WASHINGTON, D.C.: Arena Stage has announced that the inaugural recipient of its Andrew R. Ammerman Directing Award will be Nataki Garrett, artistic director of Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Garrett will receive $15,000 and up to a week in rehearsals with Arena Stage with up to five U.S.-based collaborators on a project of her choice.

“We created this award to highlight a mid-career woman director whose artistic work is passionate, exuberant, profound, deep, and dangerous,” said Molly Smith, Arena Stage’s artistic director, in a statement. “Nataki Garrett exemplifies each of these qualities, and we are pleased she is the first honoree.”

Garrett was recently named the sixth artistic director of Oregon Shakespeare Festival after serving as the acting artistic director at Denver Center for the Performing Arts for 18 months. A graduate of California Institute of the Arts (MFA, directing), Garrett oversaw their conservatory training programs as the associate dean and co-head of the undergraduate acting program. A recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts and Theatre Communications Group (TCG) career development fellowship for directors, Garrett has produced many world premieres and is a company member at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in D.C., an advisory board member for Mixed Blood Theatre in Minneapolis, and a member of the board of directors of TCG.

Arena Stage created the Andrew R. Ammerman Directing Award in celebration of its 70th season, with the goal of highlighting a female director who has distinguished herself through her artistry and directorial vision.