Lea DeLaria Hosts 61st Annual Obie Awards

On Monday, May 23 at Webster Hall, Obie and Screen Actors Guild� Award-winning actress Lea DeLaria will return as the host of this year's Obie Awards.

The American Theatre Wing (Heather Hitchens, President) and The Village Voice (Peter Barbey, Owner) are thrilled to announce that the star-studded line-up of presenters at the 61st Annual Obie Awards will include Obie Award� winner Colman Domingo, Obie Award� winner Danai Gurira, Maura Tierney, Kate Burton, Obie Award� winner Savion Glover, three-time Obie Award� winner Elizabeth Marvel, Carrie Preston, Norm Lewis, Obie Award� winner Tovah Feldshuh, Marlo Thomas, and two-time Obie Award� winner Lisa Kron. The evening will include special performances by cast members of "Orange Is The New Black," 2016 Tony Award� nominee Leslie Odom Jr., and Ben Platt.
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Legendary actor/dancer/choreographer Carmen de Lavallade and renowned playwright A.R. Gurney will each receive a special Obie Award� for Lifetime Achievement at this year's ceremony.
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The Obie Award judges panel for this season, headed by Village Voice columnist and longtime Obie chairman Michael Feingold, included Obie-winning actress Quincy Tyler Bernstine, Obie-winning director Oliver Butler, Obie-winning costume designer Clint Ramos, Obie-winning actress Juliet Rylance, Variety senior critic Marilyn Stasio, and freelance theatre critic Michael Sommers.

The Village Voice (Peter Barbey, Owner) created the Obie Awards, at the suggestion of then editor Jerry Tallmer,�soon after the publication's own inception in 1955, to encourage the newly burgeoning Off-Broadway theater movement and to acknowledge its achievements. The Obies are structured with informal categories, to recognize artists and productions worthy of distinction in each theatrical year.

Over the decades, the Obie Awards have played a major role in the Voice's long history of championing work of innovative and exceptional quality Off and Off-Off Broadway.�The Village Voice put the new downtown theater movement on the map with its in-depth coverage, becoming a forum for conflicting viewpoints which helped generate excitement over new works and new approaches to theater-making.

The Obies have become a theatrical tradition, a meaningful way to acknowledge the best artistic achievements of downtown theater.� The list of actors, writers, directors, and designers who have received Obies at pivotal moments in their careers is a virtual who's who of contemporary theater. While the categories of the awards have continued to change almost annually, the creative spirit remains the same. The Obie Awards continue to salute a theatrical movement that's as important, and as vibrant, today as it was in 1955.
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The American Theatre Wing (Heather Hitchens, President) is dedicated to advancing artistic excellence and nurturing theatre's next generation: on the stage, behind the scenes, and in the audience. For nearly a century, the Wing has pursued this mission with programs that span the nation to invest in the growth and evolution of American Theatre.

Traditionally, the Wing has encouraged members of the theatre community to share their off-stage time and talent directly with the theatre audience at large -- whether it was singing for the troops in the Stage Door Canteen of the 1940's, or sharing their stories on a podcast today.

As the founders of The Tony Awards�, the American Theatre Wing has developed the foremost national platform for the recognition of theatrical achievement on Broadway. Yet the Wing's reach extends beyond Broadway and beyond New York. The Wing develops the next generation of theatre professionals through the SpringboardNYC and Theatre Intern Network programs, incubates innovative theatre across the country through the National Theatre Company Grants, fosters the song of American theatre through the Jonathan Larson Grants, honors the best in New York theatrical design with the Henry Hewes Design Award, and illuminates the creative process through the "Working in the Theatre" program and media archive.

Beginning last season, the American Theatre Wing has entered into a long-term partnership with The Village Voice to co-present The Obie Awards, Off-Broadway's Highest Honor. The 61st Annual Obie Awards will be held in May 2016. Visitors to americantheatrewing.org can get inspired and gain insight into the artistic process through the Wing's extensive media collection, and learn more about its programming for students, aspiring and working professionals, and audiences.

The Village Voice and the American Theatre Wing are grateful to Viacom for its leadership support of the Obie Awards. Supporting Sponsors and partners are: Athletics, Clear Channel Spectacolor, The Howard Gilman Foundation, India Restaurant New Canaan, Serino/Coyne, 3-Legged Dog, and Ivie Joy Floral Arts + Events.

Founded in 1955 by a small group that included Norman Mailer, The Village Voice was the nation's first alternative newsweekly. Over the years it has been a home to a wide range of writers and artists, from e.e. Cummings and Katherine Anne Porter to Ezra Pound, James Baldwin, photographer Sylvia Plachy, cartoonist Lynda Barry, investigative journalists Wayne Barrett and Tom Robbins, music writer Robert Christgau, and film writer J. Hoberman, among many others.

The Voice, which has won three Pulitzers, has always been an aggressive interrogator of the powers that be, as well as a force for finding and promoting cutting edge arts and culture.

The Obie Awards will be held on Monday, May 23, at Webster Hall, 125 East 11th Street in New York City.

This year's Obie Awards will be live streamed on the official Obie Awards Facebook page. For information, visit www.facebook.com/ObieAwards or www.ObieAwards.com.