NTC Person of the Year Honorees
Awarded annually to an individual who has made an outstanding and noteworthy contribution to the theatre.
2022 - Laurie Woolery
Laurie Woolery is a director, playwright, educator, facilitator and producer. She has worked at the Public Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Yale Repertory, Trinity Repertory, Goodman Theater, Cornerstone Theater Company, South Coast Repertory, Mark Taper Forum, Denver Center, Los Angeles Philharmonic, East West Players, Los Angeles Theatre Center, Inge Center for the Arts, Plaza de la Raza/RedCAT, Ricardo Montalban Theatre, Deaf-West Theatre, Highways Performance Space and Sundance Playwrights Lab as well as the Sundance Children's Theater. Woolery has directed world premieres of plays by Tanya Saracho, Mary Kathryn Nagle, Charise Castro Smith, Marisela Trevino Orta, Aditi Kapil, K.J. Sanchez, Julie Marie Myatt, Cody Henderson, Allison Carey and others.
Currently, Woolery is the Director of Public Works at The Public Theater, an initiative that seeks to engage the people of New York by making them creators and not just spectators. Working with partner organizations in all 5 boroughs, Public Works invites members of diverse communities to join in the creation of ambitious works of participatory theater. In 2015, Woolery launched a new Public Works program called ACTivate (Artist, Citizen, Theater maker) that takes an ensemble of community members and puts them in the “artistic driver’s seat.” By partnering with a professional playwright, this ensemble of citizen artists devised an original play directed by Woolery. In the summer of 2017, with collaborators Shaina Taub and Sonya Tayeh, Woolery directed a new musical adaptation |
of As You Like It at the Delacorte Theater with 200 New Yorkers. That production was named as one of “The Best Theater in 2017” by the New York Times.
Woolery has developed and directed new works with diverse communities ranging from incarcerated women to residents of a small Kansas town devastated by a tornado. Woolery creates site-specific work and has worked with communities in locations such as a working sawmill in Eureka, California, parking lots, prisons and the banks of the Los Angeles River. Woolery curated and produced a two-week festival in Los Angeles that explored issues of hunger that brought artists, activists, community and thought leaders together. In keeping with her lifelong commitment to community engagement, Woolery partnered with Trinity Repertory Theater to deepen their artistic work with the Latinx community in the larger Rhode Island area. This partnership launched Teatro en El Verano, a program that tours bi-lingual Shakespeare plays back into community. As a playwright, Woolery’s plays have been produced around the country. Her solo play "Salvadorian Moon/African Sky" was commissioned by Cornerstone Theater Company and performed in their citywide Festival of Faith.
Prior to her work at The Public, Woolery was the Associate Artistic Director of Cornerstone Theater Company, Conservatory Director at South Coast Repertory and artist-in-residence at Hollygrove Children’s Home in Los Angeles. Woolery teaches at Princeton, NYU, Brown, USC, Cal Arts, Citrus College, California State University at Northridge and California State University at Los Angeles. She serves on the Board of the Latinx Producers Action Network, Latinx Commons and is a founding member of The Sol Project in New York. Woolery is a proud recipient of the Fuller Road Fellowship for Women Directors of Color.
Woolery is a graduate from University of California, Los Angeles.
Woolery has developed and directed new works with diverse communities ranging from incarcerated women to residents of a small Kansas town devastated by a tornado. Woolery creates site-specific work and has worked with communities in locations such as a working sawmill in Eureka, California, parking lots, prisons and the banks of the Los Angeles River. Woolery curated and produced a two-week festival in Los Angeles that explored issues of hunger that brought artists, activists, community and thought leaders together. In keeping with her lifelong commitment to community engagement, Woolery partnered with Trinity Repertory Theater to deepen their artistic work with the Latinx community in the larger Rhode Island area. This partnership launched Teatro en El Verano, a program that tours bi-lingual Shakespeare plays back into community. As a playwright, Woolery’s plays have been produced around the country. Her solo play "Salvadorian Moon/African Sky" was commissioned by Cornerstone Theater Company and performed in their citywide Festival of Faith.
