2011 Obie Award Winners Announced

The winners of the 2010-2011 Obie Awards have been announced. The awards were presented in a ceremony held tonight at Webster Hall, co-hosted by S. Epatha Merkerson and David Hyde Pierce.

Presenters included Nina Arianda, Alec Baldwin, Margaret Colin, Mamie Gummer, Rose Hemingway, John Larroquette, Patina Miller, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Arian Moayed, Jim Parsons, Andrew Ranells, Liev Schreiber, and Frank Wood. The evening’s entertainment featured Anthony Rapp performing songs from Rent and his solo musical, Without You.

Founded in 1955 by Voice cultural editor Jerry Tallmer, The Village Voice Obie Awards annually honor the best of Off-Broadway and Off-Off Broadway. There are no set categories for awards, and judges select outstanding artists and productions and may even invent new categories to reward artistic merit.

A FULL LIST OF WINNERS FOLLOWS:

Performance
F. Murray Abraham, sustained excellence of performance
André Braugher, The Whipping Man (Manhattan Theatre Club)
Michael Chernus, In the Wake (Public Theater)
Ethan Hawke, Blood From a Stone (The New Group)
Hamish Linklater, The School for Lies (Classic Stage Company)
Laurie Metcalf, The Other Place (Manhattan Class Company)
Thomas Sadoski, Other Desert Cities (Lincoln Center Theater)
Scott Shepherd, Gatz (Elevator Repair Service / Public Theater)
Brenda Wehle, The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures (Signature Theatre / Public Theater)
Charlayne Woodard, The Witch of Edmonton (Red Bull Theater)

Playwriting
Samuel D. Hunter, A Bright New Boise (Partial Comfort Productions)
Jonas Hassen Khemiri, Invasion! (The Play Company)

Direction
Austin Pendleton, Three Sisters (Classic Stage Company)
Roger Rees and Alex Timbers, Peter and the Starcatcher (New York Theatre
Workshop)
Leigh Silverman, In the Wake (Public Theater) and Go Back to Where You Are (Playwrights Horizons)

Design
Jill BC Du Boff, sustained excellence of sound design
Donyale Werle, sustained excellence of set design

Special Citations
Design and choreography, Sleep No More (Punchdrunk Theatre): Felix Barrett, Livi Vaughan, Beatrice Minns, Maxine Doyle, Stephen Dobbie, Euan Maybank, and David Israel Reynoso
Young Jean Lee, We’re Gonna Die (13P / Joe’s Pub)
debbie tucker green and Leah C. Gardiner, Born Bad (Soho Rep)

Obie Grants ($2,500 to each theater)
Metropolitan Playhouse
Wakka Wakka

The Ross Wetzsteon Award (includes $1,000 check)
Belarus Free Theatre

Best New American Play (includes $1,000 check)
The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity by Kristoffer Diaz (Second Stage)

Lifetime Achievement Award
René Buch and Repertorio Espanol

Village Voice chief critic, Michael Feingold, chairs the judging committee, which also includes New Yorker critic Hilton Als, playwright David Henry Hwang, TheaterMania Associate Editor and critic Andy Propst, Voice critic Alexis Soloski, and director Evan Yionoulis.

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