League of Professional Theatre Women Announces Leadership & 2022 Spring Events

The League of Professional Theatre Womenan organization which has championed women in the professional theatre for four decades, today announced the youngest, most diverse leadership in its history: co-presidents Mary E. Hodges & Katrin Hilbe, and Executive Vice President, Malini Singh McDonald. In addition to Ms. Hodges, Ms. Hilbe, and Ms. Singh-McDonald, LPTW's leadership includes VP of Communications, Nancy Rhodes; VP of Membership; Wendy Peace; Secretary, Cheryl L. Davis; and Treasurer, Melody Brooks. LPTW's 2022 Spring events will include an Oral History Project interview with Emily Mann, conducted by Alexis Greene at the New York Public Library on Thursday, February 24th at 6:00PM and The Lucille Lortel Awards Toast featuring Ianne Fields Stewart on Monday, March 28th at 12:00PM. LPTW has also announced that 2023 Gilder/Coigney International Theatre Award Program nominations are now open and being accepted through April 15, 2022. https://www.theatrewomen.org

LPTW's Oral History Project interview featuring Emily Mann, interviewed by Alexis Greene will be held on Thursday, February 24th in the Bruno Walter Auditorium at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts (111 Amsterdam Avenue at 65th Street) and is the second installment of the Oral History Project's 2021-2022 season. The event is free and open to the public. Additional details are soon to be announced. The Oral History Project is an ongoing program of the League of Professional Theatre Women in partnership with the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, which chronicles and documents the contributions of significant theatre women in all fields.

Founded and produced for 26 years by the late Betty Corwin, the Oral History Project is currently produced for the League by Ludovica Villar-Hauser. The League of Professional Theatre Women's Oral History Project has previously featured interviews with such notables as Billie Allen, Kia Corthron, Tyne Daly, Carmen DeLavallade, Christine Ebersole, Angela Lansbury, Baayork Lee, Laura Linney, Patti LuPone, Frances McDormand, Bebe Neuwirth, Chita Rivera, Daryl Roth, Mercedes Ruehl, Paula Vogel, Lynn Nottage, and many other theatrical legends. Annually, the legacies of three theatre women are preserved through the Oral History Project, in which a theatre woman luminary is interviewed by the interviewer of their choice and they discuss their life and career before a live audience. The tapes are then housed in The New York Public Library's Theatre on Film and Tape Archive.

Lucille Lortel Awards Toast to Ianne Fields Stewart will be held on Monday, March 28, 2022 and additional details are soon to be announced. In April 1999, the League received a bequest from the Lucille Lortel Estate requesting that a fund be established and maintained by the League to support The Lucille Lortel Grant with a monetary award given annually to an aspiring woman in any discipline of theatre who is showing creative promise and deserves recognition and encouragement. In 2008, 2013, and 2017, an additional amount was awarded as the LPTW Lucille Lortel Visionary Award. Each year the Lucille Lortel Committee visits theatre productions and makes an award to an aspiring woman who is showing creative promise and deserving of recognition and encouragement.

The League of Professional Theatre Women's (LPTW) Gilder/Coigney International Theatre Award Program (GCITA) is seeking nominations for an outstanding theatre woman working and living outside of the United States and is calling upon members of the League of Professional Theatre Women (LPTW), its international affiliates, along with national and international cultural and artistic leaders for submissions. The Gilder-Coigney International Theatre Award is a program of the League of Professional Theatre Women. Nominations are being accepted now through April 15, 2022. Named after Rosamond Gilder and Martha Coigney who charted an enduring course that facilitates communication among theatre artists across the globe, the award is presented every three years and acknowledges the exceptional work of theatre women around the world, promotes expanded visibility and new opportunities for the awardee and her sister nominees, and fosters connections and networking with LPTW members and local cultural institutions. It also recognizes the contributions that an international theatre artist has made to her culture and the lives of past audiences. Click here to view the Criteria for Nominators/Nominees and complete the form: https://www.theatrewomen.org/2023-gcita-nominations