Libby Appel to Receive Legacy Award at Kennedy Center 4/16

Libby Appel, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's Artistic Director Emerita, will receive the Stephen and Christine Schwarzman Legacy Award for Excellence in Theater as part of the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival.

The award will be presented to Appel on Friday, April 16 at 7:30 p.m. in the Terrace Theater during the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF), April 13-17, 2010. This annual award recognizes a distinguished artist for lifetime achievement in theater and unparalleled commitment to the future of the art form through teaching. A $10,000 scholarship in her name to the educational program of her choice accompanies the award which enables her to continue her commitment to emerging theater practitioners.

Appel has chosen to award the scholarship of $10,000 to OSF's FAIR Experience (Fellowships, Assistantships, Internships and Residencies.) The mission of the FAIR Experience is to foster a collaborative exchange of knowledge, skills and perspectives between experienced professionals and the next generation of theater practitioners. OSF is committed to including diverse people, ideas, cultures and traditions in all areas of their work within a high-caliber professional theater environment. The FAIR program is directed by Kimiko Shimoda, who will accompany Appel to the award event.

"I am honored to receive this award, and privileged to stand with the previous five recipients," said Appel. "This represents my 40 plus years as an educator and professional in the American theater. Giving the $10,000 scholarship to the FAIR program is a particularly thrilling part of this honor. Along with Tim Bond and Penny Metropulos, I dreamed that FAIR would provide the opportunity to include more young artists in the process of developing and producing great theater. I am proud that the program continues to flourish at OSF."

Previous recipients of the Stephen and Christine Schwarzman Legacy Award for Excellence in Theater are Ming Cho Lee, Lloyd Richards, Michael Kahn, Zelda Fichandler, and Paula Vogel.

 

Started in 1969 by Roger L. Stevens, the Kennedy Center's founding chairman, the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF) is a national theater program involving 18,000 students from colleges and universities nationwide which has served as a catalyst in improving the quality of college theater in the United States. The KCACTF has grown into a network of more than 600 academic institutions throughout the country, where theater departments and student artists showcase their work and receive outside assessment by KCACTF respondents.

Libby Appel was the artistic director at OSF from 1995 through 2007. This season she directs a production of Pride and Prejudice in the Angus Bowmer Theatre. Currently in her 18th season directing at OSF, her 27 productions also include Paradise Lost; A View from the Bridge; The Cherry Orchard (also adapted); The Tempest; The Winter's Tale (2006, 1990); Bus Stop; Richard III; Richard II; Macbeth; Saturday, Sunday, Monday; The Trip to Bountiful; Three Sisters; Henry V; Hamlet; Measure for Measure; Uncle Vanya; King Lear; The Magic Fire (also at the Center); The Merchant of Venice; Enrico IV (The Emperor); The Seagull (Portland).

Other theaters and festivals for which she has directed performances include: Intiman Theatre, Guthrie Theater, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, South Coast Repertory, PlayMakers Repertory Company, Arizona Theatre Company, Alliance Theatre Company, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, New Mexico Repertory, The Goodman Theatre, Court Theatre, Syracuse Stage, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, San Jose Repertory Theatre, Utah Shakespearean Festival, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Colorado Shakespeare Festival and Kern Shakespeare Festival.

Additional professional credits include Artistic Director, Indiana Repertory Theatre (1992-1996); Dean and Artistic Director, School of Theatre at the California Institute of the Arts; Head of the Acting Program at California State University, Long Beach. She is the author of Mask Characterization: An Acting Process and produced the video Inter/Face:The Actor and The Mask. She co-authored two plays with Michael Flachman: Shakespeare's Women and Shakespeare's Lovers. She has also written new adaptations of four of Chekhov's plays: The Cherry Orchard, The Seagull, Uncle Vanya and Three Sisters (based on translations by Alison Horsley).

She holds honorary doctorates from Southern Oregon University, University of Portland, and Willamette University. She received her M.A. from Northwestern University and her B.A. from University of Michigan.

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