The League of Professional Theatre Women Will Present the 2023 Rachel Crothers Leadership Award to Anna Deavere Smith

The League of Professional Theatre Women (LPTW) announced that its 2023 Rachel Crothers Leadership Award® will be given to Anna Deavere Smith, multi-award-winning playwright, actress, professor, and author.

The LPTW Rachel Crothers Leadership Award® is given to a theatre woman who has made significant contributions to the American theatre while distinguishing herself in service for a cause that betters society and country.

The award will be presented on Monday, March 27, 2023, World Theatre Day, at the LPTW's Theatre Women Awards luncheon to be held from 1 - 3 pm at the Yotel Hotel's Green Room 42, at 570 10th Avenue (at West 42nd), New York, NY 10036. Seven LPTW Theatre Women Awards, announced earlier, will be presented at this ceremony.

Anna Deavere Smith is a playwright and actress. She's credited with having created a new form of theater. Her plays, which focus on contemporary issues from multiple points of view, are composed of excerpts of hundreds of interviews. Plays and films based on them include Fires in the Mirror and Twilight: Los Angeles, Let Me Down Easy, and Notes from the Field about the school-to-prison pipeline. Her work as an actress on television includes: Inventing Anna, The West Wing, Nurse Jackie and Black-ish. Mainstream movies include: Philadelphia, The American President, Rachel Getting Married and Billy Crystal's new movie Here Today. President Obama awarded Smith the National Endowment for the Humanities Medal. She's the recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship, several Obie awards, a Drama Desk award, and the George Polk Career Award in Journalism and the Dean's Medal from Stanford University School of Medicine. She was a runner-up for the Pulitzer Prize and nominated for two Tony Awards. She's a professor at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. She has several honorary doctorate degrees including those from Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, Spelman College and Juilliard and Oxford.

"We are deeply honored to bestow this Rachel Crothers Award upon a theatre woman on the front lines; one who deploys her gifts and talents to address local issues of national importance through the creation of a new form of theater at the intersection of journalism and performance," said Yvette Heyliger, co-chair, along with Margot Astrachan and Shellen Lubin, of the LPTW Rachel Crothers Leadership Award Committee.

"The League of Professional Theatre Women looks to amplify the rich legacy of Rachel Crothers with the creation of this award. Donna Walker-Kuhne, acknowledged as the nation's foremost expert in audience development, was the first recipient of this award in 2019, followed by theatre artist, filmmaker, and #BlackPerspectivesMatter activist, Tonya Pinkins, in 2020," said Ludovica Villar-Hauser, Co-President of LPTW.

"This Theatre Women Awards ceremony is the highlight of LPTW's 40th Anniversary Celebration and this year, we are honoring many of our own members, as we bring together women of all backgrounds and their supporters," said Co-President Katrin Hilbe.

The LPTW Theatre Women Awards for 2023, announced earlier, are as follows: The Josephine Abady Award will be given to Jacquelyn Bell; The Lee Reynolds Award to Melody Brooks; The Lucille Lortel Grant to Tess Howsam; The Ruth Morley Design Award to Amy Stoller; The Lifetime Achievement Award to Lenore DeKoven; and this year, there will be two LPTW Special Award for Meritorious Service recipients: Yvette Heyliger and Lorca Peress. For more information about these awards and their recipients, visit: https://www.theatrewomen.org/theatre-women-awards-2023

Among the luminaries presenting awards to these eight distinguished recipients are: Richarda Abrams, Stephanie Berry, Stella Heyliger-Mulatu, Ang Lee, Kate Mueth, Daryl Roth, and Anna Deavere Smith.

Tickets for this event are almost sold out. Streaming tickets are still available to watch these amazing women from the comfort of your home. For more information about streaming tickets, VIP tables and advertising in the keepsake Journal (program) please visit: www.theatrewomen.org

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