Prior to her work at The Public, Woolery was the Associate Artistic Director of Cornerstone Theater Company, Conservatory Director at South Coast Repertory and artist-in-residence at Hollygrove Children’s Home in Los Angeles. Woolery teaches at Princeton, NYU, Brown, USC, Cal Arts, Citrus College, California State University at Northridge and California State University at Los Angeles. She serves on the Board of the Latinx Producers Action Network, Latinx Commons and is a founding member of The Sol Project in New York. Woolery is a proud recipient of the Fuller Road Fellowship for Women Directors of Color.
Woolery is a graduate from University of California, Los Angeles.
2021 - Kenny Leon
KENNY LEON is a Tony and Obie Award-winning; Emmy-nominated; Broadway and Television director. Most recently, he directed Lifetime’s Emmy-nominated Robin Roberts Presents: Mahalia. Currently on Netflix, Kenny directed Amend: The Fight for America, a six-part docuseries hosted by Will Smith. Last year, he directed the Tony-winning Broadway premiere of Charles Fuller's Pulitzer Prize winning masterpiece, A Soldier's Play starring Blair Underwood and David Alan Grier at Roundabout Theatre Company for which he also received a nomination for Best Director. He also directed the acclaimed production of Much Ado About Nothing at the Delacorte/Shakespeare in the Park. His Broadway credits include the recent production of A Soldier's Play, American Son starring Kerry Washington and Steven Pasquale which was also adapted for Netflix, the revival of Children of a Lesser God, the Tupac musical Holler If Ya Hear Me, A Raisin in the Sun starring Denzel Washington (Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play and Best Revival of a Play), The Mountaintop starring Samuel L. Jackson and Angela Bassett, Stick Fly produced by Alicia Keys, August Wilson’s Fences (which garnered ten Tony nominations and won three Tony Awards, including Best Revival of a Play), Gem of the Ocean and Radio Golf, as well as A Raisin in the Sun starring Sean “Diddy” Combs, Phylicia Rashad, and
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Audra McDonald. He also directed Smart People and The Underlying Chris for Second Stage. Leon’s television work includes “Hairspray Live!”, and “The Wiz Live!” on NBC. He recently released his memoir Take You Wherever You Go. He is the recipient of the 2016 Mr. Abbott Award for Lifetime Achievement in Directing and the 2010 Award for Excellence in Directing from the Drama League. Mr. Leon serves on the board of New York's Public Theater and is Artistic Director Emeritus of Atlanta's Kenny Leon’s True Colors Theatre Company. He is currently serving as Senior Resident Director at Roundabout Theatre Company.
Prior to co-founding True Colors Theatre Company, he served 11 years as Artistic Director of The Alliance Theatre, where he produced the premieres of Disney's Elaborate Lives: The Legend of Aida, Pearl Cleage's Blues for an Alabama Sky and Alfred Uhry's The Last Night of Ballyhoo. Other directorial credits include Alicia Keys World Tour, Toni Morrison's opera Margaret Garner, the world premiere of Flashdance The Musical, and the complete August Wilson Century Cycle at the Kennedy Center. Leon is a sought after motivational speaker that has done acting and theatre workshops at universities and corporate offices around the country, South Africa and Ireland. He has directed in the UK, and extensively throughout the US, including Chicago's Goodman Theatre, Boston's Huntington Theatre, Baltimore's Center Stage, Los Angeles' Center Theatre Group and New York's Public Theatre. Leon is a graduate of Clark Atlanta and is an honorary Ph.D. recipient of Clark Atlanta and Roosevelt Universities and has served as the Denzel Washington Chair at Fordham University.
