Drama Desk Awards Set for 5/23; Nominations to Come 5/3

The 55th Annual Drama Desk Awards will take place on Sunday, May 23, 2010, at 9 PM at the F.H. LaGuardia Concert Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City, it was announced by Robert R. Blume, Executive Producer of the annual Drama Desk Awards ceremony, and William Wolf, President of the Drama Desk, an organization of theater critics, writers and editors that honors excellence in all areas of New York theatre, including Broadway, Off Broadway, Off Off Broadway and not-for-profit theater.
The nominations will be announced at a news conference on Monday, May 3, at 9:30 AM at the New York Friars Club, 57 East 55th Street. There will be a continental breakfast at 8:45 AM.

Organized in 1949, the Drama Desk presented its first awards in 1955. The Drama Desk Awards are unique in that Broadway, Off-Broadway and Off-Off Broadway shows and creative personnel compete in the same categories.

The 2009/2010 Nominating Committee for the Drama Desk Awards includes: Barbara Siegel (Chairperson) TalkinBroadway.com, TheaterMania.com; Christopher Byrne, Gay City News; Patrick Christiano, TheaterLife.com, Dan's Papers; David Kaufman, freelance and author; Gerard Raymond, Back Stage, The Advocate; Richard Ridge, Broadway Beat TV; and PaulAnne Simmons, CurtainUp.com, NY Theatre-wire.com.

Robert R. Blume is Executive Producer of the 55th Annual Drama Desk Awards, which will be co-presented by Theatermania.com, and Blume Media Group Ltd is the producing company. Lauren Class Schneider is Producer and Jeff Kalpak is Director of the Awards ceremony. For the production, the Associate Producers are Joseph Callari, Ellis Nassour and Les Schecter, who also serves as Director of Publicity and Promotions. Randie Levine-Miller is Special Events Director for the Drama Desk organization.

The Board of Directors of the Drama Desk is composed of William Wolf, President; Leslie (Hoban) Blake, Vice President; Charles Wright, Treasurer and 2nd Vice President; Richard Ridge, Secretary, Randy Gener, Isa Goldberg, Susan Haskins, John Istel, David Kaufman, Ellis Nassour and Sam Norkin.

For more information, visit www.dramadesk.com.