Ars Nova to Honor Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu and Steven Levenson at Nova Ball

Nwandu, whose play Pass Over reopened Broadway in August 2021, is an Ars Nova commissioned artist and a 2015 member of Play Group, Ars Nova's emerging playwrights' collective. Levenson, a Tony Award winner who wrote the book for the musical Dear Evan Hansen, co-created and executive produced the FX series Fosse/Verdon, and wrote the screenplay for Jonathan Larson's tick, tick...boom! is a 2010 Ars Nova Artist-in-Residence and a 2008 member of Play Group.

Ars Nova will require proof of full vaccination against COVID-19 for all Nova Ball participants. Covid safety protocols are subject to change according to local and federal guidance. Please visit www.arsnovanyc.com/novaball/ for more information.

About the Honorees

Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu is a New York-based writer for stage, television, and film. Her play Pass Over reopened Broadway in August 2021 after making its New York debut at LCT3/Lincoln Center in 2018. A filmed version of the 2017 Steppenwolf production-directed by Spike Lee-premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and SXSW, and is now streaming on Amazon Prime. Nwandu is a MacDowell Fellow; an Ars Nova Play Group alum; a Dramatists Guild Fellow; and a Eugene O'Neill Playwrights Conference Literary Fellow. She's won a Lilly Award; a Lucille Lortel Award; the Whiting Award; the Samuel French Next Step Award; the Paula Vogel Playwriting Award; the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award; & the Negro Ensemble Company's Douglas Turner Ward Prize. Furthermore, her work has been supported by the Sundance Theater Lab, Space on Ryder Farm, Ignition Fest, the Cherry Lane Mentor Project, Fire This Time, The Movement Theater Company & several others. Nwandu holds an A.B. in Eng from Harvard; an MSc from The University of Edinburgh; and an MFA from NYU Tisch. www.antoinettenwandu.com

Steven Levenson is a Tony Award-winning playwright, screenwriter, and television writer and producer. His plays include If I Forget, Core Values, Seven Minutes In Heaven, and The Language of Trees. He wrote the book for the musical, Dear Evan Hansen, which won six Tony Awards, including Best Book and Best Musical, as well as the Olivier Award for Best New Musical. He co-created and executive produced the FX series Fosse/Verdon, which was nominated for seventeen Emmy Awards, including Best Limited Series and Best Writing for a Limited Series, as well as for Critics' Choice Association and Producers Guild Awards, in addition to winning the Writers Guild Award and an AFI Award for Outstanding Series. Other honors include the OBIE Award, two Outer Critics Circle Awards, and the John Gassner Memorial Playwriting Award. Most recently, he wrote the screenplay for Jonathan Larson's tick, tick...boom!, directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda. A former Artist In Residence at Ars Nova and a member of the Roundabout Leadership Council, he is an alumnus of the Ars Nova Play Group and the MCC Playwrights Coalition, a founding member of Colt Coeur, and a graduate of Brown University.