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Clockwise from right: David Johann Kim, recipient of the Playwrights' Center's 2025 Dominic Orlando Award; and recipients of SDCF's Abe Burrows Award for Assistant Directors: Mack Brown, Tai Thompson, and Katie Young.
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Tonys, NTP Grants, SDCF Abe Burrows Award, and More

A roundup of awards, fellowships, and other recognitions.

By American Theatre Editors

BOSTON: The New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA) has announced the 11 recipients of the National Theater Project Creation and Touring awards, as well as the 13 recipients of Artist Development awards, totaling nearly $1.6 million in support to the field. This brings its full support to over $19.5 million to date. This is the 15th and final round of these grants in their current forms.

This year, Creation and Touring grant recipients are each awarded a total of $120,000, which includes a general operating support grant of $10,000. The 11 recipients are:

NTP finalists who were not awarded the Creation and Touring grant will each receive an Artist Development Grant between $20,000 and $30,000, which is two to three times larger than prior years. In response to the wave of defunding, the NTP team decided to double the grant this year. The recipients of the amplified Artist Development award include:

NEFA’s National Theater Project is made possible with lead funding from the Mellon Foundation and with additional support from the Doris Duke Foundation.  

The New England Foundation for the Arts invests in artists and communities and fosters equitable access to the arts, enriching the cultural landscape in New England and the nation. 

NEW YORK CITY: On June 17, the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation (SDCF) announced the recipients and the finalist for the Abe Burrows Award for Assistant Directors. Early-career directors receiving an unrestricted $10,000 award each are Mack Brown, a Brooklyn-based butch artist who builds precise new musicals, plays that challenge our collective moral compass, and theatre that is trans-genre and  transsexual, and Tai Thompson, a New York-based multidisciplinary artist specializing in new works and immersive theatre. The finalist is Katie Young, a New York-based director and stage manager with a passion for labor organizing and animals. 

The award was established by the James and Deborah Burrows Foundation and supported by a generous matching contribution from Thomas Kail, in honor of Abe Burrows, a Tony Award-winning director who cared deeply about fostering and supporting the next generation of directors. The Abe Burrows Award is given annually to a director or director/choreographer working as an assistant director. The award will allow both recipients to fully focus on their work as an assistant director to an SDC member between August 2025 and December 2026. 

MINNEAPOLIS: The Playwrights’ Center has announced its newest core writers and core apprentices, who will have an artistic home for three years. These playwrights are Amy Berryman, a playwright, screenwriter, actor, and teaching artist originally from Seattle by way of West Texas; Sandra A. Daley-Sharif, a Afro-Caribbean playwright, actor, and educator exploring themes of identity, cultural heritage, and social justice; Maya Macdonald, a screenwriter and playwright; Andrew Rosendorf, a previous McKnight and Jerome Fellow; and 2024-25 McKnight Fellow Whitney Rowland.

The Core Writer program at Playwrights’ Center is designed to support a diverse group of playwrights from across the country, giving them the time and tools to develop new work for the stage. All Core Writers receive financial support for play development workshops with the Center, in collaboration with prominent directors, actors, dramaturgs, and designers.

NEW YORK CITY: The Stage Managers’ Association (SMA) has announced its annual Del Hughes Awards for Lifetime Achievement in the Art of Stage Management, marking the 25th year of these awards. The 2025 honorees are Jill Cordle, Marjorie Horne and Judy Martel. In addition to these Lifetime Achievement Awards, the SMA will honor Lisa Dawn Cave with the Founders Award for her career shift into stage management, production supervising, and being a leading advocate for change. This year’s Special Recognition Award will shine the spotlight on the Broadway Advocacy Coalition.

The honor is given to those who represent the finest qualities and artistic achievement in stage management throughout their career. Instituted in 1986, the award was named for Del Hughes, who from 1933 to the 1970s worked as a Broadway and television stage manager and TV director. From nominations submitted by industry members, honorees are chosen each February by the awards and recognition committee: Patreshettarlini Adams, Robert Bennett, Katrina Herrmann, Claudia Lynch, Melissa A. Nathan, Robin Rumpf, Tree O’Halloran, Matthew Stern, Joel Veenstra, and Cheryl Mintz (chair). This year’s event, sponsored by Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, will be on October 20.

