Lansbury, Martin, Rose, Schreiber, et al. to Present at Obie Awards

Angela Lansbury, William Ivey Long, Camryn Manheim, Stephanie March, Jesse L. Martin, Terrence McNally, Anika Noni Rose, and Liev Schreiber will be the presenters at the 2006-2007 Village Voice Obie Awards, honoring the best of Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway, to be held on Monday, May 21 at NYU’s Skirball Center for the Performing Arts. As previously announced, the ceremony will be hosted by Cynthia Nixon and T.R. Knight.

This season’s committee of judges includes Voice critic Michael Feingold (chairperson); playwright-director Adam Rapp; writer-director Ain Gordon; New York magazine critic Jeremy McCarter; Anne Dennin, executive director of PS 122; playwright-composer Kirsten Childs; and Voice theater critic Alexis Soloski. Eileen Phelan, who has produced and directed the Obie Awards since 1994, will do so again.

With informal categories that change annually, the Obie Awards recognize persons and productions of excellence. Unlike most theater awards, they do not have nominations. Moreover, the judges may give several Obies in each category, and may even invent new categories to reward artistic merit.