Obie Award Winners Announced - Full List Including 4000 MILES, HAND TO GOD & SUSTAINED EXCELLENCE

The 57th Annual Obie Awards were given out at a ceremony tonight at Webster Hall in Greenwich Village. The awards were presented by acclaimed stage actors Eric McCormack, Grace Gummer, Hugh Dancy, Jonathan Pryce, Justin Bartha, Leslie Odom Jr., Lily Rabe, Michael McKean, Tonya Pinkins, Topher Grace, and Tracee Chimo.

Numbers from this season's top Broadway musicals, including “Summertime” performed by Joshua Henry and Sumayya Ali from the cast of Porgy & Bess and “Raglan Road” performed by David Patrick Kelly from the cast of Once, were entertainment for the evening. The ceremony kicked off with two numbers from newly minted Obie winner Ethan Lipton & His Orchestra from their show No Place to Go.

The Obies were judged by a committee of seven: Brian Parks, Obie Awards Chairman and Arts & Culture editor of The Village Voice; Michael Feingold, chief theater critic for the Voice, two-time Pulitzer finalist, dramaturg, and Obie Chairman Emeritus; Alexis Soloski, a Voice theater critic as well as contributor to The New York Times, the U.K. Guardian, and BBC Radio, plus theater professor at Columbia University; 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.

4000 Miles by Amy Herzog received the Obie Award for Best New American Play, which is accompanied by a $1,000 prize. Caridad Svich—a playwright, translator, and teacher—received the Obie Award for Lifetime Achievement. A complete list of awards is given below.

Best New American Play (with $1,000 prize)
Amy Herzog - 4000 Miles (Lincoln Center Theater)

Performance
Cherise Boothe - Milk Like Sugar (Playwrights Horizons and the Women's Project)
Steven Boyer - Hand to God (Ensemble Studio Theatre/Youngblood)
Sweet and Sad Ensemble: Jon Devries, Shuler Hensley, Maryann Plunkett, Laila Robins, Jay O. Sanders, J. Smith-Cameron (The Public Theater)
Gabriel Ebert and Mary Louise Wilson - 4000 Miles (Lincoln Center Theater)
Jim Fletcher - Sustained Excellence
Santino Fontana - Sons of the Prophet (The Roundabout Theatre)
Linda Lavin - The Lyons (The Vineyard Theatre)
Susan Pourfar - Tribes (Barrow Street Theatre)

Playwriting
Kirsten Greenidge - Milk Like Sugar (Playwrights Horizons and the Women's Project)

Direction
Richard Maxwell - Early Plays (The Wooster Group and St. Ann's Warehouse)
Jay Scheib - World of Wires (The Kitchen)

Design
Mark Barton, Sustained Excellence of Lighting Design
Mimi Lien, Sustained Excellence of Set Design
Matt Tierney and Ben Williams, sound design - The Select (The Sun Also Rises) (New York Theatre Workshop)

Special Citations
Mark Bennett, Denis O'Hare, Lisa Peterson, and Stephen Spinella - An Iliad (New York Theatre Workshop)
Elevator Repair Service - Sustained Excellence
Erin Courtney and Ken Rus Schmoll - A Map of Virtue (13P)
Steven Hoggett, Martin Lowe, and John Tiffany - Once (New York Theatre Workshop)
Daniel Kitson - It's Always Right Now, Until It's Later (St. Ann's Warehouse)
Ethan Lipton & His Orchestra - No Place to Go (The Public Theater/Joe's Pub)
Ross Wetzsteon Grant ($1,000) - Youngblood (Ensemble Studio Theatre)

Grants
The Bushwick Starr ($2,500)
The Debate Society ($2,500)

Lifetime Achievement
Caridad Svich

http://obies.villagevoice.com/2012/