MINNEAPOLIS: The Playwrights Center has announced David Johann Kim as the third recipient of the 2025 Dominic Orlando Playwriting Award. Kim will receive a $10,000 unrestricted award. The four finalists for the award were Terry Guest, Goldie Patrick, Vickie Ramirez, and Gab Reisman. 

This announcement was preceded by the news that the 2025-26 cycle of the award will receive financial support from Venturous Theater Fund, a donor-advised fund at the Tides Foundation. The fund was created in 2022 following Dominic Orlando’s passing in 2021, as he had a longtime association with the Center. 

LOS ANGELES: Atelier Samuel Beckett, a Franco-Irish artists’ residency program, has announced the inaugural artists in the new 3-year Garay-English residency to support Latinx and Latin American artists, conceived and funded by global theatremaker Olga Garay-English. They include Luis Alfaro, Rogelio Gracia, and Rebeca Alemán. 

The award is inspired by the Latino Theater Company’s National Latinx Theater Initiative and came about through Trasna—an initiative of L.A.’s Consulate General of Ireland, which connects the Irish arts with international creative industries. From 2026 to 2028, each recipient will spend three weeks at Atelier Samuel Beckett in Méricourt, France. They will receive mentorship with Judy Hegarty Lovett and Conor Lovett, the joint artistic directors of Gare St Lazare Ireland. 

DALLAS: On June 10, The Arts Community Alliance (TACA) announced the recipients of its 2025 Catalyst Grants. This year’s funding totals $650,000 given to organizations across Dallas County, bringing its cumulative investment to over $32 million. The theatre organizations that received the grant include Bishop Arts Theatre Center, Broadway Dallas, Cara Mía Theatre, Dallas Children’s Theater, Dallas Theater Center, Echo Theatre, Firehouse Theatre, Kitchen Dog Theater Company, Second Thought Theatre, Shakespeare Dallas, Soul Rep Theatre Company, Teatro Dallas, Theatre Three, Undermain Theatre, and Uptown Players. These unrestricted grants are designed to uplift high-performing, forward-thinking arts organizations that are shaping the city’s cultural identity across disciplines — music, theatre, dance, visual arts and spoken word. 

NEW YORK CITY: The 15th annual Clive Barnes Awards were presented at National Arts Club on June 9. The Clive Barnes Award for Honored Artist in Theatre was given to Tom Francis, an Olivier Award winner for Best Actor in a Musical for playing Joe Gillis in Sunset Blvd, which he is currently reprising in his Broadway debut; Ava Lalezrzadeh, who recently played Goli in the Broadway production of Sanaz Toossi’s English; and Helen J. Shen, an actor, musician, and writer currently making her Broadway debut in Maybe Happy Ending. 

Hosted by Budd Mishkin of 1010WINS and Before the Cheering Started podcast, the annual Clive Barnes Awards recognizes young outstanding talent in the fields of theater and dance. The Clive Barnes Foundation supports young artists through recognition, encouragement, and financial support. It was formed in 2009 to create annual awards giving recognition, encouragement, and financial support to talented young professionals in dance and theatre.

NEW YORK CITY: On June 8, the 78th Tony Awards were presented at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. Top winners were Maybe Happy Ending for best musical (as well as best score – music and lyrics and book for Will Aronson and Hue Park, best scenic design in a musical for Dane Laffrey and George Reeve, and best leading actor in a musical for Darren Criss), Purpose by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins for best play (as well as best featured actress in a play for Kara Young), Sunset Boulevard for best revival of a musical (as well as best leading actress in a musical for Nicole Scherzinger), and Jonathan Spector’s Eureka Day for best revival of a play.

