ATLANTA: Theatre of Young Audiences/USA has announced its 2019 national award recipients, honors including the Harold Oaks Award for Sustained Excellence in TYA, the TYA Artistic Innovation Award, and the TYA Community Impact Award. The three awards will be presented at the 2019 TYA/USA National Festival & Conference, to be held May 9 at the Alliance.

Stan Foote and Rosemary Newcott will receive the Harold Oaks Award. Foote recently retired as artistic director of Oregon Children’s Theatre, and Newcott currently holds the title of Sally G. Tomlinson Artistic Director of Theatre for Youth and Families at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta. They will both be honored for their leadership and the imprint they have left in the TYA field.

Chicago Children’s Theatre, led by artistic director Jacqueline Russell, will take home the TYA Artistic Innovation Award, acknowledging experimentation in theatre made for young audiences.

The TYA Community Impact Award, which celebrates an individual or group for TYA work with an underserved community, will go to Courtney J. Boddie, director of education/school engagement at the New Victory Theater in New York City.

“TYA/USA is thrilled to honor these incredible leaders who have each had a profound impact on their communities and the national TYA field,” said Jonathan Shmidt Chapman, executive director of TYA/USA, in a statement. “At a time when TYA theatres across the country are increasingly unable to support the development of new work, these four awardees have blazed a trail in significantly expanding the TYA canon while creating new pathways of access for underrepresented audiences.”

Theatre for Young Audiences/USA, founded in 1965, is a membership organization designed to advocate, cultivate, and promote professional theatre for youth across the country. TYA/USA is the United States Center for the International Association of Theatre for Children and Young People (ASSITEJ).