Prior to co-founding True Colors Theatre Company, he served 11 years as Artistic Director of The Alliance Theatre, where he produced the premieres of Disney's Elaborate Lives: The Legend of Aida, Pearl Cleage's Blues for an Alabama Sky and Alfred Uhry's The Last Night of Ballyhoo. Other directorial credits include Alicia Keys World Tour, Toni Morrison's opera Margaret Garner, the world premiere of Flashdance The Musical, and the complete August Wilson Century Cycle at the Kennedy Center. Leon is a sought after motivational speaker that has done acting and theatre workshops at universities and corporate offices around the country, South Africa and Ireland. He has directed in the UK, and extensively throughout the US, including Chicago's Goodman Theatre, Boston's Huntington Theatre, Baltimore's Center Stage, Los Angeles' Center Theatre Group and New York's Public Theatre. Leon is a graduate of Clark Atlanta and is an honorary Ph.D. recipient of Clark Atlanta and Roosevelt Universities and has served as the Denzel Washington Chair at Fordham University.
2020 - Taylor Mac
Taylor Mac (who uses “judy” -lowercase- as a gender pronoun) is a playwright, actor, singer-songwriter, performance artist, director, producer and arts advocate. Mac's many works have garnered judy a MacArthur Fellow, a Tony Award nomination, a Pulitzer Prize Finalist citation, the Kennedy Prize, a NY Drama Critics Circle Award, a Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, a Guggenheim, the Herb Alpert in Theater, The Booth Award, the Peter Zeisler Memorial Award, the Helen Merrill Playwriting Award, two Bessies, two Obies, two Helpmann’s, and an Ethyl Eichelberger Award. An alumnus of New Dramatists, judy is currently the resident playwright at the Here Arts Center, where this past spring Mac co-originated The Trickle Up NYC, a subscription series created to give $10,000 commissions to artists affected by COVID-19 cancellations.
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Recent honors include the International Ibsen Award which, according to American Theatre Magazine: is "considered to be the Nobel Prize for Theatre." Gifted every two years, the award is "given to an individual or company that has brought new artistic dimensions to the world of drama or theatre...The award ceremony is usually presented as part of the Norwegian National Theatre’s biennial Ibsen Festival, which has been postponed and reimagined as a digital celebration. The ceremony will now kick off a special live-streamed event entitled Taylor Mac’s Holiday Sauce…Pandemic! on Dec. 12 at 8pm EST."
2019 - Robert O'Hara

Robert O’Hara has received the NAACP Best Play and Best Director Award, the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding New Play, two Obies and the Herb Alpert Award. He directed the world premieres of Jeremy O. Harris’ Slave Play, Nikkole Salter and Danai Guiria’s In the Continuum, Tarell McCraney’s The Brother/ Sister Plays (Part 2), Colman Domingo’s Wild with Happy, Kirsten Childs’ Bella: An American Tall Tale, as well as his own plays, Mankind, Booty-candy and Insurrection: Holding History. His plays Zombie: The American and Barbecue world premiered at Woolly Mammoth Theater and The Public Theater, respectively. His recent directing projects include, Lorraine Hansberry’s Raisin in the Sun at Williamstown Theater Festival, Aziza Barnes’ BLKS at MCC, Inda Craig-Galvan’s Black Superhero Magic Mama at The Geffen Theater, The Universes’ Uni/Son , inspired by the poetry of August Wilson at OSF, and Shakespeare’s Macbeth at Denver Center for the Performing Arts.

2018 - Sarah Ruhl
Sarah Ruhl’s plays include How to Transcend a Happy Marriage; For Peter Pan on her 70th Birthday; The Oldest Boy; In the Next Room, or the vibrator play (Pulitzer Prize finalist, Tony Award nominee for best new play); The Clean House (Pulitzer Prize Finalist, The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize); Passion Play (Pen American award, The Fourth Freedom Forum Playwriting Award from The Kennedy Center); Orlando; Late: a cowboy song; Dear Elizabeth; Dead Man’s Cell Phone (Helen Hayes Award); Eurydice; and Stage Kiss.
