54th Annual Obie Award Winners Announced - RUINED, Groff, INISHMAAN, FELA!, HUMOR ABUSE & More

The Village Voice, the nation's largest alternative weekly newspaper 54th Annual OBIE awards took place on Monday, May 18,2009 at the newly landmarked Webster Hall in the East Village.

The OBIES were be co-hosted by Martha Plimpton and Daniel Breaker at an invitation-only ceremony.  

For the past half-century, the The Village Voice Obie Awards have honored the best of Off Broadway and Off-Off Broadway. Structured with informal categories that change annually, The Village Voice Obie Awards recognize persons and productions of excellence. Unlike most theater awards, The Village Voice Obie Awards have no nominations. In the conviction that creativity is not competitive, judges may give several Obies in each category, and may even invent new categories to reward artistic merit. 

The Voice's chief theater critic, Michael Feingold, chairs the Obie Awards committee again this year. His fellow judges include Voice critic Alexis Soloski and six guest judges: Eric Grode, freelance critic and Voice contributor; critic Andy Propst, AmericanTheaterWeb.com, also a frequent Voice contributor; Eisa Davis, actress-playwright, Obie Award winner for her performance last year in Passing Strange, and author of the upcoming Angela's Mixtape; Ty Jones, actor-playwright, 2003 Obie Award winner for his performance in The Blacks (Classical Theatre of Harlem); Moises Kaufman, playwright-director, 2004 Obie Award winner for his direction of I Am My Own Wife, and author of current Broadway hit 33 Variations ; Chay Yew, playwright-director, 2007 Obie Award winner for his direction of Durango (Public Theater) and this season Antebellum. Mr. Propst will also serve as secretary to the committee.

Lifetime Achievement Award

Earle Hyman

Best New American Play (includes a cash prize of $1,000)

RUINED by Lynn Nottage (Manhattan Theatre Club)

Performance

Francois Battiste, THE GOOD NEGRO (Public Theater)

Quincy Tyler Bernstine, RUINED (Manhattan Theatre Club)

Kevin T. Carroll, sustained excellence of performance

Saidah Arrika Ekulona, RUINED (Manhattan Theatre Club)

Jonathan Groff, PRAYER FOR MY ENEMY (Playwrights Horizons) and THE SINGING FOREST (Public Theater)

Birgit Huppuch, TELEPHONE (Foundry Theatre)

Russell Gebert Jones, RUINED (Manhattan Theatre Club)

Aaron Monaghan, THE CRIPPLE OF INISHMAAN (Atlantic Theater Co.)

Sahr Ngaujah, FELA! (37 Arts)

Lorenzo Pisoni, HUMOR ABUSE (Manhattan Theatre Club)

James Sugg, CHEKHOV LIZARDBRAIN (Pig Iron Theatre Company)

John Douglas Thompson, OTHELLO (Theatre for a New Audience)

Music and Lyrics

Stephen Sondheim, ROAD SHOW (Public Theater)

Directing

David Cromer, OUR TOWN (Barrow Street Theatre)

Katie Mitchell, THE WAVES (National Theatre of Great Britain / Lincoln Center Great Performances "New Visions" Series)

Ken Rus Schmoll, TELEPHONE (Foundry Theatre)

Design

Toni-Leslie James, sustained excellence of costume design (with special reference to WIG OUT, Vineyard Theatre)

David Korins, sustained excellence of set design (with special reference to WHY TORTURE IS WRONG, AND THE PEOPLE WHO LOVE THEM, Public Theater)

Special Citations

Sarah Benson (director) and Louisa Thompson (set designer), BLASTED (Soho Rep)

David Esbjornson (director) and Christian Camargo (actor), HAMLET (Theatre for a New Audience)

The Ross Wetzsteon Award (includes a cash prize of $2,000)

HERE Arts Center

OBIE Grants ($10,000 divided equally among three theaters)

The Chocolate Factory

The Classical Theatre of Harlem

Lark Play Development Center

For more information about the 54th Annual Village Voice OBIE Awards, please visit www.villagevoice.com/Obies

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.