Women are celebrated at NY IT Awards nomination ceremony

On Monday night, The New York Innovative Theatre Foundation hosted its 2010 New York Innovative Theatre Awards nomination ceremony at Our Lady of Pompeii/Demo Hall in Greenwich Village on Monday night, July 19th.  Hundreds of indie theatre artists and fans gathered to celebrate the previous season of outstanding work.

There were over 118 nominees, representing 55 theatre companies and 50 productions.  And, I’m proud to report that female theatre artists were represented quite well.   In the playwright categories, half of the nominees in the Outstanding Full-Length Script and six out of seven in the Outstanding Short Script category are women.  The nominees are:

Outstanding Full Length Script

Stacy Davidowitz, Pink!, Down Payment Productions
Tanya O’ Debra, Radio Star, The Horse Trade Group and Tanya O’Debra
Crystal Skillman, The Vigil or The Guided Cradle, Impetuous Theater Group & The Brick Theater

Outstanding Short Script
Lorraine Cink, Cheryl L. Davis, ML Kinney, Bethany Larsen, The Disorder Plays, Milk Can Theatre Company
Amy Herzog, Too Little Too Late, Red Elevator Productions

Three of the six nominated directors are women:

Heather Cohn, The Lesser Seductions of History, Flux Theatre Ensemble
Lila Neugehauer, Samuel and Alasdair: A Personal History of the Robot War, The Mad Ones
Kim Weild, Fetes de la Nuit, WeildWorks

Female designers scored five costume design nominations, two each for set design and innovative design, and one each for lighting design, and sound design.  No women were recognized in the original music category.

Costume Design
Stephanie Alexander, Pink!, Down Payment Productions
Brooke Berry (and Mark Mears), Psych, Cake Productions
Olivera Gajic, Le Serpent Rouge, Company XIV
Julianne Kroboth,  Craven Monkey and The Mountain of Fury, Piper McKenzie
Lisa Zinni, Killing Women, kef theatrical productions

Set Design
Rebecca Cunningham, The Desk Set, Retro Productions
Amanda Stephens, Pink!, Down Payment Productions

Innovative Design
Heather E. Cunningham and Casandera M.J. Lollar, The Dest Set, Retro Productions

Lighting Design
Gina Scherr, Le Serpent Rouge, Company XIV

Sound Design
Jeanne Travis, The Desk Set, Retro Productions

Three female choreographers were also nominated.

Outstanding Choreography/Movement
Nina Ashe, Manhattanpotamia IV, The Hyperion Theatre Project
Christine O’Grady, Children of Eden, Astoria Performing Arts Center
Kim Weild, Fetes de la Nuit, WeildWorks

To see a full list of nominees, visit http://www.nyitawards.com.  Congrats to all the nominees.  Here’s to the best of luck at the ceremony in September.