Elizabeth Marvel and Sean McNall Win Callaway Awards

Elizabeth Marvel and Sean McNall are the winners of this year’s Joe A. Callaway Awards, presented annually by the Actors’ Equity Foundation, for “the best performances in a professional production of a classic play (one written prior to 1920) in the New York metropolitan area.” The awards ceremony will be held on March 14.

Marvel won for her performance in the title role of Ivo Van Hove’s controversial production of Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler at New York Theater Workshop. She just completed her run in the Broadway revival of Seascape and has also been seen on New York stages in Terrorism, An American Daughter, A Second Hand Memory, and A Streetcar Named Desire.

McNall was honored for his performance as Mr. Paris in the Pearl Theatre Company’s production of Wlliiam Wycherley’s The Gentleman Dancing-Master. He also appeared in Orson’s Shadow last year. He is the fourth performer in a Pearl show to win the award in the past three years, following Joanne Camp, Robert Hock, and Carol Schultz.

The Callaway judges are Betty Corwin, Director of Special Projects, Theatre on Film & Tape Archive of the Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts; Michael Kuchwara of the Associated Press; David Rosenberg of Back Stage; and Douglas Watt, former drama critic for The Daily News.