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Awards for February 2013

Awards, prizes, even an OBE.

The Fred Ebb Foundation, in association with the Roundabout Theatre Company of New York, presented Sam Willmott with the Fred Ebb Award for aspiring musical theatre songwriters in November. The prize comes with $50,000 and a showcase of Willmott’s work.

Boston’s Huntington Theatre Company has announced its 2012–14 playwriting fellows: Lila Rose Kaplan, Walt McGough and Lenelle Moise. As part of a two-year residency, the fellows will receive a grant, participate in biweekly writers’ collectives and will have access to HTC’s resources.

The PEN America Center in New York City, presented 18 Literary Awards in October. Christopher Durang won the master American dramatist award, and Will Eno and Adam Rapp won the American playwright in mid-career award. The prizes came with $7,500.

The Shakespeare Thea­tre Company in Washington, D.C., presented Carson Elrod and Steven Epp with Emery Battis Acting Awards in September. The awards, which come with $5,000, are for impressive performances at the theatre.

For performances in Annie Baker’s adaptation of Uncle Vanya at New York’s Soho Repertory Theatre, Merritt Wever and Michael Shannon received the 2012 Joe A. Callaway Award from the Actors’ Equity Foundation. Additionally, David Furr received the St. Claire Bayfield Award for the Public Theater’s As You Like It. Each prize, for a notable performance in classic plays in New York, comes with $1,000.

Aurora Theatre Company in Berkeley, Calif., has announced the finalists for its annual new-works initiative, the Global Age Project. The finalists—who will receive $1,000 and will be considered for development and production at Aurora—are Jonathan Spector, Sarah Gubbins, J.C. Lee and Harrison David Rivers.

New York’s Midtown International Theatre Festival held its annual awards ceremony in November. Among the winners were Otho Eskin’s Final Analysis for best play, Vanessa Severo for lead actress in Thank You Notes: Headed to Heaven with Flat Jimm Fallon, and Timothy Ware for choreography in A Taste of Chocolate.

At the League of Professional Theatre Women’s 30th anniversary celebration in December, Joan D. Firestone, executive director of the Moth, was presented with the lifetime achievement award. Concurrently, playwright Kia Corthron received the Lee Reynolds Award for her socially conscientious works, and Public Theater artistic associate Stephanie Ybarra accepted the Josephine Abady Award for her work promoting cultural diversity.

Guthrie Theater artistic director Joe Dowling announced the inaugural recipient of the Joe Dow­ling Annaghmakerrig Fellowship Award: Matthew Amendt. The fellowship will enable Amendt to spend two weeks at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Ireland.

Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s education department is the recipient of the Shakespeare Steward Award, given by the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., for CST’s efforts in teaching Shakespeare in schools.

Amy Herzog is the winner of the New York Times’s 2012 annual outstanding playwright award for her play After the Revolution. The award will be presented in April.

Kwame Kwei-Armah, artistic director of CENTERSTAGE in Baltimore, Md., was recognized as an officer of the most excellent order of the British Empire, bestowed by the Prince of Wales.

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival has added five new commissions to its American Revolutions: The United States History Cycle series: Ayad Akhtar, Kirsten Greenidge, Stephen Karam, Lisa Loomer and Karen Zacarias.

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