Penguin Rep Nominated for 3 Audelco Awards

Penguin Rep Theatre, Rockland County's professional theatre, has been nominated for three AUDELCO Awards for its production of Charles Smith's FREED. The nominations are for Lead Actor (Sheldon Best), Playwright (Charles Smith), and Dramatic Production of the Year.

"We here at Penguin Rep are honored to have been recognized by AUDELCO," says artistic director Joe Brancato, who staged FREED in Stony Point in 2009 and during the "Americas Off Broadway Festival" at 59 East 59 Theaters this past summer.

FREED is Charles Smith's fact-based telling of the story of John Newton Templeton, an ex-slave who was the first African American to attend college in the Midwest, 40 years before the end of slavery.

Penguin Rep Theatre was founded in 1977 in a century-old hay barn in Stony Point, New York, by Brancato and Fran Newman-McCarthy, Treasurer of the Board of Trustees. Under the current leadership of Brancato and executive director Andrew M. Horn, Penguin Rep recently completed its 33^rd season, which included the New York premieres of Steven Dietz's SHOOTING STAR (with Karen Ziemba and Gregg Edelman) and Jeffrey Hatcher's MRS. MANNERLY; Tom Dudzick's OVER THE TAVERN; Brown's AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS; Jim Brochu's ZERO HOUR; and Carlo D'Amore's NO PAROLE. For further information about Penguin Rep Theatre, visit www.penguinrep.org.

AUDELCO (Audience Development Committee, Inc.), a nonprofit organization founded in 1973 by Vivian Robinson (1924-1996) to generate more recognition, understanding and awareness of the arts in African-American communities, will produce the 38^th annual Vivian Robinson/AUDELCO Awards on Monday, November 15 at 6:30 pm at Harlem Stage/Aaron Davis Hall, Marian Anderson Theatre, 133^rd Street and Convent Avenue, in New York. For further information, visit www.audelco.net.