Judges Announced for 54th Annual Obie Awards

The Village Voice, the nation's first and largest alternative weekly newspaper, announced the judges for the 54th Annual Village Voice Obie Awards. The Voice's chief theater critic, Michael Feingold, will again chair the Obie Awards committee. Joining him will be Voice critic Alexis Soloski and six guest judges: Eric Grode, New York Sun; Andy Probst, AmericanTheaterWeb.com (also a frequent Voice contributor); Eisa Davis, actress-playwright, Obie Award winner for her performance last year in 'Passing Strange'; Ty Jones, actor-playwright, 2003 Obie Award winner for his performance in 'The Blacks' (Classical Theatre of Harlem); Moises Kaufman, playwright-director, 2004 Obie Award winner for his direction of 'I Am My Own Wife'; Chay Yew, playwright-director, 2007 Obie Award winner for his direction of 'Durango' (Public Theater). Mr. Propst will also serve as secretary to the committee.

For more than half a century, The Village Voice Obie Awards have honored the best of Off-Broadway and Off-Off Broadway. Unlike most theater awards, the Obies do not publicize nominations or employ rigid categories in which a "Best" is selected. In the conviction that creativity is not competitive, the judges select outstanding artists and productions in each major category, and may even invent new categories to reward artistic merit. Past winners have included well-known stars such as Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep, William Hurt, Morgan Freeman, Mos Def, Amy Irving, Kevin Kline, Nathan Lane, Olympia Dukakis, Robert Duvall, Denzel Washington, Kevin Bacon, Alec Baldwin, Kathy Bates, James Earl Jones, Joan Cusack and Harvey Fierstein, to name a few. 

Producer Eileen Phelan and publicist Gail Parenteau return to serve the Village Voice Obies for the 16th consecutive year. Ms. Phelan will produce and direct the Obie Awards Ceremony, staging the event and coordinating the presenters, hosts and entertainment for the ceremony. Ms. Parenteau will handle publicity and media relations and will assist with promotion and event execution.

The presentation of the 2008-2009 Village Voice Obie Awards will be held on May 18, 2009, at a time and venue to be announced soon.

About the Judges:

Michael Feingold (Chairman) is entering his third year as Chairman of the Obie Awards Committee, and his third decade as chief theater critic of The Village Voice. A Pulitzer Prize finalist and a winner of the coveted George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism, he is also well known as a playwright, translator, and dramaturg. His translation of Brecht and Weill's 'Mahagonny' is currently available on DVD in a production by the LA Opera, starring Patti LuPone and Audra MacDonald.

Eisa Davis won an Obie Award last year for her share in the ensemble performance of 'Passing Strange,' which she will reprise in the forthcoming Spike Lee film version. Her play Bulrusher was a finalist for the 2008 Pulitzer Prize in Drama. This April she will appear in her new play 'Angela's Mixtape,' to be produced by New Georges at the Ohio Theatre.

Eric Grode has been chief theater critic for the New York Sun since 2005. He has also written for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, American Theater, Time Out New York, Broadway.com, and Playbill.com. He is vice-president of the New York Drama Critics Circle and is on the advisory board for Syracuse University's Goldring Arts Journalism Program.

Ty Jones won a 2003 Obie Award for his performance in 'The Blacks.' His Broadway credits include 'Julius Caesar' with Denzel Washington, 'Henry IV' with Kevin Kline, and 'Judgment at Nuremberg.' He has received two AUDELCO Award nominations and a Drama Desk Award for his work with Classical Theater of Harlem which includes, in addition to 'The Blacks,' major roles in 'Macbeth,' 'Trojan Women,' and 'King Lear.' His frequent film and TV appearances include 'The Taking of Pelham 123,' 'The International,' Brian De Palma's 'Redacted,' and every edition of 'Law & Order.' His play 'Emancipation' was produced in New York last year, and TimeOut NY named him "One of 25 to Watch".

Moisés Kaufman received a 2004 Obie Award for his direction of Doug Wright's I Am My Own Wife (Playwrights Horizons), for which he also subsequently received a Tony Award nomination. His plays Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde and The Laramie Project have been among the most performed plays in America over the last decade. Mr. Kaufman also received an Emmy nomination for the television production of The Laramie Project. He is the Artistic Director of Tectonic Theater Project and a Guggenheim Fellow in Playwriting.

Andy Propst (Secretary) is the founder and editor of AmericanTheaterWeb.com. In addition to writing regularly for this nationally recognized online resource, he frequently contributes reviews to The Village Voice. His byline can also often be found on reviews in Back Stage and in TimeOut NY. He has served on the Executive Committee of the American Theatre Critics Association and as a Drama Desk Awards nominator

Alexis Soloski is a theater critic for The Village Voice. Her writing has also appeared in The New York Times, Theater magazine, Modern Painters, Salon, and in American Theater, where she served as a Jerome Fellow. She teaches writing and literature at Barnard College and Columbia University.

Chay Yew won a 2007 Obie Award for his direction of Julia Cho's 'Durango' (Public Theater). His own plays have been produced by the Public, Manhattan Theater Club, the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, New Haven's Long Wharf Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, and the Royal Court in London. His directing credits include work at the Public, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, and Actors Theater of Louisville.

For advertising, promotional tie-ins and product placement, contact Mauro DeCeglie mdeceglie@villagevoice.com.  Theaters interested in having their work considered by the Obie Judges may send invitations and press materials to the Obie Awards Committee at the following e-mail address: Obieawards09@gmail.com.  For press information concerning the 2009 Obie Awards ceremony contact: Gail Parenteau at Parenteau Guidance 212-532-3934, gail@parenteauguidance.com.
 
Founded by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, and Norman Mailer in October 1955, The Village Voice introduced free-form, high-spirited and passionate journalism into the public discourse. As the nation's first and largest alternative newsweekly, the Voice maintains the same tradition of no-holds-barred reporting and criticism it first embraced when it began publishing over fifty years ago. The recipient of three Pulitzer prizes, the National Press Foundation Award, and the George Polk Award, among others, the Voice has earned a reputation for its groundbreaking investigations of New York City politics, and as the premier expert on New York's cultural scene. Writing and reporting on local and national politics, with opinionated arts, culture, music, dance, film and theater reviews, daily web dispatches, comprehensive entertainment listings, and unrivaled classifieds, the Voice is the authoritative source on all that is New York.

The Village Voice has also created such celebrated events as the Obie Awards, Siren Music Festival, kNow Music Series, Choice Eats, as well as the most anticipated issues and guides of the year including the annual Pazz and Jop music poll, Best of NYC, and its Spring, Summer, and Fall Preview guides, the Voice is New York's most influential must-read alternative newspaper in print and online at www.villagevoice.com where the site averages 2 million unique users each month.

Visit www.villiagevoice.com/obies for more information about the Obie Awards.