Winners of DRAMA DESK AWARDS for the 2007/2008 New York theater season will receive their engraved trophies at a cocktail reception in their honor on Tuesday, July 22, 2008, from 4:00 to 6: 30 PM, at Tony's DiNapoli Restaurant, 147 W. 43rd St, it was announced by Robert R. Blume, Executive Producer of the Drama Desk Awards show, and Bruce Dimpflmaier, General Manager, of Tony's Di Napoli Restaurant. For a complete list of the 2008 Winners please click HERE.
The Drama Desk Awards, which celebrate excellence in all sectors of New York's theater world, took place on Sunday, May 18, 2008, at the F.H. LaGuardia Concert Hall at Lincoln Center. The awards ceremony, hosted by the cast of [tile of show], was webcast with live streaming video from 9:00 PM to its conclusion by TheaterMania.com, and broadcast live in its entirety on XM Satellite Radio's Broadway Channel 28, hosted by John von Soosten and
Valerie Smaldone.
"This will be the third time we have scheduled a cocktail reception to distribute the trophies at Tony's Di Napoli," said
Robert R. Blume. "The past two year's events were so successful that both Bruce and I decided to do it again. We expect that most of the winners who are still in New York City will attend the event on July 22nd to pick up their trophies."
"Tony's Di Napoli is honored to be co-hosting this special event celebrating New York theater with Drama Desk Executive Producer
Robert R. Blume," said restaurant general manager
Bruce Dimpflmaier. "We are very supportive of New York theater and are proud to continue our association with the Drama Desk."
In addition to honoring creative artists and stage productions in multiple categories, the Drama Desk annually presents scholarships to worthy seniors in the Drama Department of the LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts who are planning careers in the theater. Last year the Drama Desk also presented four public seminars with leading theater personalities as panelists.
The Drama Desk was founded in 1949 to explore key issues in the theater and to bring together critics and writers in an organization to support the ongoing development of theater in New York. The organization began presenting its awards in 1955, and it is the only critics organization to honor achievement in the theater with competition between Broadway, Off Broadway and Off-Off Broadway productions in the same categories.
Drama Desk Award recipients invited to the Trophy Presentation event include: special award winners
James Earl Jones and playwright
Edward Albee; actors
Patti LuPone,
Laura Benanti and
Boyd Gaines, all of whom are in
Gypsy; Paulo Szot (
South Pacific); Mark Rylance (Boeing-Boeing);
Laurence Fishburne (
Thurgood);
Deanna Dunagan (
August: Osage County);
Conleth Hill (The Seafarer);
Linda Lavin (The New Century); the casts of The Dining Room and The Homecoming; the cast and producers of
The 39 Steps; directors Anna D. Shapiro (
August: Osage County) and
Bartlett Sher (
South Pacific); choreographer
Rob Ashford (
Cry-Baby The Musical); composers Stew and Heidi Rodewald (
Passing Strange); musical book writer
Douglas Carter Beane (
Xanadu); orchestrator Jason Carr (
Sunday in the Park with George); set designers Scott Pask (
Les Liaisons Dangereuses) and
Michael Yeargan (
South Pacific); costume designer Katrina Lindsay (
Les Liaisons Dangereuses); lighting designer
Kevin Adams (
The 39 Steps); sound designer Scott Lehrer (
South Pacific); and projection and video designers Timothy Bird and The Knifedge Creative Network (
Sunday in the Park with George).
Also, playwright
Tracy Letts and the producers of
August: Osage County; the creators and producers of
Passing Strange; the producers and creators of Boeing-Boeing; the creators and producers of
South Pacific; the producers and creative team of
Forbidden Broadway: Rude Awakening; and the artistic directors of special award winners, 59East59 Theaters and Playwrights Horizons.
