Outstanding Theatre Award
Recognizing outstanding achievement by a not-for-profit theatre
2025 B Street Theatre
Founded as Theatre for Children in 1986 by actor Timothy Busfield in collaboration with his brother Buck, B Street Theatre has been a vital part of Sacramento’s professional arts community for nearly 40 years. Known for its innovative programming, the theatre produces contemporary plays, musicals, improv comedy, and family-friendly productions. In 2018, B Street opened The Sofia, Home of B Street Theatre, a state-of-the-art venue with two performance spaces and a vibrant lobby gallery, serving as a cultural hub for the region.
B Street Theatre is dedicated to fostering creativity and engagement through its acclaimed educational programming, including the Family Series, which is now celebrating 20 years. It has reached over half a million young audiences across Northern California since its inception. Beyond the stage, the theatre provides corporate training workshops and professional development opportunities for artists of all ages, cementing its role as a leader in creative, artistic, and leadership development.
B Street is a proud Core Member of the National New Play Network, having produced over 200 new works for children and adults. In July of 2025, the theatre will host its sixth annual New Comedies Festival. Over the past six years, the festival has become nationally known as a trusted incubator for new comedic plays.
B Street Theatre remains committed to bold storytelling, artistic excellence, and creating a welcoming space for diverse voices and audiences.
https://bstreettheatre.org/
2023 Deaf West Theatre
Deaf West Theatre Founded in Los Angeles in 1991, Tony Award®-winning Deaf West Theatre (Artistic Director, David Kurs), engages artists and audiences in unparalleled theater experiences inspired by Deaf culture and the expressive power of sign language, weaving ASL with spoken English to create a seamless ballet of movement and voice. Committed to innovation, collaboration, and training, DWT is the artistic bridge between the Deaf and hearing worlds. Recent and past productions include the groundbreaking production of Beethoven’s only opera Fidelio with the Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Maestro Gustavo Dudamel; an exciting new play adaptation of Oedipus at the Getty Villa Museum directed and adapted by Jenny Koons; The Solid of Life of Sugar Water by Jack Thorne; Our Town, in a co-production with the Pasadena Playhouse; Edward Albee’s At Home at the Zoo, in a co-production with the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts; Spring Awakening the Musical, which transferred from Inner-City Arts to the Wallis and then to Broadway (three Tony Award® nominations including Best Revival of a Musical); American Buffalo (Los Angeles Times “Critic’s Choice”); Cyrano, a co-production with the Fountain Theatre (Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Production); Big River the Musical (Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle and Backstage Garland awards for Best Musical in its L.A. premiere, a Tony Award® nomination, and four Drama Desk Awards on Broadway); Pippin, produced at the Mark Taper Forum in a co-production with Center Theatre Group; Sleeping Beauty Wakes, also a co-production with Center Theatre Group, presented at the Kirk Douglas Theatre; Oliver! (Ovation Award for Best Musical) and A Streetcar Named Desire (Ovation Award for Best Play). In 2005, DWT was selected to receive the Highest Recognition Award by the Secretary of Health and Human Services for its “distinguished contributions to improve and enrich the culture lives of Deaf and hard of hearing actors and theater patrons.”
www.deafwest.org/
2022 Borderlands Theater
Borderlands Theater, from Tucson, Arizona is awarded as the Outstanding Theatre in America. Robert Schenkkan wrote in his nominating letter, “For thirty-one years (!), Borderlands has been making important theater, locally sourced, but of National import.”
Borderlands Theater strives to build equitable, joyful, and meaningful collaborations with the local community through innovative theatre and responsive cultural programs ingrained in the heritage, narratives, and lived experiences of peoples rooted across the Sonoran Desert.
Borderlands Theater is a professional theater company recognized nationally and internationally for the development and production of theater and educational programs that reflect the diverse voices of the U.S./ Mexico border region. Although focusing on the Latino/Chicano/Mexicano voice as the core voice to nurture and support, Borderlands works interactively with all voices of the region. The “border,” both as physical and social landscape, is a metaphor for Borderlands’ work. The metaphor allows, invites and even demands, both a regional and an international understanding of what it represents. Border people, in the best sense of the word, are citizens of the world.
