The New York Innovative Theatre Awards Announce 2021 Honorary Awards Ceremony

The New York Innovative Theatre Awards have announced its 2021 Honorary Awards Ceremony, hosted by Shalewa Sharpe and Courtney Fearrington. This year's celebration will take place at The Kraine Theater (85 E 4th St, New York, NY 10003) on November 14th, 2021 starting at 7pm, as well as live-streamed. You can read more about the awards and the recipients at NYITAwards.com and purchase tickets to the event at frigid.nyc/events/nyit-awards.

The NYIT Awards celebrates New York City's independent theatre artists and this year our theme is "Celebrate Resiliency!" NYIT Co-Director Akia Squitieri says, "Along with the entire theatre industry, NYC's Indie Artists suffered major setbacks over the past months due to Covid while also responding to the social fight against injustice. But you can always count on theatre people to bounce back and do all they can to bring their work to light. They are the most resilient people on Earth, and we plan to celebrate them for it!" Tickets are available at frigid.nyc/events/nyit-awards.

Directed by Dev Bondarin, the hybrid ceremony format (live & streamed) will include awards being presented to the following honorees: The Parsnip Ship (Caffe Cino Award Recipient); Penny Arcade & Steve Zehentner (Artistic Achievement Award Recipient); IndieSpace/The Indie Theater Fund (Ellen Stewart Award Recipient); Rachel April (Outstanding Stage Manager Award Recipient); Chris Weikel (Doric Wilson Independent Playwright Award Recipient). The evening's ceremony will feature videos, in-person speakers, and award acceptance speeches from these recipients and their supporters.

This year's awards include the presentation of our brand new award: The Indie Theatre Champion Award. "The Indie Theatre Champion Award...," says Co-Director Jazmyn Arroyo, "...was created to celebrate those individuals and groups who demonstrated their compassion and resiliency by helping our theatre community during the pandemic, industry and economic crises and the continued fight against white supremacy." The 2021 Indie Theatre Champions are: Randi Berry, The Episcopal Actors' Guild of America, Ximena Garnica/LEIMAY, JACK, Latinx Playwrights Circle, and Aimee Todoroff.

Due to Covid restrictions, there will be limited in-person seating at the Kraine Theater, but we will also be live-streamed! A limited number of live event tickets will be available for $20 for those wishing to attend in person, and the streamed version will be a pay what you can ticket model to remove the financial barriers for anyone who wishes to view the event. You can get in-person and streaming tickets at frigid.nyc/events/nyit-awards.