Jeremy Irons Set To Announces 2nd Annual Theater Master's Visionary Awards 5/14

Broadway and film star Jeremy Irons will announce the second annual Theater Master's Visionary Award winners on Thursday, May 14th at a gala reception at the Manhattan home of Theater Masters' founder Julia Hansen. Theater Masters selects acclaimed theaters to propose candidates for this honor. Winning playwrights are invited to attend Aspen Institute's noted "Aspen Ideas Festival," and are jointly commissioned by the nominating theatre and Theater Masters to write a full-length play that embraces timeless values and powerful issues. This year's program will include New York's Primary Stages and The Dallas Theater Center. Celebrated actors Marian Seldes, Simon Jones and Karen Ziemba will also be attending the event.

Based in Aspen, Colorado, Theater Masters is a non-profit organization whose core mission is to seek and nurture the next generation of artists for the American Theatre and present their work. "Along with some of the country's finest regional theatre artistic directors, we have found these remarkable writers who are some of the finest young playwrights this country is developing" said Julia Hansen, Theater Masters founder and Artistic Director - and former President of New York's Drama League. "In many ways, how I started the Drama League's "Director's Project" is how I am now fostering new playwrights and giving them chance to have their work nurtured and developed."

In 2008, Theater Masters initiated the Visionary Playwrights Award, in partnership with the Aspen Institute and three of America's top regional theaters: Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago, La Jolla Playhouse in California, and Playwrights Horizons in NYC.

Theater Masters Advisory Board includes: Alec Baldwin, Andre Bishop, Gordon Davidson, Scott Ellis, A.R. Gurney , Doug Hughes, Judy Kaye, Andrew Leynse, Samuel Liff, John Lithgow, Robert Moss, Brian Murray, Jack O'Brien, Neil Pepe and John Rando.