 1998 by the Negro Ensemble Company and has since been produced by Yale Repertory Theatre, Centerstage, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, and will be produced at Arena Stage next season. Childress is perhaps best-known today for A HERO AIN'T NOTHIN' BUT A SANDWICH, her 1973 novel about a 13-year-old black boy addicted to heroin, which was subsequently made into a movie in 1978. Other plays written by Childress include JUST A LITTLE SIMPLE (1950), WEDDING BAND: A LOVE/HATE STORY IN BLACK AND WHITE (1966) and GULLAH (1984). Alice Childress died in New York in 1994. Throughout her career, she examined the true meaning of being black, and especially of being black and female. As Childress herself once said, "I concentrate on portraying have-nots in a have society." ABOUT NEW FEDERAL THEATRE New Federal Theatre (NFT) was founded by Woodie King, Jr. as a creative haven for Black artists, developing their inclusion in the mainstream of American Theatre, and producing stories that inform, uplift, and heal. The name came out of the Federal Theatre Project created under the FDR administration and directed by Hallie Flannigan from 1935 to 1939. The Federal Theatre Project had 35 Negro Units across America. In 1970, inspired by the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s, New Federal Theatre picked up the fervor, incorporated as a nonprofit organization, and since has produced over 400 plays by writers of color and women, presented to Black and multicultural audiences. The company has consistently provided emerging and established playwrights with the opportunity to have their work produced. It has brought minority actors, directors, and designers to national attention and its vocational training workshops prepared Black people for employment in the theatre. New Federal Theatre is one of the pillars of Black Theatre – invaluable to the community and other Black Institutions. In the 70s and 80s, New Federal Theatre was at the vanguard of a vibrant Black Theatre movement, launching countless Black artists' careers and presenting original productions of works by playwrights such as Ron Milner, J.e. Franklin, Ed Bullins, Pearl Cleage, Charles Fuller, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Laurence Holder, Ntozake Shange, Amiri Baraka: Slave Ship, What the Wine Sellers Buy, Black Girl, The Taking of Miss Janie, Zora, When The Chickens Came Home To Roost, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Was Enuf, In My Many Names And Days, James Baldwin; Soul On Fire, The Dance and the Railroad. NFT helped launch the careers of many well-known actors, including Denzel Washington, Debbie Allen, Phylicia Rashad, S. Epatha Merkerson, Issa Rae, La Tanya Richardson Jackson, Samuel L. Jackson, Chadwick Boseman, and Morgan Freeman. ABOUT CAROL FISHMAN Carol Fishman began her career as a production stage manager on and off Broadway. She served as a Production Supervisor for numerous Off-Broadway productions including the legendary Blue Man Group: Tubes. For 14 years, she served as Managing Director and Production Manager of Second Stage Theatre where she produced over 70 productions and oversaw the construction of the organization's 296-seat theater. While there, Fishman worked on the NY premieres of Mary Zimmerman's Metamorphoses, August Wilson's Jitney, Stephen Sondheim's Saturday Night, Kenneth Lonergan's This Is Our Youth, Cheryl West's Jar the Floor, and the acclaimed revivals of Edward Albee's Tiny Alice and Wendy Wasserstein's Uncommon Women and Others. She joined Playwrights Horizons as General Manager in 2008 where she helped produce such landmark productions as Annie Baker's Circle Mirror Transformation and The Flick, Bruce Norris' Clybourne Park, Anne Washburn's Mr. Burns, Jordan Harrison's Marjorie Prime and Michael R. Jackson's A Strange Loop to name a few. Fishman served for many years as Vice-President of the Off Broadway League and is a Trustee of the SDC Pension and Welfare Funds. ABOUT THE LUCILLE LORTEL AWARDS The Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Achievement Off-Broadway were created in 1985 by the Off-Broadway League. The Lortel Awards recognize excellence in Off-Broadway by honoring the invaluable contribution of artists to the theatre community. Representatives of the Off-Broadway League, Actors' Equity Association, Stage Directors & Choreographers Society, United Scenic Artists, the Lucille Lortel Theatre, in addition to theatre journalists, academics and other Off-Broadway professionals, serve on the Voting Committee. Awards may be given in the following categories: Play, Musical, Solo Show, Revival, Alternative