See more at: www.borderlandstheater.org/
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2021 Mixed Blood Theatre
Mixed Blood uses theater to disrupt injustice. They are a social justice organization catalyzing action and change through art. Their work is guided by deep community engagement and rooted in radical hospitality. Instead of finding and sharing stories they deem topical, their guiding principle is ‘we want to be part of your story. Through theater, we connect people and organizations to advance dialogue on an issue, inspiring civic discourse and a sustained call to action.” Located in the Cedar Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis since its inception, Mixed Blood aspires to be a point of assembly for residents and organizations of the most diverse zip code between Chicago and the west coast. Radical hospitality is core to all Mixed Blood does. They model reciprocity, inclusion, and genuine welcoming to build relationships. Mixed Blood seeks to make theater beneficial by engaging with individuals and communities for whom theatre and the arts have not been available due to lack of resources, racism, physical accessibility, gender discrimination, or other barriers. They strive to ensure that the nature, content, and practices embedded in their work are founded in integrity and equity, and engage the breadth and depth of our many communities. Jack Reuler, Executive Artistic Director, founded Mixed Blood in 1976 and has guided the company for the past 45 years, through strategic programming at its own alan page auditorium, within its cedar riverside neighborhood, and in off-site locations throughout the twin cities metro area and the state of Minnesota. |
2020 Cleveland Public Theatre
Cleveland Public Theatre’s mission is to raise consciousness and nurture compassion through groundbreaking performances and life-changing education programs. CPT develops new, adventurous work; and nurtures Northeastern Ohio artists—particularly those whose work is inventive, intelligent, and socially conscious. CPT’s acclaimed education programs engage communities in devising new works that speak to contemporary issues, and empower participants to work for positive change in our community. NTC applauds Cleveland Public Theatre’s remarkable longevity, breadth and diversity of programming and commitment to its neighborhood, the City of Cleveland and its artists. Founded in 1981, Cleveland Public Theatre has become integral to the cultural fabric of Cleveland. They have been instrumental to the revitalization of their city and they continue to be standard-bearers for community engagement that is truly inspiring. |
The playwrights and directors who’ve made a home here have always challenged the prevailing narrative, and now claim visibility in every corner of our culture: in theater communities and productions nationwide, in TV writers’ rooms, on film sets, on bookshelves, on Broadway.
Today, we serve the largest ongoing working network of women/tgnc theater artists in New York City with career-transforming productions; The Room, our workspace and the hub of our activities for 25 years; play and artist development programs rooted in collaboration and designed to encourage artists to get up from the table and out from behind music stands, fostering the 3D experimentation essential to highly theatrical plays; and the cultivation of an artistic community (now 260 artists strong) and the collaborations that arise within it. |
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2018 - National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene
The Award-winning National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene [NYTF] is the longest continuously producing Yiddish theatre company in the world. The company presents plays, musicals, concerts, lectures, interactive educational workshops and community-building activities in English and Yiddish, with English and Russian supertitles accompanying performances. |
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NYTF serves a versatile audience of approximately 100,000 individuals annually, comprised of performing arts patrons, cultural enthusiasts, Yiddish- language aficionados and the general public, while also using the arts as a vehicle to educate youth and adults about Jewish heritage. The NYTF outreach program takes events around the region, nation and world, bringing programming annually to over 18,000 individuals. National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene’s mission is to celebrate the Yiddish experience through the performing arts by transmitting the rich cultural legacy in exciting new ways that bridge social and cultural divides.
