TINA, Audra McDonald, Joshua Henry, LaChanze, Arienne Warren and More Nominated for 2020 Antonyo Awards

Broadway Black, the multimedia organization highlighting the achievements of Black theatre artists, has announced the inaugural Antonyo Awards, a celebration of the Black Broadway and Off-Broadway community.

This joyous online event will take place at 7:00 pm EST on June 19, 2020, also known as Juneteenth, a holiday which commemorates the end of slavery in America. The streamed ceremony will include a pre-show virtual red carpet, original musical numbers, star presenters and performers, and more.

In the Broadway Black spirit of community, winners will be chosen by the public. Online voting will be open from June 9th, 7:30 pm EST through midnight on June 12th at BroadwayBlack.com.

Nominees were announced this evening. Get a look at the full list here!

THE ANTONYO AWARD NOMINATIONS

Best Featured Actor in a Play Off-Broadway

• Leland Fowler - One in Two
• Nicco Annan - The Hot Wing King
• Crystal Lucas Perry - A Bright Room Called Day
• John Andrew Morrison - Blues for an Alabama Sky
• Latoya Edwards - The Rolling Stone
• Okwui Okpokwasili - For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf

Best Featured Actor in a Play on Broadway

• David Alan Grier - A Soldier's Play
• Ato Blankson - Wood Slave Play
• Chalia La Tour - Slave Play
• Zawe Ashton - Betrayal
• Grantham Coleman - The Great Society
• Jordan Barbour - The Inheritance

Best Featured Actor in a Musical Off-Broadway

• John Andrew Morrison - A Strange Loop
• Starr Busby - Octet
• Jasmine Cephas Jones - Cyrano
• Saycon Sengbloh - The Secret Life of Bees
• L Morgan Lee - A Strange Loop
• Taylor Iman Jones - Scotland, PA

Best Featured Actor in a Musical Broadway

• Sahr Ngaujah - Moulin Rouge
• Celia Rose Gooding - Jagged Little Pill
• Jeanette Bayardelle - Girl From the North Country
• Dharon E. Jones - West Side Story

Best Director

• Stevie Walker Webb - One In Two
• Robert O'Hara - BLKS
• Whitney White - Our Dear Dead Drug Lord
• Colette Robert - STEW
• Raja Feather Kelly - We're Gonna Die
• Lileana Blain-Cruz - Anatomy of A Suicide

Best Choreography

• Raja Feather Kelly - A Strange Loop
• Camille A. Brown - for For Colored Girls Who Have Committed Suicide/when the rainbow is enuf,
• Edisa Weeks - Novenas For a Lost Hospital
• Adesola Osakalumi - Coal Country
• Byron Easley - Slave Play
• nicHi Douglas - Skinfolk: An American Show

Best Quarantine Content

• Daniel J. Watts - The Jam IG Live
• Eddie Marwere - #BroadwayRemixChallenge
• Drew Shade - Inside The Mind, a Mental Wellness series
• Jordan E. Cooper - Mama Got A Cough
• Sis - Living with Sis IG Series
• Camille A. Brown - Social Dance for Social Distance

Best Lighting Design

• Allen Lee Hughes - Toni Stone
• Alan C. Edwards - The Hot Wing King
• Stacey Derosier - Novenas For A Lost Hospital
• Allen Lee Hughes - A Soldiers Play

Best Scenic Design

• Lawrence E. Moten III - Native Son

Best Sound

• Justin Ellington - One in Two
• Rucyl Frison - Anatomy of a Suicide
• Luqman Brown - The Hot Wing King

Best Costumes

• Toni Leslie James - For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/when the rainbow is enuf
• Dede Ayite - BLKS
• Andy Jean for One in Two
• Karen Perry- runboyrun/ In Old Age
• Sarita P Fellows for Native Son
• Ari Fulton for Novenas For a Lost Hospital

Best Hair & Wig Design

• Cookie Jordan - Toni Stone
• Nikiya Mathis - STEW
• Greg Cooper Spencer - A Soldier's Play
• Nikiya Mathis - For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/when the rainbow is enuf
• Cookie Jordan - A Strange Loop

Lifetime Achievement Award

• Chuck Cooper

Best Orchestrations

• The Secret of Life Bees
• A Strange Loop
• Tina: The Tina Turner Musical
• We're Gonna Die
• The Wrong Man
• Skinfolk: An American Show

