Libby Appel to Receive the Stephen and Christine Schwarzman Legacy Award for Excellence in Theater

Libby Appel, the artistic director emerita of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF), will receive the Stephen and Christine Schwarzman Legacy Award for Excellence in Theater in a ceremony to be held on April 16 during the American College Theatre Festival in the Terrace Theater at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

The award recognizes a distinguished artist for lifetime achievement in theater and unparalleled commitment to the future of the art form through teaching and carries a $10,000 scholarship in the honoree’s name to the educational program of her choice.

Appel has chosen to award the scholarship to OSF’s FAIR Experience (Fellowships, Assistantships, Internships and Residencies.) The mission of the FAIR Experience is to foster a collaborative exchange of knowledge, skills and perspectives between experienced professionals and the next generation of theater practitioners.

Appel was the artistic director at OSF from 1995 through 2007, and is represented in this year’s festival with her production of Pride and Prejudice. Among her other productions at the theater are Paradise Lost, A View from the Bridge, her adaptation of The Cherry Orchard and two productions of The Winter’s Tale. Her work has also been seen at Intiman Theatre, Guthrie Theater, Seattle Repertory Theatre, South Coast Repertory, Arizona Theatre Company, Alliance Theatre Company, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, The Goodman Theatre, Court Theatre and San Jose Repertory Theatre, among others. She also served as artistic director of Indiana Repertory Theatre (1992-1996 and was dean and artistic director, School of Theatre at the California Institute of the Arts and Head of the Acting Program at California State University, Long Beach.