NEW YORK CITY: Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation (SDCF), the nonprofit foundation of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC), has announced that director José Luis Valenzuela has received the 2024 Gordon Davidson Award. Named in honor of the founding artistic director of Los Angeles’s Center Theatre Group and one of the visionary leaders of the resident theatre movement Gordon Davidson, the award recognizes a director or choreographer for lifetime achievement and distinguished service in the national nonprofit theatre. The award will be presented to Valenzuela at a ceremony in the spring.
José Luis Valenzuela is the artistic director of the Latino Theater Company (LTC) and the Los Angeles Theatre Center (LATC). He is a UCLA distinguished professor emeritus and served as head of the MFA directing program at UCLA’s School of Theater, Film & Television. An award-winning theatre director, Valenzuela has been a visionary advocate for Chicanx/Latinx theatre for over 40 years. He has directed critically acclaimed productions both internationally and nationally, including at the LATC, where he created the Latino Theatre Lab in 1985 (now the Latino Theater Company), and the Mark Taper Forum, where he established the Latino Theater Initiative in 1991. As the artistic director of the Latino Theater Company and the LATC, he has developed its artistic vision and organizational mission of producing programming that represents the diversity of Los Angeles on and behind the stage and its groundbreaking initiatives in support Latinx theatre companies, playwrights, and students. These initiatives include the National Latinx Theater Initiative, Circle of Imaginistas, Impact Theater Initiative, and a robust theatre education and training program for college and high school students.
NEW YORK CITY: The Casting Society of America (CSA) presented awards in casting across feature film, television (scripted and unscripted), commercials, and theatre at the 40th Annual Artios Awards held on Feb. 12, with ceremonies in Los Angeles, New York, and London.
In New York, the Marion Dougherty New York Apple Award was presented to casting director Daniel Swee (Lincoln Center Theater). During the Los Angeles ceremony, CSA president Destiny Lilly announced that the organization is adding a new category for 2026, the London Theater Award, honoring excellence in casting in U.K. theatre, as the organization continues to expand its global presence. In London, veteran casting director David Grindrod was awarded the Creative Collaboration Award.
The theatre winners are:
- Stereophonic: Alaine Alldaffer, Taylor Williams (Broadway: Comedy or Drama)
- The Outsiders: Tara Rubin, Xavier Rubiano (Broadway: Musical)
- Oh, Mary!: Henry Russell Bergstein (New York Theatre: Comedy or Drama)
- Here We Are: Bernard Telsey, Adam Caldwell, associate casting director: Geoff Josselson (New York Theatre: Musical)
- Reefer Madness The Musical: Michael Donovan, Richie Ferris (Los Angeles Theatre)
- A Strange Loop: Destiny Lilly (Regional Theatre)
- MJ the Musical: Lindsay Levine, Rachel Hoffman (Theatre Tours)
- West Side Story (Lyric Opera Of Chicago): Merri Sugarman, location casting director: Becca McCracken (Special Theatrical Performance)
ITHACA, N.Y.: Brittani Samuel, a freelance theatre critic who writes for The New York Times, The Washington Post, Broadway News, and American Theatre, has been named winner of the 2023-24 George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism. Conferred by the chairs of the Departments of English at Cornell, Princeton, and Yale Universities, the Nathan Award is administered by Cornell’s Department of Literatures in English in the College of Arts and Sciences.
The Nathan committee noted that Samuel “seeks to democratize the role of the critic” by weaving “critical self-reflection through her discerning evaluation and precise, evocative prose.” The committee singled out her review of Raja Feather Kelly’s dance theatre piece The Fires in The New York Times as exemplifying Samuel’s critical acumen and distinctive voice.
In her reviewing for Broadway News, Samuel has explained that “as a critic, I aim to balance the reality of my lived experience and a production’s take on that experience. I can’t exactly override my partialities (no one can) upon entering a show, but I keep my skull cracked open.” In such critical writing, and as the founding co-editor of the Obie-winning web publication 3Views on Theater, Samuel embraces her journal’s mission of “respect for the artist” and commitment to “change how we measure value and success in the theatre.” (American Theatre spoke to her on the Offscript podcast last fall about her work and the theatre scene.)
ARLINGTON, VA: On April 14, Virginia’s Tony-winning Signature Theatre will honor stage and screen star Mandy Patinkin with the company’s 14th Stephen Sondheim Award. The award will be presented at a black-tie gala benefit at the Anthem and will benefit Signature Theatre’s artistic, education, and community programs.
A frequent collaborator with Sondheim, Patinkin is perhaps best known for originating the role of Georges Seurat in Sondheim’s Pulitzer-winning Sunday in the Park With George, starring opposite 2011 Stephen Sondheim Award winner Bernadette Peters. Patinkin also appeared in the 1985 concert production of Follies at Lincoln Center, with a lauded performance that was preserved in the documentary Follies in Concert. In addition to his Tony-winning performance in Evita, Mandy Patinkin is known for his onscreen work in Showtime’s Homeland, his Emmy-winning performance in Chicago Hope, and his portrayal of Inigo Montoya in the beloved film The Princess Bride.
Established in 2009, the award is given to an individual for their career contributions to American musical theatre along with interpreting, supporting, or collaborating on works by Sondheim. Signature has produced 35 total Stephen Sondheim productions, more than any other theatre in the United States.
NEW YORK CITY: The National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT) is excited to announce the recipients of the 2024-25 writers residency grants, a vital program within the Frank Young Fund for New Musicals that supports the early development of new musicals at NAMT member organizations. These grants provide NAMT theatres with crucial financial resources to foster collaborations with writers at the earliest stages of their work, ensuring the future of the art form remains vibrant and innovative.
This year’s recipients include:
- American Music Theatre Project at Northwestern University (Chicago) for Desaparecidas by Jaime Lozano, Florencia Cuenca & Georgina Escobar
- Ars Nova (New York City) for Where We Meet by Kate Eberstadt
- Goodspeed Musicals (East Haddam, Conn.) for Legendary by Cheeyang Ng
- Montclair State University (Montclair, N.J.) for King of Harlem by David Gomez & John-Michael Lyles
- New York Theatre Barn (New York City) for The Phoenix by Cheeyang Ng, Eric Sorrels & Desdemona Chiang
- Olney Theatre Center (Olney, Md.) for Okuni by Naomi Iizuka & Paul Hodge
- Prospect Musicals (New York City) for YUKON HO by Adrian Blake Enscoe, Sydney Shepard & Regina Strayhorn
- Theater Latté Da (Minneapolis) for Yoko’s Husband’s Killer’s Japanese Wife, Gloria by Brandy Hoang Collier, Clare Fuyuko Bierman & Erika Ji
- Theatre Now New York (New York City) for Kusama by Yuriko Shibata & Andrew Strano
SARASOTA COUNTY, FLA.: The Hermitage Artist Retreat, in collaboration with the Philadelphia-based Greenfield Foundation, has selected sound and music artist Rucyl Mills as the winner of the 2025 Hermitage Greenfield Prize (HGP).
Mills employs a unique approach to music composition that blends noise art, bass wave, sample collage, and avant-garde R&B. She uses MIDI controllers, drone synths, and effects processors to create experimental compositions that are kinetic architectures for stage and film.
The Hermitage Greenfield Prize is awarded annually, rotating among the fields of music, theatre, and visual art. Mills will receive a six-week Hermitage Fellowship and a $35,000 commission to create a new work of music, which will have its first public presentation in Sarasota in 2027.
