Drama Desk President William Wolf recently stopped by
the BMI New York office to hand deliver the BMI Lehman Engel Musical
Theatre Workshop's crystal statuette. The Workshop, honored at the 2006
ceremony held last month in New York, received the special award "for
nurturing, developing and promoting new talent for the musical
theater." The annual Drama Desk Awards honor excellence in theater for
Broadway, Off Broadway and Off-Off Broadway during the season.
"Deemed 'the Harvard of musical theatre' by The New York Times, the BMI
Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop was founded in 1961 by performing
right organization BMI and the late Lehman Engel, dean of American
musical theatre, to create a setting where new writers could learn
their craft. It is the birthplace of such classic musicals as
A Chorus Line, Nine, Little Shop of Horrors, Beauty and the Beast, and current Broadway favorite
Avenue Q. The Workshop also received the 2005 Drama League Award for Excellence in Musical Theatre," according to press notes.
Now celebrating more than 65 years in business, BMI is an American
performing right organization that represents more than 300,000
songwriters, composers and publishers in all genres of music. With a
repertoire of more than 6.5 million musical works from around the
world, the non-profit-making corporation collects license fees from
businesses that use music, which it then distributes as royalties to
the musical creators and copyright owners it represents. Visit
www.bmi.com for more information.
Photo by Dana Rodriguez
Drama Desk President William Wolf (center) presents the Workshop's special award to BMI's Jean Banks and Del Bryant