She is a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist and a Tony Award nominee. Her plays have been produced on Broadway at the Lyceum by Lincoln Center Theater, off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons, Second Stage, and at Lincoln Center’s Mitzi Newhouse Theater. Her plays have been produced regionally all over the country and have also been produced internationally, and translated into over twelve languages. Ms. Ruhl received her M.F.A. from Brown University where she studied with Paula Vogel. She has received the Steinberg Distinguished Playwright award, the Susan Smith Blackburn award, the Whiting award, the Lily Award, a PEN award for mid-career playwrights, and the MacArthur “genius” award. Her book of essays 100 Essays I Don’t Have Time to Write was published by Faber and Faber and was a Times Notable Book of the Year. She teaches at the Yale School of Drama and lives in Brooklyn with her family.
Watch NTC's interview with Sarah Ruhl on YouTube here.
Sarah Ruhl’s plays include How to Transcend a Happy Marriage; For Peter Pan on her 70th Birthday; The Oldest Boy; In the Next Room, or the vibrator play (Pulitzer Prize finalist, Tony Award nominee for best new play); The Clean House (Pulitzer Prize Finalist, The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize); Passion Play (Pen American award, The Fourth Freedom Forum Playwriting Award from The Kennedy Center); Orlando; Late: a cowboy song; Dear Elizabeth; Dead Man’s Cell Phone (Helen Hayes Award); Eurydice; and Stage Kiss.
She is a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist and a Tony Award nominee. Her plays have been produced on Broadway at the Lyceum by Lincoln Center Theater, off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons, Second Stage, and at Lincoln Center’s Mitzi Newhouse Theater. Her plays have been produced regionally all over the country and have also been produced internationally, and translated into over twelve languages. Ms. Ruhl received her M.F.A. from Brown University where she studied with Paula Vogel. She has received the Steinberg Distinguished Playwright award, the Susan Smith Blackburn award, the Whiting award, the Lily Award, a PEN award for mid-career playwrights, and the MacArthur “genius” award. Her book of essays 100 Essays I Don’t Have Time to Write was published by Faber and Faber and was a Times Notable Book of the Year. She teaches at the Yale School of Drama and lives in Brooklyn with her family.
Watch NTC's interview with Sarah Ruhl on YouTube here.

2017 - Molly Smith
Molly Smith has served as Artistic Director of Arena Stage since 1998 and has directed more than 30 plays. She most recently directed Our Town at Canada's Shaw Festival. Her directorial work has also been seen at The Old Globe, Asolo Repertory, Berkeley Repertory, Trinity Repertory, Toronto's Tarragon Theatre, Montreal's Centaur Theatre, and Perseverance Theater in Juneau, Alaska, which she founded and ran from 1979-1998. Molly has been a leader in new play development for over 30 years. She is a great believer in first, second and third productions of new work and has championed projects including How I Learned to Drive; Passion Play, a cycle; Next to Normal; and Dear Evan Hansen. She has worked alongside playwrights Sarah Ruhl, Paula Vogel, Wendy Wasserstein, Lawrence Wright, Karen Zacarías, John Murrell, Eric Coble, Charles Randolph-Wright and many others. She led the re-invention of Arena Stage, focusing on the architecture and creation of the Mead Center for American Theater and positioning Arena Stage as a national center for American artists. During her time with the company, Arena Stage has workshopped more than 100 productions, produced 39 world premieres, staged numerous second and third productions and been an important part of nurturing nine projects that went on to have a life on Broadway. In 2014, Molly made her Broadway debut directing The Velocity of Autumn, following its critically acclaimed run at Arena Stage. She was awarded honorary doctorates from American University and Towson University.
Watch NTC's interview with Molly Smith on YouTube here.
