Illusion Theater Receives 'Outstanding Theater' Award

The National Theatre Conference (NTC), an organization founded in 1925 that meets annually in New York to discuss relevant issues in today's theatre community and to celebrate outstanding achievement in the American theatre, has named the recipients of its 2015 awards. HowlRound Director Polly Carl has been named Person of the Year; the Illusion Theater in Minneapolis, under its co-producing directors Michael Robins and Bonnie Morris, is the recipient of the Outstanding Theatre Award; and playwright Jessica Dickey has been selected as the winner of the Barrie and Bernice Stavis Playwright Award. All three will be honored and presented with their awards and hold discussions with the membership at The Players club during NTC's annual meeting in New York, December 4-6, 2015.

In addition, the weekend will include on-site visits to Harlem's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and Harlem Hospital's Herbert Cave Auditorium, in order to celebrate, through panel discussions and noted speakers, Harlem's voice and culture in the American theatrical landscape.

Winners of the Outstanding Theatre Award and the Stavis Playwright Award each receive an honorarium of $1,000.00. The co-producing directors of the Outstanding Theatre are given the opportunity to select an Outstanding Emerging Professional, and Robins and Morris chose Diogo Lopes and Isabel Nelson, artistic directors of the Minneapolis-based physical theatre ensemble, Transatlantic Love Affair. Similarly, the Person of the Year winner picks the annual Paul Green Foundation Award recipient which is also awarded to an emerging talent. Carl chose playwright Mary Kathryn Nagle. Both of these awards also include a $1,000.00 honorarium.

Announcing this year's awards, NTC President Risa Brainin, Chair of the Department of Theater and Dance at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Artistic Director of UCSB's LAUNCH PAD, stated "The NTC awards recognize excellence at all stages of a professional career in the theatre. We are proud to honor the outstanding contributions of these artists to date, and look forward to following their creative work in the future."