The 2019 Henry Hewes Design Awards have been given to
Scenic designer Charlie Corcoran for The O’Casey Trilogy, at the Irish Repertory Theatre
James Russell and Michael Mellamphy in The Shadow of a Gunman
Charlie Corcoran
Costume designer Montana Levi Blanco for Ain’t No Mo’ at the Public Theater
In “Ain’t No Mo’,” the play by Jordan E. Cooper, making his Off-Broadway debut as both a playwright and an actor, African-American are leaving the United States en masse on flights to Africa. In the final scene, Cooper as pink-garbed stewardess Peaches is left behind. The final stream-of-consciousness monologue, accompanied by the voices of famous black Americans –Bessie and Billie, James Brown, James Baldwin, and Malcolm X — is a metaphor for the black experience in America, as Peaches can’t uproot the bag of black history, and is left defeated, stripped down to a bare black man, shouting “Give it back, give it back.”
Montana Levi Blanco
Lighting designer Amith Chandrashaker for Boesman and Lena, at Signature Theatre
Boesman and Lena
Amith Chandrashaker
Lighting designer Yi Zhao for The House That Will Not Stand, at New York Theatre Workshop
The House That Will Not Stand
Yi Zhao
Sound designer Mikaal Sulaiman for Fairview at Soho Rep
“Fairview”
Mikaal Sulaiman
