PLAYING ON AIR to Receive 2014 Daryl Roth Creative Spirit Award

It was announced today that this year's Daryl Roth Creative Spirit Award will be presented to Playing on Air, which produces short plays by prominent, contemporary American playwrights for a national audience via public radio and the Internet. Dedicated to nurturing and supporting theatre artists, The Daryl Roth Creative Spirit Award, named for the multi-Award-winning producer, is a financial grant given annually to a theatre artist or organization who has demonstrated exceptional promise in their field.

"The Creative Spirit Award was established to honor theatre artists who have extraordinary vision, dedication, energy, and spirit for doing what they love, creating and bringing theatre to life for so many of us to enjoy," said Ms. Roth. "The primary goal is to give artists the kind of freedom needed to imagine and develop exciting and vital work."

"Receiving The Daryl Roth Creative Spirit Award is a powerful tonic," Playing on Air founder Claudia Catania said. "We're walking on air! It gives life to our dream and energizes our efforts to deliver quality short plays as far as radio and the internet can carry them."

The first annual Creative Spirit Award was given in 1996 to director Michael Mayer, who went on to win a 2007 Tony Award for Spring Awakening. Over the years the Award has been given to Mark Brokaw, Sinan Unel, Steven Williford, Cybille Pearson, G. W. Mercier, Edwin Sanchez, Debra Monk, Kia Corthron, Michael Wilson, Karen Hartman, Anika Noni Rose, David Pittu, Musical Theatre Works, New Dramatists, and Labyrinth Theater Company.

Since launching in June of 2012, Playing on Air, led by Claudia Catania, has produced 12 separate programs, recorded in studio, featuring 33 plays. Playing on Air brings the talent of playwrights, actors and directors from the theater capital of the world to listeners across the country. Each program is an eclectic mix of short works written and performed by Tony, Oscar, Emmy and Pulitzer Prize winners, as well as emerging talents, along with behind-the-scenes interviews with playwrights and actors round out each show. Featuring multiple original short productions per episode, Playing on Air has produced plays by Lynn Nottage, Warren Leight, Beth Henley, Christopher Durang, and David Auburn, among others. A sparkling roster of actors has taken part so far -- actors as diverse as Bobby Cannavale, Chris Cooper, Hope Davis, Jesse Eisenberg, Richard Kind, Jane Krakowski, Audra McDonald, Debra Monk, Tonya Pinkins, Jerry Stiller, and more. Next month, Playing on Air inaugurates a new programming initiative, presenting its first plays for radio broadcast taped in front of live audiences.

Daryl Roth holds the singular distinction of producing seven Pulitzer Prize-winning plays: Anna in the Tropics, August: Osage County (2008 Tony Award), Clybourne Park (2012 Tony Award), How I Learned to Drive, Proof (2001 Tony Award), Edward Albee's Three Tall Women and Wit. She has produced more than 85 award-winning productions including Caroline, or Change; Curtains; The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?; Love, Loss, and What I Wore; The Normal Heart (2011 Tony Award); One Man, Two Guvnors; The Tale of the Allergist's Wife; and War Horse (2011 Tony Award). Current productions: Kinky Boots (2013 Tony Award); Buyer and Cellar and The Tribute Artist.