The American Theatre Wing (Heather Hitchens, President & CEO) is thrilled to announce that the 66th Annual Obie Awards, celebrating and honoring Off- and Off-Off-Broadway will take place on Monday, February 27, 2023 at Terminal 5 (610 West 56th Street). 

After an extended season of uncertainty and innovation, the Obies make their eagerly awaited return to celebrate the most outstanding work of Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway. The resourceful brilliance of Off-Broadway theatre makers – who found revolutionary ways to reach audiences during even the darkest, most isolating days of the past three years – will be recognized and honored in a newly-conceived event celebrating the community’s resilience and ingenuity. The ceremony will feature performances from some of the most exciting shows to open Off-Broadway in the last two years. 

“I am so grateful to our judges panel for accepting the challenge of expanding the definition of what ‘Off and Off-Off-Broadway’ can mean,” Ms. Hitchens expressed, “and doing so with such care and enthusiasm. I am excited to create a ceremony that fully embraces and celebrates this remarkable new era of creativity.” 

As previously announced, the 2023 awards are co-chaired by Obie-winning Director and Producing Artistic Leader David Mendizábal and veteran theatre critic Melissa Rose Bernardo. The judges panel includes actor & fight choreographer Dave Anzuelo, actor & playwright Becca Blackwell, scenic designer Wilson Chin, Obie-winning playwright Haruna Lee, theater critic & journalist Soraya McDonald, Obie-winning director & playwright Lisa Peterson, Obie-winning actor Heather Alicia Simms, and Obie-winning costume designer Kaye Voyce. 

Leading sponsor for the 2023 Obie Awards is artist-driven theatrical production company, No Guarantees. The Howard Gilman Foundation also serves as a supporting sponsor. 

A host, award recipients, and other event details will be announced in the coming weeks. 

The Obie Awards are a not-for-profit endeavor, and a key program of the American Theatre Wing, a 501C3 Charitable Organization. All proceeds will support expenses related to the Obies judging process, celebration concert, and grants. Any excess proceeds will be used to increase the grants fund pool for 2024. Tickets to the 2023 Obie Awards can be purchased here!

Join the New York theatre community as we toast our resilience, remember those we lost, and dance to music from the hottest shows of this past season.

ABOUT THE OBIE AWARDS 

The Village Voice created the Obie Awards, at the suggestion of then editor Jerry Tallmer, soon after the publication’s own inception in 1955, to encourage the newly burgeoning Off-Broadway theater movement and to acknowledge its achievements. The Obies are structured with informal categories, to recognize artists and productions worthy of distinction in each theatrical year. Over the decades, the Obie Awards played a major role in the Voice’s long history of championing work of innovative and exceptional quality Off- and Off-Off Broadway. The Village Voice put the new downtown theater movement on the map with its in-depth coverage, becoming a forum for conflicting viewpoints which helped generate excitement over new works and new approaches to theater-making. The Obies have become a theatrical tradition, a meaningful way to acknowledge the best artistic achievements of downtown theater. The list of actors, writers, directors, and designers who have received Obies at pivotal moments in their careers is a virtual who’s who of contemporary theater. While the categories of the awards have continued to change almost annually, the creative spirit remains the same. In 2014, the American Theatre Wing joined in producing and administering the Obie awards. The Obie Awards salute a theatrical movement that’s as important, and as vibrant, today as it was in 1955. For more information, visit ObieAwards.com. 

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