Lynn Nottage (By The Way, Meet Vera Stark; Intimate Apparel) has been named Person of the Year; the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, under the artistic direction of Bill Rauch, is the recipient of the Theatre of the Year Award; and playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury (Social Creatures, We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as South West Africa, From the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884-1915) has been selected as the winner of the Barrie and Bernice Stavis Playwright Award.

The awards will be presented during NTC's annual meeting in New York, Dec. 6-8, when the recipients will hold discussions with the membership at the Players Club. Winners of the Outstanding Theatre Award and the Stavis Playwright Award each receive an honorarium of $1,000.

The artistic director of the Theatre of the Year is given the opportunity to select an Outstanding Emerging Professional; Bill Rauch chose Ed Sylvanus Iskandar. In addition, the Person of the Year winner chooses the annual Paul Green Foundation Award, which went to Chisa Hutchinson. Both of these awards also include a $1,000 honorarium.

"These awards recognize excellence at all stages of a professional career in the theatre. We are thrilled to honor the outstanding contributions of these theatre artists and look forward to seeing their future creative work," NTC president Cindy Phaneuf said in a statement.

NTC's Women Playwright Initiative will also be celebrated during the weekend. The Initiative, which was created in 2010, challenged NTC membership to take part in a three-year program in which their theatres would include at least one full production of a play each year by a woman playwright. The NTC will discuss the challenge's success, as well as the Initiative's next steps, Dec. 6 at the Public Theater. The afternoon will also feature a panel moderated by Oregon Shakespeare Festival's Alison Carey with NTC members Jill S. Dolan, Caridad Svich, Tanya Barfield, Lisa Kron and The Public's literary manager Elizabeth Frankel. Representatives of various stage unions and women's organizations will also be joining the audience.

Additionally, Women's Project artistic director Julie Crosby will moderate a discussion with directors Pam McKinnon, Diane Paulus and Leigh Silverman Dec. 6 at the Players Club.

The NTC was founded in 1925 and meets annually in New York to discuss relevant issues in today's theatre community and to celebrate outstanding achievement in the American theatre.

For more information, visit national nationaltheatreconference.org.