Andrew Garfield, Laura Benanti and More to Present at This Year's Obie Awards

The American Theatre Wing and The Village Voice have announced the star-studded line-up of presenters at the 63rd Annual Obie Awards, being held on Monday, May 21, 2018 at Terminal 5 (610 West 56th Street).

Presenters will include Academy Award® and two-time Tony Award® nominee Andrew Garfield, Emmy Award nominee Lucy Liu, two-time Tony Award and Obie Award winner Matthew Broderick, Tony Award nominee Oliver Platt, Tony Award winner Laura Benanti, Tony Award nominee Laura Osnes, Tony Award nominee Beth Malone, Tony Award nominee and Obie Award winner David Morse, Tony Award nominee and Obie Award winner Itamar Moses, Tony Award nominee and Obie Award winner Arian Moayed, six-time Tony Award winner William Ivey Long, six-time Tony Award winner Natasha Katz, Tony Award and three-time Obie Award winner David Henry Hwang, Tony Award winner David Zinn, Tony Award nominee Emilio Sosa, Lilli Cooper, New York City nightlife celeb Pixie Aventura, American Theatre Wing President and CEO Heather Hitchens, The Village Voice President and CEO Peter Barbey, and Chair of the Obie Judges Michael Feingold.

This year's Obie Awards will be live streamed on the official Obie Awards Twitter account - www.twitter.com/@ObieAwards

Tickets to the 2018 Obie Awards are now available via www.ObieAwards.com.

As was previously announced, Emmy and Obie-winning actor John Leguizamo will host this year's Obie Awards, and legendary Tony Award-nominated and three-time Obie Award-winning actress Kathleen Chalfant will receive a special Obie Award® for Lifetime Achievement.

The Obie Award judges panel for this season is chaired by longtime Village Voice critic Michael Feingold, and includes Entertainment Weekly theater critic Melissa Rose Bernardo, Obie-winning projection designer Wendall K. Harrington, Broadway News theater critic Charles Isherwood, Tony Award-nominated and Obie-winning costume designer Toni-Leslie James, dancer-actress-director Sondra Lee, Tony Award-nominated and Obie-winning actor Arian Moayed, and Obie-winning actress Ching Valdes-Aran.

The production team for the 2018 Obie Awards includes J. Jason Daunter (Artistic Supervisor), Eric Cornell (Line Producer), P. Jason Yarcho (Musical Supervisor), Natasha Katz(Lighting Designer), Kai Harada (Sound Designer), Antje Ellermann (Scenic Designer), and Adam J. Thompson (Video Designer).

The Obie Awards Band is led by P. Jason Yarcho featuring the vocals of Brie Cassil, Lisa Ramey, and Yvette Rovira.

Sponsors of the 2018 Obie Awards are Nickelodeon, PRG, Athletics, and Serino Coyne.

For more information, visit www.ObieAwards.com.

ABOUT THE OBIE AWARDS

The Village Voice created the Obie Awards, at the suggestion of then editor Jerry Tallmer, soon after the publication's own inception in 1955, to encourage the newly burgeoning Off Broadway theater movement and to acknowledge its achievements. The Obies are structured with informal categories, to recognize artists and productions worthy of distinction in each theatrical year. Over the decades, the Obie Awards have played a major role in the Voice's long history of championing work of innovative and exceptional quality Off and Off-Off Broadway. The Village Voice put the new downtown theater movement on the map with its in-depth coverage, becoming a forum for conflicting viewpoints which helped generate excitement over new works and new approaches to theater-making. The Obies have become a theatrical tradition, a meaningful way to acknowledge the best artistic achievements of downtown theater. The list of actors, writers, directors, and designers who have received Obies at pivotal moments in their careers is a virtual who's who of contemporary theater. While the categories of the awards have continued to change almost annually, the creative spirit remains the same. The Obie Awards salute a theatrical movement that's as important, and as vibrant, today as it was in 1955.

Photo Credits: Andrew Garfield by Jennifer Broski; Laura Benanti by Walter McBride