National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene fulfills this mission by:
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2017 - THE ACTING COMPANY
THE ACTING COMPANY, founded in 1972 by John Houseman and Margot Harley, is "the major touring classical theater in the United States” (The New York Times) and the only professional repertory company dedicated to the development of classical actors. The Company has reached four million people in 48 states and 10 foreign countries with its productions and education programs, and has helped to launch the careers of some 400 actors, including Kevin Kline, Patti LuPone, Rainn Wilson, Jesse L. Martin, Keith David, Frances Conroy, David Ogden Stiers, Harriet Harris, David Schramm, Jeffrey Wright, and Hamish Linklater. Over a dozen commissioned new works and adaptations include plays by Lynn Nottage, Tony Kushner, John Guare, David Mamet, Beth Henley, Rebecca Gilman, Maria Irene Fornes, William Finn, Ntozake Shange, and more. The Company received a special Tony Honor for Excellence in Theater in 2003 for its contributions to the American theatre. Margot Harley (Producer) founded The Acting Company with John Houseman in 1972. She produced Broadway productions of The Robber Bridegroom, The Curse of an Aching Heart and John Houseman’s The Cradle Will Rock in New York and at the Old Vic. Recently she produced Desire, Tennessee Williams stories adapted by six playwrights. Other Off-Broadway productions: Ten by Tennessee (Michael Kahn, dir.), On the Verge (Garland Wright, dir.), and The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (Doug Hughes, dir.). She was administrator of the Drama Division of the Juilliard School from 1968 to 1980. Ms. Harley is a member of the National Theatre Conference and on the Board of the British American Drama Academy. Ian Belknap (Artistic Director) has worked at The Acting Company since 2008 directing and producing many plays including Marcus Gardley’s X production in New York in January-February 2018. |
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2016 - BLOOMSBURG THEATRE ENSEMBLE
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Laurie McCants (Co-Founder) co-founded BTE in 1978. Her original work includes The Alexandria Carry-On, which toured Egypt,Our Shadows, co-created with Cairo-based WAMDA, Hard Coal(with James Goode), and Susquehanna. Deborah Brevoort’sWomen of Lockerbie remains most cherished among her many directing experiences. Recently, she played the Gravedigger inHamlet and Winnie in Happy Days at BTE, and she directed Battles of Fire And Water at Alaska’s Perseverance Theatre. In 2010, she was named an actor of “Distinguished Achievement” through a Fox Foundation Resident Actor Fellowship, funded by the William & Eva Fox Foundation and administered by Theatre Communications Group. She’s been a member of the National Theatre Conference since 2014. Her touring solo show Industrious Angels premiered at the Ko Festival in Amherst, MA. She is currently the director forGunpowder Joe by Anthony Clarvoe (NTC’s 1990 Stavis Playwright), which will premiere at BTE in 2017.
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Jon White-Spunner (Managing Director) is in his 11th season as Managing Director at Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble. In South Africa he served as Managing Director of His Majesty’s Theatre in Johannesburg, ran a performing arts center at the University of Cape Town, and his own production company, which produced and toured shows in South Africa and Namibia. Between 1980 and 1992, Jon served as General Manager of the world famous Market Theatre. As the Market’s World Tour Manager for Wathint’ Abafazi, Wathint’ Imbokodo, Jon toured to over 80 cities in 11 different countries. Since moving to the USA in 1992, in addition to his time with BTE, he served as Managing Director and Manager of Community Outreach at Stoneham Theatre in Boston. He co-founded 24th Street Theatre, now in its 20th season, in Los Angeles.
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2015
The Illusion Theatre Company
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2013
Oregon Shakespeare Festival Ashland, Oregon
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2011
Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park Cincinnati, OH 2010 Playwrights Horizons New York, NY 2009 The Living Theatre New York, NY 2008 El Teatro Campesino San Juan Bautista, CA 2007 The Creede Repertory Theatre Creede, CO 2006 The Public Theatre New York, NY 2005 The Dell'Arte Company BlueLake, CA 2004 The Black Rep St. Louis, MO 2003 Signature Theatre New York, NY 2002 American Repertory Theatre, Harvard University Cambridge, MA 2001 The Goodman Theatre Chicago, IL 2000 The Children's Theatre Company Minneapolis, MN 1999 South Coast Repertory Costa Mesa, CA 1998 Roundabout Theatre New York, NY 1997 Old Globe Theatre San Diego, CA 1996 Steppenwolf Theatre Chicago, IL |