Directing honors went to Sam Pinkleton for Oh, Mary! and Michael Arden for Maybe Happy Ending. Leading actors honored for plays were Cole Escola for Oh, Mary! and Sarah Snook for The Picture of Dorian Gray. Additional featured performers honored include Francis Jue for his performance in David Henry Hwang’s Yellow Face and Jak Malone of Operation Mincemeat.

Buena Vista Social Club received best orchestrations by Marco Paguia—as well as best choreography for Patricia Delgado and Justin Peck, best featured actress for Natalie Venetia Belcon, best sound design in a play for Jonathan Deans, and a special award for its onstage band. Stranger Things: The First Shadow was a big winner in design categories, garnering awards for Miriam Buether and 59’s scenic design, Jon Clark’s lighting design, Paul Arditti’s sound design, and a special recognition for its illusions and technical effects. Paul Tazewell won for his costume design of Death Becomes Her, capping off an award-filled year with his recent Oscars win for Wicked. Additional design awards went to Jack Knowles’s lighting design for Sunset Boulevard and Marg Howell’s costume design for The Picture of Dorian Gray.

As previously announced, Harvey Fierstein received the Lifetime Achievement in Theatre Award, Celia Keenan-Bolger received the Isabelle Stevenson Award, the MUNY received the Regional Theatre Tony Award, and Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre were given to PBS Great Performances, Michael Price, New 42 and the New York Library for the Performing Arts. You can view the full list of winners here.

CINCINNATI: The Educational Theatre Association announced its 2025 Award recipients, honoring seven theatre educators and four schools who will be recognized during the Educator Appreciation Dinner at EdTA’s Theatre Education Conference on June 22-24 in Bloomington, Indiana. The dinner will be hosted by Broadway’s Kimberly Marable, with an appearance by Stephen Schwartz. 

Sara Huckbody of C.E. Jordan High School in Durham, North Carolina, will receive the EdTA Administrator’s Award for school administrators who support educational theatre. Longtime EdTA members receiving the EdTA Hall of Fame Award inductees are Jo Beth Gonzalez of Bowling Green High School in Bowling Green, Ohio and Todd Schnake of Raymore-Peculiar High School in Peculiar, Missouri.

Noel Barry of Pine Crest School in Ft. Lauderdale will receive the EdTA Inspirational Theatre Educator Award. Paper Mill Playhouse director of education Paul McGinley will receive the EdTA President’s Award. The International Thespian Society’s Honorary Thespian of the Year Award will be presented to arts administrator, advocate, and writer Howard Sherman of New York City. Shaina Taub, the creator and star of Broadway’s Suffs, was previously announced as the recipient of the EdTA Founders’ Award. 

Four schools have also been named recipients of the Theatre in Our Schools Outstanding Impact Award for their advocacy efforts during Theatre in Our Schools Month this past March: Allen Park High School of Allen Park, Michigan; Floyd Central High School of Floyd Knobs, Indiana; Monarch High School of Coconut Creek, Florida; and Seaman High School of Topeka, Kansas. Winners receive a prize package courtesy of Disney Theatrical Productions and Music Theatre International.

The Educational Theatre Association is an international nonprofit that serves as the professional association for theatre educators. EdTA is the parent organization of the International Thespian Society, the honor society for theatre students that’s inducted more than 2.5 million Thespians since 1929. Additionally, EdTA operates the Educational Theatre Foundation, the organization’s philanthropic arm dedicated to broadening representation and increasing access. 

SAN FRANCISCO: On June 6, PlayGround announced the five playwrights who will receive paid commissions to adapt their award-winning short plays into evening-length works over the next year. The 2025 June Anne Baker Prize was given to Laura Domingo, and People’s Choice Commissions were given to Anne Brady, Madeleine Butler, Laura Domingo, Baylee Shlichtman, and Camron Wright. Each playwright will take part in the 2025-26 residency and receive readings and other development opportunities over the next 12 months.

Domingo’s Grandma’s First Festivus was featured in this year’s Best of PlayGround (SF) and the Best of the Best of PlayGround. She will use her  commission to expand her short play Moeʻuhane, which was performed in November 2024 as part of Monday Night PlayGround: Dreams and Nightmares.

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