The Village Voice 59th Annual Obie Awards
The glitterati of New York’s Off and Off-Off-Broadway theater worlds gathered Monday night to celebrate The Village Voice 59th Annual Obie Awards.
In a traditionally styled awards ceremony at Webster Hall, The Village Voice awarded Obies for performance, playwrighting, design, and direction for productions in New York’s medium (100-499 seats) and small (up to 99 seats) theaters. In addition to these awards, the Obie Awards Committee (composed of six journalists and artists) annually names a Best New American Play and makes Obie Grants, cash prizes awarded to theater companies. This year the Committee awarded Best New American Play to Branden Jacobs-Jenkins for his two plays An Octroon and Appropriate and granted $2,000 Obie Grants to 600 Highwaymen and 48 Hours in Harlem.
The ceremony was hosted by Hamish Linklater (soon to be appearing in Much Ado About Nothing at the Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park) and Tamara Tunie (recently in The Library at the Public Theater). Highlights of the evening included a performance by Sydney Lucas of the song “Ring of Keys” from Fun Home and a Lifetime Achievement Award granted to Estelle Parsons.
Here’s a full list of the award winners.
PERFORMANCE
Marylouise Burke, sustained excellence of performance
John Ellison Conlee, The (Curious Case of the) Watson Intelligence (Playwrights Horizons)
Johanna Day, Appropriate (Signature)
K. Todd Freeman, Fetch Clay, Make Man (New York Theatre Workshop)
John Earl Jelks, Sunset Baby (Labyrinth) & Fetch Clay, Make Man (New York Theatre Workshop)
Mia Katigbak, Awake and Sing (National Asian American Theatre Company)
Sydney Lucas, Fun Home (Public Theater)
Chris Myers, An Octoroon (Soho Rep)
Larry Pine, A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay About the Death of Walt Disney (Soho Rep)
PLAYWRITING
Will Eno, The Open House (Signature)
MUSICAL THEATER
Lisa Kron (author), Jeanine Tesori (composer), and Sam Gold (director), Fun Home (Public Theater)
DIRECTION
Oliver Butler, The Open House (Signature)
James Macdonald, Love and Information (NYTW)
Liesl Tommy, Appropriate (Signature)
DESIGN
Emmanuel Brown (fight direction) and Sonya Tayeh (choreography), Kung Fu (Signature)
Ben Rubin (projections), Arguendo (Elevator Repair Service at Public Theater)
Eric Southern (lighting design), The Correspondent (Rattlestick)
Justin Townsend, Sustained excellence of lighting design
SPECIAL CITATIONS
Mallory Catlett, This Was the End (Chocolate Factory)
Heather Christian (music), Jiyoun Chang (lighting), and Hannah Wasileski (projections), The World Is Round (Ripe Time at BAM Fisher)
Rattlestick Playwrights Theater and Lucy Thurber, The Hill Town Plays
OBIE GRANTS
600 Highwaymen
48 Hours in Harlem
THE ROSS WETZSTEON AWARD
Abrons Arts Center
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Estelle Parsons
BEST PLAY AWARD
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Appropriate (Signature) and An Octoroon (Soho Rep)