THE VILLAGE VOICE 57TH ANNUAL
OBIE
AWARDS
Off-Broadway’s Highest Honor
How to Contact the Obies
For press information or to book a presenter or host for the 2012 Obie Awards ceremony
contact Gail Parenteau at Parenteau Guidance 212-532-3934
gail@parenteauguidance.com
For advertising, promotional tie-ins, and sponsorship, contact Marketing/Events
Director Rosemary R. Raposo, 212-475-7466
rraposo@villagevoice.com
THE VILLAGE VOICE ANNOUNCES
JUDGES FOR THE 57TH ANNUAL OBIE AWARDS
CEREMONY WILL BE HELD MONDAY, MAY 21, 2012
Off-Broadway and Off-Off Broadway’s Highest Honor Salutes Outstanding Theatrical
Accomplishments
New York, NY – The Village Voice, the nation’s first and largest alternative weekly
newspaper, has announced the judges for the 57th Annual Village Voice Obie Awards.
The Voice’s chief theater critic, two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, and theater dramaturge
Michael Feingold, who has chaired the Obies since the 2006-7 season, will become the
first Obies Chairman Emeritus. The 2011-12 Obie Chairman will be Brian Parks.
Brian is the Arts and Culture editor of The Village Voice, which includes editing the
paper’s theater section. He has previously served as Obies Chairman, from 1999 to 2003.
Joining Feingold and Parks will be Voice critic Alexis Soloski. She also contributes
frequently to The New York Times, the U.K. Guardian, and BBC Radio. A professor of
theater, Alexis is a lecturer in the Core Curriculum at Columbia University.
The four guest judges are: Annie Baker, Best New American Play Obie winner in 2010
for her plays Circle Mirror Transformation and The Aliens; Anne Kauffman,
accomplished director, instructor, and 2007 Obie winner for her direction of The Thugs;
José Rivera, two-time Obie Award winner for his plays Marisol and References to
Salvador Dali Make Me Hot; and Helen Shaw, a theater critic for Time Out New York
and a past Obie judge. Her writing has also appeared in The Village Voice.
Meet the Judges:
Obie Chairman Brian Parks is happy to return to the role, and hopes to maintain the high
standards that his predecessor Michael Feingold has set for the awards and recent
ceremonies. “It’s been great to dive back into the Obies. New York has such a huge
theater scene, and I’m honored to be able to help reward its most talented and creative
people,” states Brian.
Michael Feingold says, “I am thrilled that Brian Parks is willing to take over, despite the
tremendous weight of his expanded responsibilities as Arts & Culture Editor, and I know
from experience that he’ll do a wonderful job. I’m delighted to go back to my traditional
role as the committee’s resident objection-raiser. It’ll be like a vacation.”
One of the most significant changes that Alexis Soloski has witnessed in the non-profit,
Off-Broadway scene over the years is geographic. “We’ve seen theaters close throughout
the West Village, the East Village, and the Lower East Side,” she says. “But it’s
heartening how many new theaters have sprung up, particularly in Brooklyn and Queens,
and how successful they’ve been in attracting artists and audiences.”
Asked what winning the Obie for Best New American Play and a check for $1,000 meant
to her in 2010, Annie Baker observes, “Winning an Obie meant the world to me.”
For Anne Kauffman, the most important quality a director can possess is “Patience!”
That word goes a long way, as evidenced by Anne’s endurance, grace, and serenity.
José Rivera is the first Puerto Rican to be nominated by the Academy of Motion Picture
Arts and Sciences for “Best Adapted Screenplay,” for the film The Motorcycle Diaries.
When asked how a commercially successful playwright stays true to his or her non-profit
theater roots, he laughs. “I’ve never been a commercially successful playwright,” he says.
“No play of mine has ever been extended more than a couple of weeks. I’ve never been
well-reviewed in The New York Times, never been on Broadway, and except for the
Obies, have never won major awards in the theater. So I have no trouble staying true to
my non-profit roots!”
Helen Shaw remembers the most profound reaction she ever received from a review. “It
was an artist-not-to-be-named who flew at me in the doorway of P.S.122 and called me a
terrorist and then banned me from his work. It wasn’t pleasant!”
Founded in 1955 by Voice cultural editor Jerry Tallmer, The Village Voice Obie Awards
annually honor the best of Off-Broadway and Off-Off Broadway. Unlike most theater
awards, the Obies do not publicize nominations or employ rigid categories in which a
“Best” is selected. In the conviction that creativity is not competitive, the judges select
outstanding artists and productions and may even invent new categories to reward artistic
merit. Past winners have included such well-known stars as Dustin Hoffman, Meryl
Streep, William Hurt, Morgan Freeman, Mos Def, Felicity Huffman, Kevin Kline,
Nathan Lane, Olympia Dukakis, Robert Duvall, Denzel Washington, Kevin Bacon, Alec
Baldwin, Kathy Bates, James Earl Jones, Joan Cusack, and Harvey Fierstein, to name a
few.
Venue details for the 57th Annual Obie Awards Ceremony, the names of the hosts and
presenters, and information about how to purchase tickets will be forthcoming.
About The Village Voice:
Founded by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, and Norman Mailer in October 1955, The Village
Voice introduced free-form, high-spirited, and passionate journalism into the public
discourse. As the nation's original and largest alternative newsweekly, the Voice
maintains the same tradition of no-holds-barred reporting and criticism it first embraced
when it began publishing 56 years ago. The recipient of three Pulitzer prizes, the
National Press Foundation Award, and the George Polk Award, among others, the Voice
has earned a reputation for its groundbreaking investigations of New York City politics
and for its expert coverage of New York's cultural scene. Writing and reporting on local
and national politics, with opinionated culture, music, art, dance, film, and theater
reviews, daily web dispatches, comprehensive entertainment listings, and unrivaled
classifieds, the Voice is the authoritative source on all that is New York.
The Village Voice has also created such celebrated events as the Obie Awards, the 4Knots
Music Festival, Choice Eats, Brooklyn Pour, the Web Awards, as well as the most
anticipated issues and guides of the year—including the annual Pazz and Jop music poll,
the annual Film Critics Poll, Best of NYC, and its Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter
Preview guides. The Voice is New York's most influential must-read alternative
newspaper, both in print and online at www.villagevoice.com, where the site averages 1.5
million unique users each month.
Visit us on the Web: obies.villagevoice.com