The Obie Awards, an annual ceremony honoring theater work performed Off and Off Off Broadway, will consider digital, audio and other virtual productions for the first time this year.
The award winners decided to expand their scope in recognition of the adjustments made by many theater companies during the coronavirus pandemic, which prevented most New York theaters from putting on personal performances for at least a year, and in many cases significantly longer. Numerous theaters switched to streaming and some experimented with audio.
“We wanted to make sure the work performed was eligible,” said Heather Hitchens, the president and chief executive of the American Theater Wing, which presents the awards. “The Obies respond to the season and to the evolving nature and rhythms of theatre.”
This year’s Obie Awards are expected to take place in November, which would be 28 months after the last ceremony, reflecting the extremely disruptive role the pandemic has played in theater making. The ceremony will consider productions presented by the Off Broadway and Off Off Broadway theaters between July 1, 2020 and August 31, 2022.
The exact date for the ceremony has not been set, but Hitchens said she expects it to be in person (the latter was streamed) and she expects it to have a host (or hosts).
This year’s Obie Awards will be the first to be presented solely by the Wing, who also founded and co-hosts the Tony Awards. The Obies were created by The Village Voice and first presented in 1956; in 2014, when The Voice was struggling, it partnered with the Wing to preserve the ceremony, and now The Voice has awarded the Obies trademark to the Wing, Hitchens said.
Always a mixture of prestige and whimsy, the Obies have long been distinguished by their lack of defined categories – each year the judges decide what to recognize and for what reason. This year’s awards are chaired by David Mendizábal, one of the leaders of the Movement Theater Company, and Melissa Rose Bernardo, a freelance theater critic. Judges include David Anzuelo, an actor and fight choreographer; Becca Blackwell, an actor and writer; Wilson Chin, a set designer; Haruna Lee, a playwright; Soraya Nadia McDonald, the cultural critic of The Undefeated; Lisa Peterson, a director and writer; Heather Alicia Simms, an actor; and Kaye Voyce, a costume designer.