Molly Smith has served as Artistic Director of Arena Stage since 1998 and has directed more than 30 plays. She most recently directed Our Town at Canada's Shaw Festival. Her directorial work has also been seen at The Old Globe, Asolo Repertory, Berkeley Repertory, Trinity Repertory, Toronto's Tarragon Theatre, Montreal's Centaur Theatre, and Perseverance Theater in Juneau, Alaska, which she founded and ran from 1979-1998. Molly has been a leader in new play development for over 30 years. She is a great believer in first, second and third productions of new work and has championed projects including How I Learned to Drive; Passion Play, a cycle; Next to Normal; and Dear Evan Hansen. She has worked alongside playwrights Sarah Ruhl, Paula Vogel, Wendy Wasserstein, Lawrence Wright, Karen Zacarías, John Murrell, Eric Coble, Charles Randolph-Wright and many others. She led the re-invention of Arena Stage, focusing on the architecture and creation of the Mead Center for American Theater and positioning Arena Stage as a national center for American artists. During her time with the company, Arena Stage has workshopped more than 100 productions, produced 39 world premieres, staged numerous second and third productions and been an important part of nurturing nine projects that went on to have a life on Broadway. In 2014, Molly made her Broadway debut directing The Velocity of Autumn, following its critically acclaimed run at Arena Stage. She was awarded honorary doctorates from American University and Towson University.
Watch NTC's interview with Molly Smith on YouTube here.

2016 - George Takei
George Takei is an American actor, director, author, and activist. In an acting career spanning six decades, which includes more than 40 feature films and hundreds of TV guest starring roles, Mr. Takei is best known for his portrayal of Mr. Sulu in the TV series Star Trek and six Star Trek feature films. Mr. Takei and his family were among 120,000 Japanese-Americans incarcerated in U.S. internment camps during WW II, which inspired the musical Allegiance, which premiered at San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre and then on Broadway starring Takei in his Broadway debut. Among current projects, he is set to play the role of Reciter in the revival of Stephen Sondheim’s and John Weidman’s Pacific Overtures directed by John Doyle and opening Off Broadway at the Classic Stage Company in April 2017.
Mr. Takei’s autobiography, “To the Stars,” was published in 1994, and in 2012 and 2013 respectively, he published his second and third books, “Oh Myyy! There Goes The Internet,” and its sequel, “Lions And Tigers and Bears: The Internet Strikes Back,” both about his forays on social media and the Internet. Both books made the Amazon e-book and paperback bestseller lists in 2012 and 2013. To Be Takei, a Jennifer M. Kroot documentary on the life and career of Takei, premiered at Sundance Film Festival in January 2014. He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, Actors’ Equity Association, and SAG-AFTRA. A community activist, Mr. Takei serves as Chair of the Council of Governors of East West Players, the nation’s foremost Asian Pacific American theatre. He is also a member of the Human Rights Campaign, the largest national lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender political organization. He is Chairman Emeritus of the Japanese American National Museum’s Board of Trustees; a member of the US-Japan Bridging Foundation’s Board of Directors; and served on the Board of the Japan-United States Friendship Commission under President Clinton. In recognition of his contribution to the Japan-United States relationship, Mr. Takei was conferred with the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette, by His Majesty the Emperor of Japan in 2004.
George Takei is an American actor, director, author, and activist. In an acting career spanning six decades, which includes more than 40 feature films and hundreds of TV guest starring roles, Mr. Takei is best known for his portrayal of Mr. Sulu in the TV series Star Trek and six Star Trek feature films. Mr. Takei and his family were among 120,000 Japanese-Americans incarcerated in U.S. internment camps during WW II, which inspired the musical Allegiance, which premiered at San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre and then on Broadway starring Takei in his Broadway debut. Among current projects, he is set to play the role of Reciter in the revival of Stephen Sondheim’s and John Weidman’s Pacific Overtures directed by John Doyle and opening Off Broadway at the Classic Stage Company in April 2017.
