Gina Gionfriddo presented The Lilly Award in Playwrighting and Direction to Young Jean Lee in honor of Susan Glaspell.
John Weidman presented The 6th Lillian Hellman Award in Playwrighting to Sarah Ruhl.
Marsha Norman presented The Lilly Award for Lifetime Achievement to Mary Rodgers
Gloria Steinem presented the invocation.
The committee, consisting of Julie Crosby, John Eisner, Gary Garrison, Tina Howe, Julia Jordan, Marsha Norman, Theresa Rebeck, Susan Rose, Tim Sanford and the Dramatists Guild of America was founded out of a desire to celebrate the work of outstanding, successful and up-and-coming women playwrights, directors, designers and advocates in the theater.
Pulitzer-Award Winning Playwright Marsha Norman recalls when she interviewed Lillian Hellman late in her life, for the New York Times. "She warned me it was going to be tough to be a woman working in the theater. She said I'd need to write like the devil and also act like one when necessary. She was right on all counts. This party is just to remind everybody that there are so many great women working in the theatre now.
In New York alone, 51 plays this year, on Broadway and off, were written by women. And the work is stunning. I wish Ms. Hellman could see this."
Photo Credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.
