Elliot Norton Awards to Honor Michael Maso, 5/17

The StageSource Board of Directors has named long-time Huntington Theatre Company Managing Director Michael Maso as the recipient of the 2010 StageSource Theatre Hero Award.  The Theatre Hero Award is being presented to Maso for his service, inspiration and role as a champion to Boston area theatres and the arts. The Elliot Norton Awards will take place at the Paramont Theatre on May 17.

 Maso has been at the helm of the Huntington since 1982 and has long been a respected local and national arts leader. He has been instrumental in making the Huntington a place for theatre artists to thrive, and he has extended his philosophy throughout the cultural community in Greater Boston. His service on various boards including StageSource, ArtsBoston, and Massachusetts Advocates for Arts, Sciences and Humanities coupled with his drive and leadership in the development and creation of the Calderwood Pavilion has changed and improved the local theatre scene at all levels. The Calderwood has provided a home for many local organizations, shined the spotlight on new play development, and serves as a hub for the theatre community.

 As Managing Director of the Huntington Theatre Company, Michael Maso has led its administrative and financial operations since 1982, producing more than 150 plays in partnership with three artistic directors and leading the Huntington's ten-year drive to build the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, which opened in September 2004. In recognition of these efforts, he was honored by the Boston Herald as 2004's Theatre Man of the Year. Mr. Maso is the immediate past president of the League of Resident Theatres (LORT), an association of 70 of the country's major not-for-profit professional theatres.  Mr. Maso is an associate professor of theatre at Boston University.

The Elliot Norton Awards are presented annually to recognize achievement in the Greater Boston theatre community.  The Norton Awards originated in the Norton Medal first bestowed in 1983 and since then awards now include Lifetime Achievement Award, the Norton Prize for Sustained Excellence, and more than a dozen awards to outstanding productions, performers, directors and designers.

The awards were founded in honor of Elliot Norton, who served as drama critic for Boston newspapers for forty-eight years and as moderator of Elliot Norton Reviews on WGBH-TV from 1958-1982. Mr. Norton reviewed more than 6,000 productions in New York and other American cities, and abroad, and in 1971 he received a special Tony Award from the League of American Theatres and Producers. Mr. Norton was born in Boston in 1903 and died in 2003 at the age of 100 years old.

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