Obie Award - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards given by The Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...

newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City. As the Tony Awards cover Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

productions, the Obies cover Off-Broadway

Off-Broadway

Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...

and off-off-Broadway

Off-Off-Broadway

Off-Off-Broadway theatrical productions in New York City are those in theatres that are smaller than Broadway and Off-Broadway theatres. Off-Off-Broadway theaters are often defined as theaters that have fewer than 100 seats, though the term can be used for any show in the New York City area that...

productions.

Background

The Obie Awards were initiated by Edwin (Ed) Fancher, publisher of The Village Voice, who handled the financing and business side of the project. They were first given in 1956 under the direction of theater critic Jerry Tallmer. Initially, only off-Broadway productions were eligible; in 1964, off-off-Broadway

Off-Off-Broadway

productions were made eligible.

Award structure

With the exception of the Lifetime Achievement and Best New American Play awards, there are no fixed categories and the winning actors and actresses are in a single category titled "Performance". There are no announced nominations. Awards in the past have included performance

Acting

Acting is the work of an actor or actress, which is a person in theatre, television, film, or any other storytelling medium who tells the story by portraying a character and, usually, speaking or singing the written text or play....

, direction, best production, design

Design

Design as a noun informally refers to a plan or convention for the construction of an object or a system while “to design” refers to making this plan...

, special citations, and sustained achievement. Not every category is awarded every year. The Village Voice also awards annual Obie grants to selected companies; in 2011, these grants were $2,000 each to Metropolitan Playhouse

Metropolitan Playhouse

The Metropolitan Playhouse of New York, recipient of a 2011 Obie Award and grant from the Village Voice, is a producing theater in New York City. Founded in 1992, the theater is devoted to presenting plays that explore American culture, including seldom-produced American classics and new plays...

and Wakka Wakka.
There is also a Ross Wetzsteon Grant, named after its former theater editor, in the amount of $2,000 (in 2009; in 2011 the grant was $1,000), for a theatre that nurtures innovative new plays.

Other awards for off-Broadway theatre are the Lucille Lortel Awards

Lucille Lortel Awards

The Lucille Lortel Awards recognize excellence in New York Off-Broadway theatre. The Awards are named for Lucille Lortel, an actress and theater producer, and have been awarded since 1986...

, the Drama Desk Awards, the Drama League Award

Drama League Award

The Drama League Awards, created in 1935, honor distinguished productions and performances both on Broadway and Off-Broadway, in addition to recognizing exemplary career achievements in theatre, musical theatre, and directing...

, and the Outer Critics Circle Awards.

The ceremony for the 2010-11 season was held on May 16, 2011 at Webster Hall (New York City), hosted by S. Epatha Merkerson

S. Epatha Merkerson

S. Epatha Merkerson is an American film, stage, and television actress. She has won a Golden Globe, Emmy Awards, Screen Actors Guild Awards, Obie Award and four NAACP Image Awards. She has also received two Tony Award nominations...

and David Hyde Pierce

David Hyde Pierce

David Hyde Pierce is an American actor and comedian best known for playing psychiatrist Dr. Niles Crane on the NBC sitcom Frasier, for which he received many accolades including four Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.-Early life:Pierce, the youngest of four siblings,...

List of winners

External links

Village Voice Obies Archives of past winners

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.