Celia Keenan-Bolger Receiving 2025 Isabelle Stevenson Tony Award

Celia Keenan-Bolger will receive the 2025 Isabelle Stevenson Tony Award for her “unwavering dedication to advocacy work through the arts.”

The Isabelle Stevenson Award is presented annually to a member of the theater community who has made a substantial contribution of volunteered time and effort on behalf of one or more humanitarian, social service or charitable organizations. Previous recipients include Billy Porter, Jerry Mitchell, Julie Halston, Judith Light, Nick Scandalios, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Stephen Schwartz, Larry Kramer, Rosie O’Donnell, Bernadette Peters, Eve Ensler, and David Hyde Pierce, among others.

Keenan-Bolger co-founded Broadway For Obama and has served on several advocacy and arts boards, including Broadway Impact and the NYCLU, where she received the 2019 Michael Friedman Freedom Award. During the Covid pandemic, she co-founded Broadway Feeds Bellevue to support frontline nurses and launched the podcast Sunday Pancakes to foster connection through candid artist interviews.

She also co-created the Activist Artist Endowed Scholarship at the University of Michigan with Gavin Creel to support socially engaged theater students. As an end-of-life doula, she provides compassionate care to the dying and their families, and supported Creel and his family during the actor’s passing last year.

“Celia’s star shines far beyond the Broadway stages, illuminating her peers, passions and purposes with generosity of spirit, integrity and compassion,” said Heather Hitchens, President and CEO of the American Theatre Wing and Jason Laks, President of the Broadway League. “She is truly an inspiration, and we are thrilled to honor her with the Isabelle Stevenson Award.”