60th Annual Drama Desk Awards to be Held at The Town Hall; Nominations Announced in April!

The 60th Annual Drama Desk Awards will be presented on Sunday, May 31, 2015 at 8pm at Town Hall (123 W. 43rd St), it was announced today by Gretchen Shugart, CEO of TheaterMania.com and Charles Wright, Drama Deskpresident..

Ms. Shugart is managing executive producer of the Drama Desk Awards and Robert R. Blume and David S. Stone, in association with Renee McCurry, are executive producers.

Joey Parnes Productions will produce and manage the show, which will be written by Bill Rosenfield and directed by Jack Cummings III (co-founder and artistic director of Transport Group).

Gretchen Shugart, CEO of TheaterMania.com Shugart said, "It's exciting to present the Drama Desk Awards, and especially this season's 60th-anniversary show. We hope the theater community and theater lovers will join us in person on May 31st at Town Hall or online to honor New York's outstanding theater artists and productions." Wright said, "Over the past three years, TheaterMania and its production team have made the Drama Desk Awards ceremonies a highlight of the theater season. I'm confident they'll pull out all the stops for the upcoming 60thanniversary."

The Drama Desk Awards nominations will be announced on Thursday, April 23rd. The 2014-2015 Drama Desk nominating committee is composed of: Barbara Siegel, chairperson, (author and freelance critic); Benjamin Coleman (literary associate, Samuel French, Inc.); Adrian Dimanlig ("Interludes," www.adriandimanlig.com); Steve Garrin (broadcast producer; sound designer); Mahayana Landowne (theater director; interactive artist); and Steve Marsh (Director, Graduate Studies, Department of Theatre Arts, Stony Brook University).

The Drama Desk was founded in 1949 to explore key issues in the theater and bring together critics, writers, editors, and publishers in an organization to support the ongoing development of theater in New York. The organization began presenting it awards in 1955, and is the only critics' organization honoring achievement in the theater with competition among Broadway, Off Broadway, and Off-Off Broadway productions in the same categories.

The 2014-2015 Board of Directors of the Drama Desk consists of: David Barbour (Lighting&Sound America), Leslie (Hoban) Blake (TheaterPizzaz.com), Arlene Epstein (South Shore Record and Herald Community Newspapers), Elysa Gardner (USA Today), John Istel (Freelance), Edward Karam (offoffonline.com), David Kaufman (Author & Freelance), Richard Ridge (BroadwayWorld.com), William Wolf (adjunct professor, NYU and wolfentertainmentguide.com), Charles Wright (A+E Networks), Lauren Yarger (Manchester Journal-Inquirer & reflectionsinthelight.com).

For more information, visit: www.DramaDeskAwards.com.

Photo Credit: © David Gordon