Theatrical Experience, Director, Choreographer, Lead Performer in a Play and Musical, Featured Performer in a Play and Musical, Ensemble, Scenic, Costume, Lighting, Sound, and Projection Design. The following honorary awards may also be given: Lifetime Achievement Award, Body of Work (awarded to an institution), Edith Oliver Service to Off-Broadway Award, and induction onto the Playwrights' Sidewalk in front of the historic Lucille Lortel Theatre in New York City. For more information, please see www.LortelAwards.org. ABOUT THE OFF-BROADWAY LEAGUE The Off-Broadway League was founded in 1959 to foster theatrical productions produced in Off-Broadway theatres (productions in Manhattan in venues with 76-499 seats), to assist in the voluntary exchange of information among its members, and to serve as a collective voice of its membership in pursuit of these goals. In recent years the League has grown to represent an average of 150 individual members and theatres and 100 non-for-profit and commercial shows per season. ABOUT THE LUCILLE LORTEL THEATRE Lucille Lortel Theatre's mission is to foster both new and established artists, increase awareness and appreciation of Off-Broadway, and uphold fair and equitable business and artistic practices in service of creating a larger, more diverse community of theatre makers and audiences. The Company builds on the legacy of its founder, Lucille Lortel (1900–1999) who was a champion of work by Samuel Beckett, Caryl Churchill, Athol Fugard, Jean Genet, Adrienne Kennedy, Larry Kramer, Terrence McNally, Marsha Norman, Sam Shepard, and Wendy Wasserstein. In addition to its Off-Broadway theatre, which has been in continuous operation since 1955, the Company is renovating a three-story carriage house in Chelsea that will act as the Company's new headquarters. Its programs include The Alcove at the Lortel, a commissioning and development program for early and mid-career playwrights; the 121 Project, a bespoke development program for new musicals; NYC Public High School Playwriting Fellowship, Fellowships in NYC Theatre at Bennington College, the New York Emmy-Winning Dangerous Acts: A Series Uplifting Black Writers from Our Past (in partnership with HBCUs), Lucille Lortel Awards and Playwrights' Sidewalk, Internet Off-Broadway Database (IOBDB.com), and Non-Profit Theatre Strategic and Management Services. For more information, please visit www.lortel.org . ABOUT TDF Founded in 1968, TDF (formerly known as Theatre Development Fund) is a not-for-profit service organization dedicated to sharing the power of the performing arts with everyone. TDF's mission is to engage a broad and diverse audience by removing the financial, physical, and invisible barriers to participation in the performing arts. TDF's initiatives include the TKTS by TDF Discount Booths; TDF Memberships; the TDF Costume Collection; and TDF Accessibility, Education, and Public Engagement Programs. Those Programs include open captioned, audio described, and ASL-interpreted performances; Autism Friendly Performances; the Veterans Theatregoing Program; school programs serving more than 11,000 NYC public school students annually; and partnerships with over 150 NYC community organizations serving 18,000 people in the tristate area. TDF envisions a world where the transformative experience of attending live theatre and dance is essential, relevant, accessible, and inspirational. To learn more about TDF, go to tdf.org; Facebook/Instagram/Threads: @tdfnyc. ABOUT NYU SKIRBALL NYU Skirball, located in the heart of Greenwich Village, is one of New York City's major presenters of international work, and has been the premier venue for cultural and performing arts events in lower Manhattan since 2003. The 850-seat theater, led by Director Jay Wegman, provides a home for internationally renowned artists, innovators, and thinkers and presents ground-breaking events ranging from re-inventions of the classics to cutting-edge premieres, in genres ranging from dance, theater and performance arts to comedy, music and film. NYU Skirball's unique position within New York University enables it to draw on the University's intellectual riches and resources to enhance its programming with dialogues, public forums and conversations with artists, philosophers, scientists, Nobel Laureates, and journalists. nyuskirball.org. |
|
| reply | |
|
|
|
| Previous: | TADA! Youth Theater Announces 40th Anniversary - Official_Press_Release 05:55 pm EST 01/16/25 |
| Next: | Milos Forman's movie version of "Ragtime" on TCM tonight at 9:45 PM ET - PlayWiz 02:28 pm EST 01/16/25 |
| Thread: | |
Time to render: 0.016520 seconds.