Mr. Takei’s autobiography, “To the Stars,” was published in 1994, and in 2012 and 2013 respectively, he published his second and third books, “Oh Myyy! There Goes The Internet,” and its sequel, “Lions And Tigers and Bears: The Internet Strikes Back,” both about his forays on social media and the Internet. Both books made the Amazon e-book and paperback bestseller lists in 2012 and 2013. To Be Takei, a Jennifer M. Kroot documentary on the life and career of Takei, premiered at Sundance Film Festival in January 2014. He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, Actors’ Equity Association, and SAG-AFTRA. A community activist, Mr. Takei serves as Chair of the Council of Governors of East West Players, the nation’s foremost Asian Pacific American theatre. He is also a member of the Human Rights Campaign, the largest national lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender political organization. He is Chairman Emeritus of the Japanese American National Museum’s Board of Trustees; a member of the US-Japan Bridging Foundation’s Board of Directors; and served on the Board of the Japan-United States Friendship Commission under President Clinton. In recognition of his contribution to the Japan-United States relationship, Mr. Takei was conferred with the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette, by His Majesty the Emperor of Japan in 2004.
2015 - P. Carl
Polly Carl is the Director of HowlRound and the Creative Director of ArtsEmerson at Emerson College. His work at Emerson is focused on promoting theatre practices around the core principle that theatre is for everyone. He divides his time between theory and practice—between collaborating on the challenges facing our field, and developing and presenting work for the stage. He spent two years as Director of Artistic Development at Steppenwolf Theatre and served eleven years at the Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis, seven as Producing Artistic Director. He regularly dramaturgs, teaches, writes, consults, and mentors. His PhD in Comparative Studies in Discourse and Society is from the University of Minnesota.
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2014 - Wendall K. Harrington
Assistant Professor Adjunct of Design & Head of Projection Design at the Yale School of Drama, Wendall K. Harrington, has been called “the godmother of all projectors” by John Simon in New York Magazine, has been working in the field of projected media for live events since the mid 1970’s. Ms. Harrington has been lecturing on Projection Design for theatre since the early 1990s.
Broadway designs include: All The Way, Annie, Driving Miss Daisy, Grey Gardens, They're Playing Our Song, The Elephant Man, My One and Only, The Heidi Chronicles, The Will Rogers Follies, Having Our Say, Company, Racing Demon, Ragtime, John Leguizamo's Freak, The Capeman, Putting it Together, and The Who's Tommy. Off Broadway work includes: Angels in America, Hapgood, A Christmas Carol at the Paramount; Merrily We Roll Along (four times!), and the ill-fated Whistle Down the Wind. Opera design: Werther at the Met, Julie Taymor's The Magic Flute in Florence, Italy; A View from the Bridge at Chicago Lyric and the Met, Die Gezeichneten and Lucia Di Lammermoore at LA Opera, The Photographer at BAM, Transatlantic, Grapes of Wrath, Rusalka for Minnesota Opera. For ballet: Pictures at an Exhibition, Opera, Cinderella; The Firebird, and Anna Karenina for Alexei Ratmansky; Othello for ABT, Ballet Mechanique for Doug Varone. Concert work includes The Talking Heads' "Stop Making Sense" and Pete Townshend's "Psychoderelict" as well as tours for Chris Rock and Simon and Garfunkel. As design director of Esquire magazine, Ms. Harrington was responsible for the re-design and re-launch of the "Men’s Magazine of the 90’s." Later, as editor-at-large for Esquire, she conceived and edited Randy Shilts' "My Life on the AIDS Tour," nominated for a National Magazine Award and published in Best American Essays of 1990.
Ms. Harrington is the recipient of the Drama Desk Award, the Outer Critics Circle Award, the American Theatre Wing Award, the TCI Award for Technical Achievement, The Michael Merritt Award for Excellence in Design and Collaboration, the Obie Award for Sustained Excellence of Projections, USITT Education Award, and named 2015 Players Club Person of the Year.
Assistant Professor Adjunct of Design & Head of Projection Design at the Yale School of Drama, Wendall K. Harrington, has been called “the godmother of all projectors” by John Simon in New York Magazine, has been working in the field of projected media for live events since the mid 1970’s. Ms. Harrington has been lecturing on Projection Design for theatre since the early 1990s.
