Nominees For 4th Annual Kevin Kline Awards Announced 1/16

Nominees for the 4th annual Kevin Kline Awards will be announced at 11 a.m. on Friday, Jan. 16 during KWMU (90.7FM) Radio's "Cityscape" program.

Host Stephen Potter will be joined by Steve Isom, founder of the Professional Theater Awards Council (PTAC), Peter Sargent, PTAC Board President and Nicole Hollway, General Manager, St. Louis Beacon.  Nominees will be selected in 22 categories. 

During 2008, more than 100 plays and musicals, produced by 40 professional theater companies, were evaluated by a floating pool of 48 judges.  Each show was reviewed by seven judges, and each judges was required to submit a ballot within 24 hours of attending a production, thus insuring each production was weighed on its own merits rather than in comparison to others.

Final award winners will be announced during the Kevin Kline Awards ceremony on Monday, March 30, at the Loretto-Hilton Center for the Performing Arts at Webster University.

The PTAC was formed in 2004 to heighten awareness of theatre in St. Louis by educating youth, building audience awareness and honoring excellence.  This year's theatrical season includes performances by 40 professional companies in the St. Louis area. 

Visit www.kevinklineawards.org.

Recognizing outstanding achievement in Professional Theatre in the Greater St. Louis Area, The Kevin Kline Awards honor theatre artists and productions in over 20 categories. The awards are named in honor of St. Louis' own Tony and Academy Award winner Kevin Kline.

Kline, who now lives in New York, is delighted. "I've long been under the impression that people didn't lend their names to awards until after they had died." he said, upon learning of the award. 'I'm in pretty good health right now, and feeling all the better for having received this lovely and unexpected honor. It's gratifying to think that I can continue to be associated with theater excellence in the city where so many of my earliest theater impressions were formed."

The first annual Kevin Kline Awards were presented on March 20, 2006 in the beautifully restored Robert's Orpheum Theatre (formerly the American Theatre).