The League of Professional Theatre Women's 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient Will Be Joan D. Firestone

The League of Professional Theatre Women has announced that its 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award, which honors women exhibiting exemplary service to the theatre, will be presented by Marsha Norman (playwright) to Joan D. Firestone, Executive Director of The Moth. In addition to its annual Lifetime Achievement Award, LPTW will have Linda Chapman (playwright) present the 2012 Lee Reynolds Award to Kia Corthron, an outstanding American dramatist and activist, and the 2012 Josephine Abady Award presented by Angelina Fiordellisi (Cherry Lane Theater) to Stephanie Ybarra, an Artistic Associate at The Public Theatre. All the awards will be presented at the LPTW's Turning Thirty Awards Celebration, in honor of the League's 30th Anniversary year, on December 6, 2012, at Scandinavia House at 58 Park Avenue, from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. This year's celebration will also be the culmination of a year of celebratory events for the League.

Past recipients of the LPTW Lifetime Achievement Award include Chita Rivera, Elizabeth McCann, Dorothy Olim, Betty Comden, Ellen Stewart, Fifi Oscard, Martha Swope, Sylvia Herscher, Rosetta LeNoire and Lucille Lortel.

Joan D. Firestone has worked to create new possibilities for artists in every field and to create a greater public awareness of the value of the arts in our culture throughout her professional career. As Assistant Director of the New York State Council on the Arts under Kitty Carlisle Hart, she helped initiate the I Love New York program, bringing 960 artists to Albany for the first Fall Festival, hosted multiple special events and served as Legislative Liaison promoting legislative support for the arts throughout the state. As Executive Director of the Flushing Meadows Corona Park Association she worked with a team of celebrated architects to develop an award-winning plan for this sprawling 1280 acre park that would enhance the recognition of the cultural institutions within it such as the New York Hall of Science, The Queens Museum of Art and the Theatre in the Park. She served under the New York City Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi as Director of Economic Development and Cultural Affairs and forged a dynamic link between the cultural and financial communities. An appointment by NYC Schools Chancellor Harold Levy as his Special Advisor on the Arts gave her an opportunity to continue her work on strengthening arts education throughout the school system. As only one of her many achievements, she is a former Co-President of the LPTW.

The Lee Reynolds Award is given annually to a woman or women active in any aspect of theatre whose work for, in, about, or through the medium of theatre has helped to illuminate the possibilities for social, cultural, or political change. To honor the memory of member Josephine Abady, the LPTW presents an annual award to an early- or mid-career director or producer of a work of cultural diversity.

The Turning 30 Awards Celebration will be held on December 6, 2012 at Scandinavia House (58 Park Avenue, between 37th & 38th Streets) from 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. Tickets are $65 for non members, and $50 for LPTW members. They can be purchased online at

http://lptwturning30awardscelebration.brownpapertickets.com/.