Read on for some recent theatre headlines you may have missed in today’s news.
Aleshea Harris Awarded the 2021 Hermitage Greenfield Prize
The OBIE Award-winning playwright of Is God Is and What to Send Up When It Goes Down has been named the recipient of the 2021 Hermitage Greenfield Prize, from the Hermitage Artist Retreat in collaboration with the Greenfield Foundation. Harris will receive a six-week residency at the Hermitage and a $30,000 commission for a new work to be presented at Asolo Repertory Theatre in 2023. The prize is awarded annually, rotating between the fields of music, theatre, and visual art. Past winners in theatre include Martyna Majok, Nilo Cruz, John Guare, and Craig Lucas. This year’s finalists, who will also receive a Hermitage residency, are Donja R. Love, Nikkole Salter, and Whitney White.
New Victory Theater Announces 2020–2021 LabWorks Artists
New Victory names nicHi douglas, ChelseaDee Harrison, Nambi E. Kelley, and Christopher Rudd as the theatre’s 2020–2021 New Victory LabWorks Artists, all returning for a second year in the new work development program creating theatre for young audiences. In addition to new works development resources, the artists each receive a $15,000 stipend. New Victory has dedicated this year and future years to serving BIPOC artists, including artists with disabilities and artists who identify as LGBTQIA+. Applications for the next cohort of LabWorks Artists is currently open through February 17. A virtual informational session about the program and application process will be held at 5 PM ET on January 19. For more information and to RSVP for the info session, visit NewVictory.org.
Rebecca Luker Award to Be Given as Part of the Lotte Lenya Competition
The Kurt Weill Foundation has announced the creation of the Rebecca Luker Award as part of its annual Lotte Lenya Competition, which recognizes talented singer and actors of all nationalities, ages 19–32, who are dramatically and musically convincing in repertoire ranging from contemporary Broadway scores to opera/operetta, including the works of Kurt Weill. The new award honors the late Rebecca Luker, who has served several times as a judge for the competition. It will be given for an outstanding performance of a selection from the Golden Age of American musical theatre by a finalist in the competition. The competition was founded In 1998, to honor the centenary of the birth of Lotte Lenya, one of the foremost interpreters of the music of her husband, Kurt Weill.
2020–2021 Gilder/Coigney International Theatre Award Program to Be Presented Online
The International Committee of The League of Professional Theatre Women, in collaboration with Martin E. Segal Theatre Center via Howlround, will present a week-long series of events in conjunction with the award, given every three years in order to acknowledge the exceptional work of theatre women around the world. This year’s honorees will include the Gilder/Coigney International Theatre Award recipient Hanane Hajj Ali of Lebanon and the Gilder/Coigney Lifetime Achievement Award recipient: the late Franca Valeri of Milan. For more information and program scheduling, visit TheatreWomen.org.
Plus: Check out the trailer for 9 to 5: The Story of a Movement, a new documentary about the women’s workplace equality movement that inspired the hit song and movie. Stars of the Broadway adaptation, including Megan Hilty, Stephanie J. Block, Allison Janney, and Kathy Fitzgerald, join the film’s stars and women’s rights activists to discuss how the themes of 9 to 5 are still relevant today. The documentary airs on PBS in February.
