Lynn Nottage, Kamilah Forbes Honored By LPTW

Last night (Oct. 4), at the League of Professional Theatre Women (LPTW)'s Edith Meiser Oral History, Co-Presidents Naomi Grabel and Rachel Reiner announced two outstanding women whose work is being recognized at the League's December 2010 Awards Luncheon.

The Lee Reynolds Award is given annually to a woman or women active in any aspect of theatre whose work for, in, about, or through the medium of theatre has helped to illuminate the possibilities for social, cultural, or political change. The 2010 Lee Reynolds Award will be presented to Lynn Nottage, an outstanding American dramatist. In 2009, she received the Pulitzer Prize for Ruined, which dramatizes the horrific injuries inflicted on women during war, an issue about which Ms. Nottage has frequently spoken publicly. She has also received the MacArthur "genius" award for the total body of her work, which includes the plays Intimate Apparel, Fabulation, Crumbs from the Table of Joy, and Las Meninas. Most recently she received the inaugural award of the Steinberg Prize for Playwriting. Her new play, By the Way, Meet Vera Stark, will have its premier at Second Stage Theatre in 2011.

To honor the memory of member Josephine Abady, the LPTW presents an annual award to an early- or mid-career director or producer of a work of cultural diversity. The 2010 Josephine Abady Award will be presented to Kamilah Forbes, in recognition of her strong commitment to the development of creative works by, for and about the Hip-Hop generation. Voted one of VIBE Magazine's Top 100 Juiciest People, Kamilah Forbes is a burgeoning actor, director, playwright, and producer. She is artistic director of the annual 3-week Hip-Hop Theatre Festival (HHTF), which she has nourished from a fledgling project to a non-profit organization with a national scope. The festival has featured the work of nearly 100 artists from around the world, including OBIE Award-winner Will Power, Tony Award®-winner Sarah Jones, Rennie Harris, Nilaja Sun, Marc Bamuthi Joseph, and Indio Melendez. Kamilah herself wrote and directed the Hip-Hop theatre piece "Rhyme Deferred," which has toured the U.S.

The LPTW's Lifetime Achievement Award, which honors women exhibiting exemplary service to the theatre, is still to be announced. Past recipients include Dorothy Olim, Betty Comden, Ellen Stewart, Fifi Oscard, Martha Swope, Sylvia Herscher, Rosetta LeNoire and Lucille Lortel, among others.