NEW YORK CITY: Chita Rivera and Heidi Schreck were among the honorees feted at the sixth annual Lilly Awards, held yesterday, June 1, at Playwrights Horizons. The ceremony was hosted by 2015 Tony nominee Lisa Kron.
The evening began with the presentation of the first-ever Legendary Lilly Award to Chita Rivera, currently starring on Broadway in John Kander and Fred Ebb’s The Visit. The ceremony dispensed a total of 12 awards, two of which were monetary prizes, the Stacey Mindich $25,000 Go-Write-A-Play Prize, given to playwright Heidi Schreck, and the Lilly Award for Working Miracles, to Sahkina Nayfack, artistic director of the Musical Theatre Factory.
Other honorees included veteran producer Daryl Roth, who received the Lilly Lifetime Achievement Award; Pulitzer finalist Diedre Murray, with the Lilly Composer Award; New York Theatre Workshop’s Jim Nicola, who was given the Miss Lilly Award for his support of women in theatre; and the first ever Mizz Lilly Award, which went to NYTW associate artistic director Linda Chapman for her contributions to gender parity in the theatre.
The Lilly Awards were created in 2010 by Julia Jordan, Marsha Norman and Theresa Rebeck to recognize women in the American theatre. They are named after playwright Lillian Hellman. Honorees are chosen annually by a group of more than 100 theatre professionals. The awards are made possible through grants from the Dramatists Guild, the New York Women’s Foundation and the Lilly Awards Leadership Circle.
The entire ceremony can be seen at the Lilly Awards website.
The winner’s list is below.
LEGENDARY LILLY AWARD
Chita Rivera
LILLY LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Daryl Roth
GO-WRITE-A-PLAY PRIZE
Heidi Schreck
LILLY COMPOSER AWARD
Diedre Murray
MISS LILLY AWARD FOR SUPPORTING WOMEN IN THEATRE
Jim Nicola
MIZZ LILLY AWARD
Linda Chapman
LILLY AWARD IN CHOREOGRAPHY
Graciela Daniele
LILLY AWARD IN PLAYWRITING
Lisa D’Amour
LILLY AWARD FOR DISTINGUISHED SERVICE TO PLAYWRIGHTS
Dierdre O’Connell
LILLY AWARD FOR WORKING MIRACLES
Sahkina Nayfack
LILLY AWARD IN ACTING
Quincy Tyler Bernstine
LEAH RYAN PRIZE
Boo Killebrew
