De Shields To Receive 'Living Legend' Award At 2009 National Black Theatre Festival's Awards Gala 8/3

Two-Time Tony Award nominee André De Shields will be honored with the "Living Legend" Award at The 2009 National Black Theatre Festival's Opening Night Gala and Awards banquet on Monday, August 3 in Winston-Salem, NC. The awards gala celebrating 20 years will kick off the Festival which runs through August 8.

Hot on the heels of a sold-out run of The Classical Theatre of Harlem's production of Archbishop Supreme Tartuffe in which he starred and for which he received unanimous rave reviews, Mr. De Shields will perform the role of Teiresias in Euripides' The Bacchae in The Public Theatre's production at The Delacorte Theatre in Central Park from August 11-30.

He will perform his solo work-in-progress Mine Eyes Have Seen The Glory: From Douglass to Deliverance (the life and achievements of the Great Emancipator, Frederick Douglass) over the Labor Day weekend at The Yard in Chilmark on Martha's Vineyard September 4, 5, 7. Visit www.dancetheyard.org.

De Shields will then travel to Atlanta to star in David Mamet's A Life in the Theatre, directed by Robert O'Hara at the ALLIANCE THEATRE from October 28 through November 15. Visit www.alliancetheatre.org.

The National Black Theatre Festival® (NBTF) is the international outreach program of the North Carolina Black Repertory Company, founded by the late Larry Leon Hamlin in 1979. The Festival, which runs from August 3 -8 this year, was also founded by Hamlin and has been held biannually since 1989. Among the recipients of the 2009 NBTF Awards will be Woodie King, Jr., the founder and producing director of New Federal Theatre.

For more infomation, visit www.nbtf.org.

Photo by Lia Chang.

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