Drama Desk Awards Ceremony Held May 18; Other Dates Announced

The 53rd Annual Drama Desk Awards will take place on Sunday, May 18, 2008, at 9PM at the F.H. LaGuardia Concert Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City, it was announced by Executive Producer Robert R. Blume and William Wolf, President of the Drama Desk.

The nominations will be announced at a news conference on Monday, April 28, at 9AM at the New York Friars Club (57 East 55th Street). Plans for televising, web casting and radio broadcasting the awards ceremony will be announced shortly.

The Drama Desk is unique in that Broadway, Off-Broadway and Off-Off Broadway shows compete equally in the same categories. In its ongoing effort to honor excellence in the New York theater, the Drama Desk deems a seventeen-performance minimum necessary to qualify for award eligibility, barring any extraordinary circumstances, as may be determined by the Drama Desk Board or by the Nominating Committee. The nominee's cocktail reception, where they receive their nomination certificates, will be held Thursday, May 1 from 4-7PM at Arte Café (106 West 73rd Street).

The 2007/2008 Nominating Committee for the Drama Desk Awards is composed of: Barbara Siegel (TalkinBroadway.com, TheaterMania.com), Chairperson; Dan Bacalzo (TheaterMania.com); Robert Cashill (New York Theater News and Live Design); Celia Ipiotis (Eye on the Arts); Tony Phillips (Edge New York); Gerard Raymond (Back Stage and The Advocate), and Richard Ridge (broadwaybeat.com).

The Board of Directors of the Drama Desk is composed of: William Wolf, President; Leslie (Hoban) Blake, Vice President; Charles Wright, Treasurer and 2nd Vice President; Joyce Hauser, Secretary; Ellis Nassour; Michael Bracken; David Kaufman; Sam Norkin; Barbara Siegel, and Elyse Sommer. The Drama Desk, organized in 1949, presented its first awards in 1955.