Broadway designs include: All The Way, Annie, Driving Miss Daisy, Grey Gardens, They're Playing Our Song, The Elephant Man, My One and Only, The Heidi Chronicles, The Will Rogers Follies, Having Our Say, Company, Racing Demon, Ragtime, John Leguizamo's Freak, The Capeman, Putting it Together, and The Who's Tommy. Off Broadway work includes: Angels in America, Hapgood, A Christmas Carol at the Paramount; Merrily We Roll Along (four times!), and the ill-fated Whistle Down the Wind. Opera design: Werther at the Met, Julie Taymor's The Magic Flute in Florence, Italy; A View from the Bridge at Chicago Lyric and the Met, Die Gezeichneten and Lucia Di Lammermoore at LA Opera, The Photographer at BAM, Transatlantic, Grapes of Wrath, Rusalka for Minnesota Opera. For ballet: Pictures at an Exhibition, Opera, Cinderella; The Firebird, and Anna Karenina for Alexei Ratmansky; Othello for ABT, Ballet Mechanique for Doug Varone. Concert work includes The Talking Heads' "Stop Making Sense" and Pete Townshend's "Psychoderelict" as well as tours for Chris Rock and Simon and Garfunkel. As design director of Esquire magazine, Ms. Harrington was responsible for the re-design and re-launch of the "Men’s Magazine of the 90’s." Later, as editor-at-large for Esquire, she conceived and edited Randy Shilts' "My Life on the AIDS Tour," nominated for a National Magazine Award and published in Best American Essays of 1990.
Ms. Harrington is the recipient of the Drama Desk Award, the Outer Critics Circle Award, the American Theatre Wing Award, the TCI Award for Technical Achievement, The Michael Merritt Award for Excellence in Design and Collaboration, the Obie Award for Sustained Excellence of Projections, USITT Education Award, and named 2015 Players Club Person of the Year.

2013 - Lynn Nottage
Lynn Nottage is a Pulitzer Prize winning playwright and a screenwriter. Her plays have been produced widely in the United States and throughout the world. They include the upcoming Sweat at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, By The Way, Meet Vera Stark (Lily Award, Drama Desk Nomination), Ruined (Pulitzer Prize, OBIE, Lucille Lortel, New York Drama Critics’ Circle, Audelco, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Award), Intimate Apparel (American Theatre Critics and New York Drama Critics’ Circle Awards for Best Play), Fabulation, or The Re-Education of Undine (OBIE Award), Crumbs from the Table of Joy, Las Meninas, Mud, River, Stone, Por’knockers and POOF!. She is currently developing a new play and multimedia performance installation based on two years of research and interviews conducted in Reading, PA. (w/ Oregon Shakespeare, Arena Stage & Labyrinth Theatre Company). In addition, she is working with composer Ricky Ian Gordon on adapting her play Intimate Apparel into an opera (commissioned by The Met/LCT).
She is the co-founder of the production company, Market Road Films, whose most recent projects include The Notorious Mr. Bout directed by Tony Gerber and Maxim Pozdorovkin (Premiere/Sundance 2014), First to Fall directed by Rachel Beth Anderson (Premiere/ IDFA, 2013) and Remote Control (Premiere/Busan 2013- New Currents Award) Over the years, she has developed original projects for HBO, Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, Showtime, This is That and Harpo.
Nottage is the recipient of a MacArthur "Genius Grant" Fellowship, Steinberg "Mimi" Distinguished Playwright Award, the Dramatists Guild Hull-Warriner Award, the inaugural Horton Foote Prize, Lilly Award, Helen Hayes Award, the Lee Reynolds Award, and the Jewish World Watch iWitness Award. Her other honors include the National Black Theatre Fest's August Wilson Playwriting Award, a Guggenheim Grant, PEN/Laura Pels Award, Lucille Lortel Fellowship and Visiting Research Fellowship at Princeton University. She is a graduate of Brown University and the Yale School of Drama, where she has been a faculty member since 2001. She is also an Associate Professor in the Theatre Department at Columbia School of the Arts.
