At the non-Equity Jeff Awards in June, honoring Chicago theatre operating without a union contract, the big winners were Oracle Productions’ staging of The Mother and Theo Ubique’s rendition of James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim’s Passion. The Mother won citations for best play, best ensemble, best principal actress for Katherine Keberlein, best adaptation, and best original music for Jonathan Guillen and Nicholas Tonozzi. Passion won best musical, best principal actress for Danni Smith, best supporting actress for Colette Todd, and best music direction for Kory Danielson.
The Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award was presented in June to choreographer John Heginbotham, in recognition of his contribution to the dance field. The prize carries $25,000.
Among the prizes handed out at the 4th Annual Off Broadway Alliance Awards, held in June, were a best new musical award to Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori’s Fun Home, and a best new play citation to Robert Askins’s Hand to God.
The Playwrights’ Center of Minneapolis has announced its latest round of playwriting fellows and core writers, who will receive more than $200,000 in awards and development funds. Among the playwrights chosen are Steve Moulds, Kate Tarker, Josh Wilder, Deborah Yarchun, Sharif Abu-Hamdeh and Harrison David Rivers. As part of the center’s Jerome Fellowship, they will receive between $16,000 and $25,000.
The winner of the 2014 Smith Prize for Political Theatre is Chris Weikel, who was chosen for his play The Word from Kampala. The prize comes with a $10,000 prize, and includes a first production from the National New Play Network.
The Ten Chimneys Foundation in Genesee Depot, Wisc., chose 10 actors for its 2014 Lunt-Fontanne Fellowship program. The group, which joined master teacher David Hyde Pierce for a weeklong master class in July, included Angel Desai, Angela Iannone, Blake Lindsley, Constance Macy, Dale Hodges, Felicity Jones, Forrest McClendon, Julie Briskman, Michael Booth and Robert Breuler.
Cleveland Public Theatre in Ohio has chosen two playwrights for its second annual Nord Family Foundation Playwright Fellowship, designed for local early-career playwrights. Andrew Kramer and Arwen Mitchell will spend the 2014–15 season workshopping new plays at the theatre.
The Fred & Adele Astaire Awards were handed out in June, and the Broadway revue After Midnight took home all three awards presented. Jared Grimes won for male dancer; Dormeshia Sumbry Edwards and Karine Plantadit won for female dancer; and Warren Carlyle won for his choreography.
The Ashland New Plays Festival in Oregon has named the four plays in ANPF 2014, which will kick off in October as a series of staged readings. The plays are The Groyser by James Harmon Brown, A Little Quid Pro Quo by Bob Clyman, Homecoming by Michael Edan and Irreversible by Jack Karp.
Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, R.I., gave out its 2014 Pell Awards in June. The honorees were actor Richard Jenkins and his wife, director/choreography Sharon Jenkins; and choreographers Jeffrey Osborne and Mary Paula Hunter. Nuala Pell, the honorary co-chair of the Pell Awards, who died in April, was also honored.
The American Theatre Wing will celebrate Angela Lansbury at its annual gala this month in New York City. Lansbury has served as honorary chairman of ATW’s board of trustees since 2010.
At Shakespeare’s Globe in London, Ralph Alan Cohen is the recipient of the 2014 Sam Wanamaker Award, for his work in expanding understanding of Shakespeare. Cohen, co-founder and director of mission at American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, Va., is the first American ever to receive the award.
