CTG Announces Three Finalists for 2016 Sherwood Award

Three finalists have been selected for Center Theatre Group's 2016 Richard E. Sherwood Award: Miwa Matreyek, Dr. Chantal Rodriguez and Kevin Williamson. Center Theatre Group recognizes and celebrates this year's finalists for their exceptional contributions to the Los Angeles theatre landscape and their potential as innovative and adventurous artists.

Created in memory of Richard E. Sherwood, the $10,000 award provides financial support to emerging theatre artists working in Los Angeles who demonstrate leadership and push existing boundaries. The winner will be announced at the Ovation Awards, which will be held at the Ahmanson Theatre on November 9, 2015.

Miwa Matreyek is an animator, designer and multimedia artist creating work that takes place at the meeting point of cinema and performance. Her work explores how the live body and physical space can transform when combined with the projected image; where the body can take on a more fantastical quality and the video can seem more tangible and physically present. A graduate from CalArts, her work has been presented in theatres, galleries and film festivals around the world including TED, Sundance and REDCAT. She is a founding member and collaborator of the multimedia performance collective Cloud Eye Control.

Dr. Chantal Rodriguez is the Programming Director and Literary Manager for the Latino Theater Company at the Los Angeles Theatre Center (LATC) and received her Ph.D. in Theater and Performance Studies from UCLA. Rodriguez has helped produce over 12 seasons of culturally diverse work at the LATC, including Encuentro 2014, the largest Latina/o theatre festival in over 25 years. As a producer/scholar, she is committed to bridging the gap between theory and practice. The UCLA Chicano Research Center Press published her monograph "The Latino Theatre Initiative/Center Theatre Group Papers" (2011), which was nominated for three Latino Literacy Now International Book Awards. Recognized as a Young Leader of Color by Theatre Communications Group, Dr. Rodriguez is a steering committee member of the national Latina/o Theatre Commons and the Latino Theater Alliance of Los Angeles. She is currently an adjunct professor of theatre at CalArts and UCLA.

Kevin Williamson is a dance-theatre artist whose interdisciplinary work explores contemporary issues through movement, spoken word, media, text and sound. Williamson's work has been presented at REDCAT, Highways Performance Space, CounterPulse, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Beijing Dance Festival. Recently, he collaborated with director Jackson Gay on Sheila Callaghan's "Elevada" at Yale Repertory Theatre and Rolin Jones' "These Paper Bullets!" at the Geffen Playhouse. Williamson has also worked with director Peter Kazaras, creating original choreographies for UCLA Opera and the Juilliard School. He has performed with David Rousse?ve/REALITY, Maria Gillespie's Oni Dance, Los Angeles Contemporary Dance Company and LA Opera. Williamson received his MFA from UCLA's Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance and is a faculty member at Scripps College.

Originally created in 1996, the Sherwood Award has met a vital need in the theatre landscape to support emerging artists. "If we are to have a dynamic theatre expressing the world of the 21st century, we must recognize and nourish the explorative artist, particularly in the struggle of the early years of a career," said Dee Sherwood, wife of Richard E. Sherwood.

Richard E. Sherwood was a patron of the arts with a special appreciation for emerging artists who are in the vanguard of theatre. He was president and then chairman of the CTG Board of Directors from 1980 until his passing in 1993. The award is established as an endowed fund at CTG by his family, friends, colleagues and fellow board members, to honor Sherwood's passionate commitment to theatre.

Past recipients of the Richard E. Sherwood Award include Los Angeles artists Sean Cawelti of Rogue Artists Ensemble, Miranda Wright of Los Angeles Performance Practice, Lars Jan of Early Morning Opera, lighting designer Christopher Kuhl and costume designer Ann Closs-Farley, among others.