Photo Flash: BMI Receives Drama Desk Award

Drama Desk President William Wolf recently stopped by the BMI New York office to hand deliver the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop's crystal statuette. The Workshop, honored at the 2006 ceremony held last month in New York, received the special award "for nurturing, developing and promoting new talent for the musical theater." The annual Drama Desk Awards honor excellence in theater for Broadway, Off Broadway and Off-Off Broadway during the season.

"Deemed 'the Harvard of musical theatre' by The New York Times, the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop was founded in 1961 by performing right organization BMI and the late Lehman Engel, dean of American musical theatre, to create a setting where new writers could learn their craft. It is the birthplace of such classic musicals as A Chorus Line, Nine, Little Shop of Horrors, Beauty and the Beast, and current Broadway favorite Avenue Q. The Workshop also received the 2005 Drama League Award for Excellence in Musical Theatre," according to press notes.

Now celebrating more than 65 years in business, BMI is an American performing right organization that represents more than 300,000 songwriters, composers and publishers in all genres of music. With a repertoire of more than 6.5 million musical works from around the world, the non-profit-making corporation collects license fees from businesses that use music, which it then distributes as royalties to the musical creators and copyright owners it represents. Visit www.bmi.com for more information.

Photo by Dana Rodriguez

Drama Desk President William Wolf (center) presents the Workshop's special award to BMI's Jean Banks and Del Bryant