Best Original Score

• The Secret of Life Bees
• A Strange Loop
• Broadbend, Arkansas
• We're Gonna Die
• The Wrong Man

Best Book

• Michael R. Jackson - A Strange Loop
• Lynn Nottage - The Secret Life of Bees
• Katori Hall - Tina: A Tina Turner Musical
• Harrison David Rivers - Broadbend, Arkansas

Best Solo Performance

• Donnetta Lavinia Grays - Where We Stand
• Michael Benjamin Washington - Fires in the Mirror
• Dierdra McDowell - Down to Eartha

Best Actor in a Play Off-Broadway

• Kara Young - All The Natalie Portmans
• Portia - STEW
• April Mathis - Toni Stone
• Kristolyn Lloyd - Little Women
• Ato Blankson Wood - The Rolling Stone
• Danielle Brooks - Much Ado About Nothing

Best Actor in a Play on Broadway

• Audra McDonald - Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune
• LaChanze - A Christmas Carol
• Joaquina Kalukango - Slave Play
• Blair Underwood - A Soldier's Play

Best Actor in a Musical Off-Broadway

• Ciara Renee - The Wrong Man
• Larry Owens - A Strange Loop
• Janelle McDermoth - We're Gonna Die
• Danyel Fulton - Broadbend, Arkansas
• Joshua Henry - The Wrong Man
• LaChanze - The Secret Life of Bees

Best Actor in a Musical on Broadway

• Kimber Elayne Sprawl - Girl From North Country
• Adrienne Warren - Tina: The Tina Turner Musical
• Isaac Cole Powell - West Side Story
• Daniel J. Watts - Tina: The Tina Turner Musical
• Shereen Pimental - West Side Story

Best Revival

• For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/when the rainbow is enuf
• West Side Story
• Native Son
• Little Shop of Horrors
• Fires in the Mirror
• Two Can Play

Best Play

• One in Two by Donja R. Love
• Toni Stone by Lydia R. Diamond
• All The Natalie Portmans by C.A. Johnson
• STEW by Zora Howard
• BLKS by Aziza Barnes
• Paris by Eboni Booth

Best Musical

• The Secret Life of Bees
• A Strange Loop
• Tina: The Tina Turner Musical
• The Wrong Man
• Girl From North Country
• Jagged Little Pill

Drew Shade, founder of Broadway Black and the companion podcast, Off Book, is Executive Producer of the Antonyos. Shade has gathered a team of creatives that include Catherine Caldwell, Darius Barnes, Kim Exum, Neville Braithwaite, Zhailon Levingston, Elijah Lewis, Allen Louis, Eric Lockley, Edward Mawere, Emma Claye, Ianne Fields Stewart, and The Press Room, who are donating their time and talents to beautifully recognize Black theatre in NYC. All found this endeavor especially important given the shortened show season due to COVID-19.

"In our first meeting we decided on Juneteenth for the awards, as it is a more accurate date of freedom from slavery for Black Americans," says Shade. "The Antonyos honor contributors to Black theatre from actors to stage and company managers, administrators and designers. Everyone in our community deserves to be acknowledged in what we hope will be a funny, authentic, celebratory event that is for us, by us."

Current presenters and performers include: Audra McDonald, Tituss Burgess, Alex Newell, Jordan E. Cooper, Teyonah Parris, Ephraim Sykes, LaChanze, Derrick Baskin, Nicolette Robinson, Jelani Alladin, Christiani Pitts, James Monroe Iglehart, Amber Iman, Kalen Allen, Nzinga Williams, Jackson Alexander, Cody Renard Richard, Ashton Muñiz, Shereen Pimentel, Kirsten Childs, Aisha Jackson, Antoine L. Smith, Griffin Matthews, Michael McElroy, Jocelyn Bioh, and L Morgan Lee, with more to come.

Four special "Kinfolk Awards" - the Lorraine Hansberry Award, the Langston Hughes Award, Welcome Award and The Doors of the Theatre are Open Award - will also be presented to members of the Black theatre community as well as a Lifetime Achievement Award to be announced prior to the event.

The Antonyo Awards promise to be hilarious, uplifting and unapologetically Black. Anyone is welcome to vote for the nominees and all should join in watching on Juneteenth through Broadway Black's YouTube and Facebook pages.

Visit BroadwayBlack.com for more information.