The list of winners of the 65th annual, and first virtual, Obie Awards, delayed twice, which celebrates Off and Off Off Broadway.
Presenters, performers and winners of the 2020 Obie Awards
DIRECTION
Kenny Leon
Much Ado About Nothing (The Public Theater)
JoAnne Akalaitis
MUD/Drowning (Mabou Mines, Weathervane Productions, The Days and Nights Festival)
Whitney White
Our Dear Dead Drug Lord (WP Theater, Second Stage Theater, by special arrangement with Benjamin Simpson and Joseph Longthorne)
Les Waters
Sustained Excellence in Direction
SPECIAL OBIE CITATION + ESTABLISMENT OF MICHAEL FEINGOLD AWARD
Michael Feingold
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT
Vinie Burrows
Tim Sanford
PLAYWRITING
Will Arbery
Heroes of the Fourth Turning (Playwrights Horizons)
Haruna Lee
for the Conception and Writing of Suicide Forest (Ma-Yi Theater Company, Bushwick Starr)
Michael R. Jackson
A Strange Loop (Playwrights Horizons, Page 73)
CHOREOGRAPHY
Camille A. Brown
Sustained Excellence in Choreography
PERFORMANCE
Liza Colón-Zayas and Elizabeth Rodriguez
Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven (Atlantic Theater, LAByrinth Theater Company)
Emily Davis
Is This A Room (Vineyard Theatre)
Edmund Donovan
Greater Clements (Lincoln Center Theater)
April Matthis
Toni Stone (Roundabout Theatre Company)
Joe Ngo
Cambodian Rock Band (Signature Theatre Company)
Deirdre O’Connell
Dana H. (Vineyard Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Center Theatre Group)
DESIGN
Yu-Hsuan Chen
Set Design, Our Dear Dead Drug Lord ( WP Theater, Second Stage, by special arrangement with Benjamin Simpson and Joseph Longthorne)
Mikhail Fiksel
Sound Design, Dana H. (Vineyard Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Center Theatre Group) and Cambodian Rock Band (Signature Theatre Company)
Andrea Hood
Costume Design with Public Works (The Public Theater)
Arnulfo Maldonado
Sustained Excellence in Set Design
Jen Schriever
Sustained Excellence in Lighting Design
SPECIAL CITATIONS
Creative Team and Ensemble of A Strange Loop (Playwrights Horizons, Page 73)
Antwayn Hopper, James Jackson, Jr., L Morgan Lee, John-Michael Lyles, John-Andrew Morrison, Larry Owens, Jason Veasey, Elijah Caldwell (Ensemble), Stephen Brackett (Director), Raja Feather Kelly (Choreographer), Arnulfo Maldonado (Scenic Design), Montana Levi Blanco (Costume Design), Jen Schriever (Lighting Design), Alex Hawthorn (Sound Design), Cookie Jordan (Hair, Wig, and Makeup Design), Charlie Rosen (Orchestrations), Rona Siddiqui (Music Director), Michael R. Jackson (Vocal Arrangements)
A Strange Loop (Playwrights Horizons, Page 73)
Creative Team and Ensemble of Heroes of the Fourth Turning (Playwrights Horizons)
Jeb Kreager, Julia McDermott, Michele Pawk, Zoë Winters, John Zdrojeski (Ensemble), Laura Jellinek (Set Design), Sarafina Bush (Costume Design), Isabella Byrd (Lighting Design), Justin Ellington (Sound Design), Danya Taymor (Director)
Heroes of the Fourth Turning (Playwrights Horizons)
David Cale
for the Writing and Performance of We’re Only Alive For A Short Time (The Public Theater)
David Neumann and Marcella Murray
for the Creation and Performance of Distances Smaller Than This Are Not Confirmed (Advanced Beginner Group, Abrons Arts Center, Chocolate Factory Theater, Mabou Mines)
Dave Malloy, Or Matias, and Hidenori Nakajo
for their collaboration on the Music and Sound of Octet (Signature Theatre)
Tina Satter
for the Conception and Direction of Is This A Room (Vineyard Theatre)
Alexandria Wailes
for Sustained Excellence as an Artist and Advocate
AAPAC (Asian American Performers Action Coalition)
for advocacy in the field of equity, diversity, and inclusion
INSTITUTIONAL RECOGNITION
National Black Theatre
for Sustained Excellence in Production and continued Advocacy on behalf of Black Artists
Page 73
for Providing Extraordinary Support for Early Career Playwrights
The Tank
for Providing Extraordinary Support for Emerging Artists
How the Obies were born, and named, in 1956 (by Ross Wetzsteon in the Village Voice in 1995)
Over on Greenwich Avenue, in a one-and-a-half room office, a writer for the Columbia Encyclopedia, a psychotherapist, and the author of The Naked and the Dead were wondering if their new five-cent weekly could make it through the end of the month. But Jerry Tallmer, the paper’s managing editor and theater critic, had an inspiration. The Circle-in-the-Square had produced popular Eugene O’Neill and Tennessee Williams revivals, Judith Malina and Julian Beck of the Living Theater were mounting plays in living rooms and lofts, and The Threepenny Opera was starting its long run at the Theatre De Lys — there might not be anything uptown but blockbuster musicals and meretricious melodramas, but the downtown scene was beginning to be called “Off-Broadway.” Why not have an award ceremony to celebrate the work being done in this new, alternative theater? A kind of Tony award honoring art not commerce. A gathering of the community to encourage its artists. But what to call the new award? Off-Broadway — OB — voilá — Obie!
