August: Osage County Wins Five Tony Awards

 
Steppenwolf Theatre Company is very proud to announce its critically-acclaimed American play August: Osage County has won FIVE 2008 Tony Awards® including:

Best Play—Tracy Letts
Best Direction—Anna D. Shapiro
Best Leading Actress—Deanna Dunagan
Best Featured Actress—Rondi Reed
Best Scenic Design—Todd Rosenthal
 
August: Osage County received a total of seven 2008 Tony nominations including: Best Play (ensemble member Tracy Letts), Best Direction (ensemble member Anna D. Shapiro), Best Leading Actress (Deanna Dunagan and ensemble member Amy Morton), Best Featured Actress (ensemble member Rondi Reed), Best Scenic Design (Todd Rosenthal) and Best Lighting Design (Ann G. Wrightson).

 

"Steppenwolf is enormously proud of the Tony winners and nominees for August: Osage County," comments Steppenwolf Artistic Director Martha Lavey. "The play, written and directed by Steppenwolf ensemble members with a cast featuring ensemble actors, was commissioned by and premiered at our theater in Chicago. We are deeply grateful to our Chicago audiences for their ongoing support of our theater that has allowed us to become a premier American theater for the development and production of new work," adds Lavey.

August: Osage County is currently playing at Broadway's Music Box Theatre (239 West 45th Street), following its premiere and sold-out run at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company. The National Tour of August: Osage County will begin at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco in August 2009. Subsequent engagements will be announced shortly.

When their patriarch vanishes, the Weston clan must return to their three-story home in rural Oklahoma to get to the heart of the matter.  With rich insight and brilliant humor, Letts paints a vivid portrait of a Midwestern family at critical turning point.
 
Additionally, Steppenwolf ensemble members Laurie Metcalf and Martha Plimpton were both nominated for Best Featured Actress for their respective roles in November (Ethel Barrymore Theatre) and Top Girls (Biltmore Theatre).
 
The 2008 Tony Awards® were broadcast live on Sunday, June 15, 2008.  For a complete list of winners, visit www.tonyawards.com.
 

Other awards for August: Osage County include: the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama—Tracy Letts; the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play—Tracy Letts; three Drama Desk Awards including Outstanding Play—Tracy Letts, Outstanding Actress—Deanna Dunagan and Outstanding Director—Anna D. Shapiro; the Drama League Award for Distinguished Production of a Play—Tracy Letts; three 2008 Outer Critics Circle Awards including Outstanding New Broadway Play, Outstanding Director of a Play—Anna D. Shapiro and Outstanding Actress in a Play—Deanna Dunagan; six 2007 Joseph Jefferson Awards including Best Production-Play, Best Ensemble, Best Principal Actress—Deanna Dunagan, Best Director—Anna D. Shapiro, Best Scenic Designer—Todd Rosenthal and Best New Work-Play—Tracy Letts.

August: Osage County opened at Broadway's Imperial Theatre on Tuesday, December 4, 2007. The original Broadway cast is as follows: Ian Barford, Deanna Dunagan, Kimberly Guerrero, Francis Guinan, Brian Kerwin, Dennis Letts, Madeleine Martin, Mariann Mayberry, Amy Morton, Sally Murphy, Jeff Perry, Rondi Reed, Troy West, Munson Hicks, Susanne Marley, Jay Patterson, Dee Pelletier, Molly Ranson, Aaron Serotsky and Kristina Valada-Viars. The design team includes Todd Rosenthal (sets), Ana Kuzmanic (costumes), Ann G. Wrightson (lights), Richard Woodbury (sound) and David Singer (original music).

August: Osage County was voted #1 play of the year by Time, The Associated Press, Entertainment Weekly, and TimeOut New York.  Charles Isherwood of The New York Times called August: Osage County, "The most exciting new American play Broadway has seen in years."  Joe Dziemianowicz of New York Daily News" says "Letts' perspective is bracingly fresh. You're laughing hysterically one minute and appalled the next."  Clive Barnes of The New York Post writes "August is One Hot Drama."

August: Osage County is playing an open engagement at Broadway's Music Box Theatre (239 West 45th Street). The performance schedule is as follows: Tuesdays - Fridays at 7:30 p.m.; matinees on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 2:00 p.m.; Saturdays at 8:00 p.m.; and Sundays at 3:00 p.m.  Tickets can be purchased at Telecharge.com or by calling (212) 239-6200. Outside the New York Metro area call (800) 432-7250.

The commercial production is produced by Jeffrey Richards, Jean Doumanian, Steve Traxler and Jerry Frankel, in association with Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Martha Lavey, Artistic Director and David Hawkanson, Executive Director.
 
Committed to the principle of ensemble performance through the collaboration of a company of actors, directors and playwrights, Steppenwolf Theatre Company's mission is to advance the vitality and diversity of American theater by nurturing artists, encouraging repeatable creative relationships and contributing new works to the national canon.  The Chicago company, formed in 1976 by a collective of actors, is dedicated to perpetuating an ethic of mutual respect and the development of artists through on-going group work.  Steppenwolf has grown into an internationally renowned company of forty-one artists whose talents include acting, directing, playwriting, filmmaking and textual adaptation.
 
For more information on Steppenwolf Theatre Company, go to www.steppenwolf.org.

Photo Credit Peter James Zielinski

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