Nottage is a board member for Theatre Communications Group, BRIC Arts Media Bklyn, Donor Direct Action, Second Stage, The New Black Fest, and the Dramatists Guild. She recently completed a three-year term as an Artist Trustee on the Board of the Sundance Institute.
Lynn Nottage is a Pulitzer Prize winning playwright and a screenwriter. Her plays have been produced widely in the United States and throughout the world. They include the upcoming Sweat at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, By The Way, Meet Vera Stark (Lily Award, Drama Desk Nomination), Ruined (Pulitzer Prize, OBIE, Lucille Lortel, New York Drama Critics’ Circle, Audelco, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Award), Intimate Apparel (American Theatre Critics and New York Drama Critics’ Circle Awards for Best Play), Fabulation, or The Re-Education of Undine (OBIE Award), Crumbs from the Table of Joy, Las Meninas, Mud, River, Stone, Por’knockers and POOF!. She is currently developing a new play and multimedia performance installation based on two years of research and interviews conducted in Reading, PA. (w/ Oregon Shakespeare, Arena Stage & Labyrinth Theatre Company). In addition, she is working with composer Ricky Ian Gordon on adapting her play Intimate Apparel into an opera (commissioned by The Met/LCT).
She is the co-founder of the production company, Market Road Films, whose most recent projects include The Notorious Mr. Bout directed by Tony Gerber and Maxim Pozdorovkin (Premiere/Sundance 2014), First to Fall directed by Rachel Beth Anderson (Premiere/ IDFA, 2013) and Remote Control (Premiere/Busan 2013- New Currents Award) Over the years, she has developed original projects for HBO, Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, Showtime, This is That and Harpo.
Nottage is the recipient of a MacArthur "Genius Grant" Fellowship, Steinberg "Mimi" Distinguished Playwright Award, the Dramatists Guild Hull-Warriner Award, the inaugural Horton Foote Prize, Lilly Award, Helen Hayes Award, the Lee Reynolds Award, and the Jewish World Watch iWitness Award. Her other honors include the National Black Theatre Fest's August Wilson Playwriting Award, a Guggenheim Grant, PEN/Laura Pels Award, Lucille Lortel Fellowship and Visiting Research Fellowship at Princeton University. She is a graduate of Brown University and the Yale School of Drama, where she has been a faculty member since 2001. She is also an Associate Professor in the Theatre Department at Columbia School of the Arts.
Nottage is a board member for Theatre Communications Group, BRIC Arts Media Bklyn, Donor Direct Action, Second Stage, The New Black Fest, and the Dramatists Guild. She recently completed a three-year term as an Artist Trustee on the Board of the Sundance Institute.
2012
Elizabeth McCann 2011 Emily Mann 2010 August Wilson 2009 Tony Kushner 2008 Lois Smith 2007 Jack O'Brien 2006 Suzan-Lori Parks 2005 Michael Kahn 2004 Lanford Wilson 2003 John Guare 2002 Estelle Parsons 2001 Marian Seldes 2000 William Ivey Long 1999 Sir Peter Hall 1998 Jerry Bock |
1997
Edward Albee 1996 Zoe Caldwell & Robert Whitehead 1995 Terrence McNally 1994 Anna Deavere Smith 1993 George C. Wolfe 1992 Lynne Meadow 1991 Norris Houghton 1990 Wendy Wasserstein 1989 Colleen Dewhurst 1988 Robert Wilson 1987 Greg Mosher 1986 Martha Coigney 1985 Ming Cho Lee 1984 Jon Jory 1983 Adrian Hall 1982 Peter Zeisler |
1981
Ellen Stewart 1980 Lloyd Richards 1979 Douglas Turner Ward 1978 Gordon Davidson 1977 Danny Newman 1976 John Houseman 1975 No Award 1974 Paul Green 1973 Ruth Mayleas 1972 Tennessee Williams 1971 Zelda Fichandler 1970 Roger L. Stevens 1969 Joseph Papp 1968 Rosamond Gilder 1967 Hallie Flanagan Davis |