NEW YORK CITY: The League of Professional Theatre Women (LPTW) has announced the winners of its 2016 awards, which will be presented at a ceremony on May 2 at the Pershing Square Signature Center. The winners are Micki Grant, Jane Cox, Ari Laura Kreith, Lisa Kron, Jeanine Tesori, Lear deBessonet, and Elsa Rael.
Micki Grant, a three-time Tony nominee, will be presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award. The Ruth Morley Design Award will go to Jane Cox, the lighting designer of this season’s The Color Purple and Noises Off on Broadway.
The LPTW Lucille Lortel Award for an aspiring female theatre artist with creative promise will go to Ari Laura Kreith, artistic director of Theatre 167. The Lee Reynolds Award—for a female artist whose work dealt with social, cultural, or political change—will be given to Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori for their work on Fun Home.
The Josephine Abady Award, for a female theatre artist who has created work of cultural diversity, will go to Lear deBessonet, the director of Public Works at the Public Theater.
Finally, Elsa Rael will receive the LPTW Special Award. Rael is a playwright and founder of the Professional Older Women’s Theater and Women In Arts & Media Coalition.
The LPTW is a nonprofit dedicated to promoting visibility and increasing opportunity for women in theatre. The organization is celebrating its 31st anniversary and has a membership of nearly 500 women.
