Drama Desk Awards Nominations Announced April 27; Ceremony Held May 21

The 51st Annual Drama Desk Awards will be held on Sunday, May 21, 2006 at 9:00 PM, at the LaGuardia Concert Hall at Lincoln Center, 100 Amsterdam Avenue. The announcement was made by William Wolf, President of the Drama Desk, and Robert R. Blume, Executive Producer of the Drama Desk Awards.

The Drama Desk Awards, which celebrate excellence in all sectors of New York's theatre world, will be taped and subsequently broadcast as a two hour special nationwide on PBS stations. In New York, the program will be shown on Thirteen/WNET and on NYC-25 TV. The broadcast package was arranged by multiple Emmy Award-winner Roy A. Somlyo, who joined the Drama Desk Awards as Consulting Producer in 2004 after serving five years as President/CEO of the American Theatre Wing. Associated with the Tony Awards since 1967, Somlyo was Managing Producer for the Tonys from 1987 to 1998. The awards ceremony will also be webcast by TheaterMania.com. 

Nominations for the 2005/2006 Drama Desk Awards will be announced on Thursday, April 27, 2006, at 9:30 AM at The New York Friars Club, 57 East 55th Street. Nominees will be announced in multiple categories honoring excellence during the 2005/2006 New York theatre season. The Drama Desk is the only major theatre award which considers Broadway, Off Broadway and Off-Off Broadway equally in all its multiple categories. The Drama Desk membership includes more than 130 voting theatre critics, reporters and editors.

The official cocktail reception for Drama Desk nominees, where they receive their official nomination certificates, will take place on Tuesday, May 2, 2006, from 4 to 7 PM at Café Arte, 106 West 73rd Street (between Columbus Avenue and Broadway).

"We are looking forward to a great awards show this year," stated Blume, Executive Producer of the Drama Desk Awards for the past eight years. "This has been an excellent theatre season with many exciting productions on and Off Broadway. Each year we try to keep our ceremony fresh and lively, with participation by some of the theatre world's biggest luminaries. This year promises to be one of our best shows ever with major stars as presenters and musical number performances from acclaimed Broadway and Off Broadway productions. I am also excited by the growing public television audience that will be able to share the glamour and excitement of the Drama Desk Awards show this year."

The theatre community has long supported the Drama Desk Awards. In recent years, the Drama Desk Awards ceremony, produced and directed by Lauren Class Schneider and Jeff Kalpak, respectively, has been hosted by such stage luminaries as Harvey Fierstein, Chita Rivera, Bernadette Peters and Rue McClanahan. Participants have included Hugh Jackman, Antonio Banderas, Bebe Neuwirth, Lynn and Vanessa Redgrave, Frank Langella, Alan Bates, Audra McDonald, Christopher Plummer, Kristin Chenoweth, Idina Menzel and John Lithgow, among others.

In addition to honoring creative artists and stage productions in multiple categories, the Drama Desk annually presents scholarships to two worthy seniors in the Drama Department of the LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts who are planning careers in the theatre. Last year the Drama Desk also presented four public seminars with leading theatre personalities as panelists.

Members of the Drama Desk Nominating Committee for the 2005/2006 season include: Barbara Siegel, Committee Chair ("The Siegel Column" on TheaterMania.com and Siegel Entertainment Syndicate [radio]); Michael Buckley ("Channeling Theatre" column at Playbill On-Line); Christopher Byrne (Gay City News and The Villager); Matthew Murray (TalkinBroadway.com, Stage Directions magazine); Andy Propst (AmericanTheaterWeb.com and XM Satellite Radio); Richard Ridge (Broadway Beat TV); and William Wolf (wolfentertainmentguide.com, President, The Drama Desk).

For more information, visit www.dramadesk.org.

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