Henry Hewes Design Awards Presented In New York

The Henry Hewes Design Awards Committee honored the four 2018 honorees of the 54th annual Henry Hewes Design Awards at a luncheon in New York yesterday which was attended by some of the top theater designers in the country. The 2017-18 honorees were David Zinn, Emily Rebholz, Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew and Palmer Hefferan.

Ming Cho Lee, the legendary set designer was also presented with the first Henry Hewes Design Award for Lifetime Achievement which has been renamed for its first recipient, and will now be called, The Ming Cho Lee Award for Lifetime Achievement in Design.

"This event has always been a wonderful, annual meeting place for theater designers," said Jeffrey Eric Jenkins, chairman of the Henry Hewes Design Awards Committee. "There is no better place to announce that we have renamed the lifetime achievement award after the legendary Ming Cho Lee".

Also in attendance were Michael Yeargan, Riccardo Hernandez, Catherine Zuber, William Ivey Long, Christopher Akerlind, Nevin Steinberg, Meredith Ries, Natasha Katz, Jules Fisher, Linda Cho and many others.

Honors for the 2017-2018 awards were earned by artists working on, off and off-off Broadway.

2018 Hewes Design Award Honorees:

Scenic Design:
David Zinn (SpongeBob SquarePants, Broadway)
Accepted by Meredith Ries
Presented by Riccardo Hernandez

Costume Design:
Emily Rebholz (The Low Road, Public Theater)
Presented by Catherine Zuber

Lighting Design:
Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew (KPOP, Ars Nova)
Presented by Christopher Akerlind

Notable Effects (Sound Design):
Palmer Hefferan (Today Is My Birthday, Page 73 Productions)
Presented by Nevin Steinberg

Ming Cho Lee's Lifetime Achievement Award was presented by Michael Yeargan.

All four of the 2018 honorees are receiving their first award from the Hewes committee. For the 2018 honors, 87 theater artists were nominated for outstanding artistry in 55 productions presented during the 2017-2018 New York Theater season.

These annual awards honor designers for work in venues on Broadway, off Broadway and off-off Broadway, recognizing not only the traditional categories of Scenic Design, Costume Design and Lighting Design, but also Notable Effects,which encompass sound, music, video, projections, puppetry, and other creative elements. All nominated designs must have originated in United States productions. The Hewes Awards Committee annually considers more than 200 productions when making its nominations.

Palmer Hefferan and Riccardo Hernández led all artists with three nominations each for their design work. Thirteen other designers received two nominations each for their work during the 2016-2017 season. The Disney musical, Frozen, received five nominations and twenty-three other productions each received multiple nominations.

The HHDA Committee named honorees in four categories: Scenic Design, Costume Design, Lighting Design and Notable Effects. As of the 2018 awards, the Committee has bestowed 308 honors on 199 artists representing 216 productions.

Known as the Maharam Awards at their inception in 1965, the Hewes Awards were later known as the American Theatre Wing Design Awards in honor of the Wings generous sponsorship. They were renamed in 1999 for noted critic Henry Hewes, who created the awards and served as a board member of the American Theatre Wing until his death in 2006 at age 89.

The Henry Hewes Design Awards Committee includes theater critics Jeffrey Eric Jenkins, chair; David Barbour; David Cote; Glenda Frank; Helen Shaw; Michael Sommers; and Martha Wade Steketee. The awards are sponsored by the Henry Hewes Foundation for the Theater Arts.