Josephine Abady News

Award presenters for the 2021 Theatre Women Awards Virtual Gala, presented by the League of Professional Theatre Women on Monday, June 7 at 7pm, will include actress/director Martha Gehman; composer/director Troy Anthony; former League President Joan D. Firestone; Joe Barros, Artistic Director of The New York Theatre Barn and more.

Estelle Parsons will be honored, along with a diverse group of six other remarkable women theatre artists, at the League of Professional Theatre Women’s Theatre Women Awards virtual gala. This major event in the LPTW calendar will be presented online via Zoom on Monday, June 7 at 7pm.

Tamilla Woodard has been appointed Chair of the Acting Department at Yale School of Drama and Resident Director at Yale Repertory Theatre. She will be working part-time this spring to prepare for the upcoming academic year; her five-year term begins officially on July 1, 2021. 

The Dramatists Guild's Institute for Field Learning has announced a National Teach-In for Art and Healing on Friday, February 26 to Sunday, February 28. Designed to help theatre professionals of all disciplines keep their artistic spirits kindled during this long, difficult winter lockdown, workshops will cover writing, solo performance and more.

WP THEATER has announced the 15 artists selected for the 2020-2022 WP Lab. The two-year residency begins now and culminates with the biennial WP Pipeline Festival.

Lincoln Center Theater has announced that award-winning director Lileana Blain-Cruz will join its artistic staff in the full-time senior staff position of Resident Director.

Stephanie Ybarra, who currently serves as artistic director at Baltimore Center Stage and is also a co-founder of Artists Anti-Racism Coalition, recently was a guest on Variety's Stagecraft podcast, which she talked about racism in the theatre industry.

The Ronald O. Perelman Performing Arts Center today announced the appointment of Meiyin Wang as Producing Director, starting this June. Under the executive leadership of Artistic Director Bill Rauch and President Leslie Koch, Wang will manage all artistic programming for the new performing arts organization.

May and June episodes will feature Tony Award-winning director Diane Paulus, choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, and actor Elizabeth Stanley on their collaboration during Jagged Little Pill; Tony-winning director Michael Mayer with actors Jonathan Groff and Christian Borle on Little Shop of Horrors; directors Lileana Blain-Cruz, Sheryl Kaller, and Desdemona Chiang; director Gaye Taylor Upchurch and playwright Lauren Gunderson on The Half-Life of Marie Curie; and more.

Working Theater has named Tamilla Woodard as its new Co-Artistic Director at the Drama Desk and AUDELCO award-winning off-Broadway company a?" joining veteran Co-Artistic Director, Mark Plesent a?" in advance of the company's 36th season.

Clubbed Thumb has announced the complete line-up for the 25th annual SUMMERWORKS, its festival of new plays. SUMMERWORKS will run May 15 - July 1, 2020 at The Wild Project (195 E. 3rd Street) in Manhattan and will feature productions of three new plays: SPINDLE SHUTTLE NEEDLE by Gab Reisman and directed by Tamilla Woodard; BODIES THEY RITUAL by Angela Hanks and directed by Knud Adams; and THE WOMAN'S PARTY by Rinne Groff and directed by Tara Ahmadinijad.

WP Theater, under the leadership of Producing Artistic Director Lisa McNulty and Managing Director Michael Sag, has announced that the world premiere of playwright and performer Donnetta Lavinia Grays' Where We Stand, co-presented by WP Theater and Baltimore Center Stage, will star Grays [Men on Boats, In The Next Room (or The Vibrator Play)], who will alternate select performances with David Ryan Smith (One Man, Two Guvnors; Passing Strange) beginning February 15. Directed by Tamilla Woodard (Hadestown Broadway associate director), previews begin Off-Broadway on Friday, January 31 at WP Theater with an opening night of February 11, 2020. The limited engagement at WP Theater will run through March 1, 2020 before playing Baltimore Center Stage April 2-26.

On Monday, March 25th The League of Professional Theatre Women (Kelli Lynn Harrison & Catherine Porter, Co-Presidents) presented the 2019 Theatre Women Awards at The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture (18 Bleecker Street, New York, NY 10012).

The League of Professional Theatre Women (Kelli Lynn Harrison & Catherine Porter, Co-Presidents) will present the 2019 Theatre Women Awards at The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture (18 Bleecker Street, New York, NY 10012) on Monday, March 25 beginning at 6:30pm (doors open at 6pm). Tickets ($85-$250) are available for advance purchase at www.theatrewomen.org.

The League of Professional Theatre Women (Kelli Lynn Harrison and Catherine Porter, Co-Presidents), an organization which has been leading the gender parity conversation and championing women in the professional theatre for over 35 years, will present the 2019 Theatre Women Awards at The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture (18 Bleecker Street, New York, NY 10012) on Monday, March 25 at 7pm (doors open at 6:30pm). For more information on the 2019 TheatreWomen Awards, and to purchase tickets, please visit www.theatrewomen.org.

The League of Professional Theatre Women (Kelli Lynn Harrison and Catherine Porter, Co-Presidents), an organization which has been leading the gender parity conversation and championing women in the professional theatre for over 35 years, will present the 2019 Theatre Women Awards at The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture (18 Bleecker Street, New York, NY 10012) on Monday, March 25 at 7pm (doors open at 6:30pm). For more information on the 2019 Theatre Women Awards, and to purchase tickets, please visit www.theatrewomen.org. 

Nancy Manocherian's the cell (Artistic Director Kira Simring) in Chelsea, New York City has announced Sandra A. Daley-Sharif's play Straddling the Edge as part of the cell's ongoing residency series. Artistic Director Kira Simring will direct and features Almeria Campbell, Jacqueline Gregg, Nathan Hinton, Justin Jorrell, Travis Raeburn and Robert McKay. Perri Gaffney will read stage directions.

On Friday, March 16 The League of Professional Theatre Women (Kelli Lynn Harrison & Lisa Rothe, Co-Presidents) presented the 2018 Theatre Women Awards at The TimesCenter, hosted by Florencia Lozano. The League of Professional Theatre Women's annual Theatre Women Awards are the only awards dedicated to honoring the theatrical work of women and their contributions to the field, across all disciplines. Actress Phylicia Rashadwas the recipient of the LPTW's prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award; playwright Rohina Malik received the Lee Reynolds Award; director Emily Joy Weiner the Josephine Abady Award; Colt Coeur artistic director Adrienne Campbell-Holt the LPTW Lucille Lortel Award; drama critic Linda Winer received the LPTW Special Award; and sound designer Cricket S. Myers the Ruth Morley Award.

The League of Professional Theatre Women (Kelli Lynn Harrison & Lisa Rothe, Co-Presidents) will present the 2018 Theatre Women Awards at The TimesCenter (242 West 41st Street between 7th and 8th Avenues) on Friday, March 16 beginning at 6pm.

The Barbour Playwrights Award continues on Wednesday, March 21 at 7pm with a reading of Sandra A. Daley-Sharif's Straddling the Edge. Too many losses and not enough 'hellos' launch Sophia on a kaleidoscopic dreamscape quest for her identity as wife, mother, and Caribbean daughter. Can she maintain her balancing act to find firm ground? Or will the search itself send her over the edge?