Thomas Kail, director of the Broadway musical In the Heights is the winner of a 2008 Martin E. Segal Award, which was presented at a luncheon at Lincoln Center’s Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse yesterday.
The award is given annually to two rising young artists in recognition of outstanding achievement. Cellist Alisa Weilerstein was the other recipient. The award includes $7,500 to be used for future study and career advancement.
Kail, who also directed the Off-Broadway production of In the Heights, previously received the 2006-07 Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers’ Joseph A. Callaway Award and was nominated for a Drama Desk and an Outer Critics Circle Award for his work on the production. He is artistic director and co-founder of Back House Productions (BHP), the resident theater of New York City’s The Drama Book Shop. Additional directing credits include Feifer’s People, Freestyle Love Supreme, and The Guys.