New York IT Nominations, Honoring Off-Off-Broadway, Announced
By Robert Simonson
and Matt Windman
23 Jul 2005
The 2005 nominations of the New York Innovative Theatre (New York IT) Awards were announced earlier this week, marking the beginning of a new awards organization dedicated exclusively to honoring Off-Off-Broadway productions.
The dozens of plays that received nominations included titles like It’s Karate Kid! The Musical, Burning the Old Man, Keanu Reeves Saves the Universe, A Beginner’s Guide to Deicide and Tonylust! The Broadway Bloodbath of 2006. Nominated theatre companies included LaMaMa E.C.T, HERE, Looking Glass, Ten Grand and a Burger, Boomerang, Vampire Cowboys, Palehorse, Invictus, and East River Commedia, among many others.
The nominations were released at a party for nominees held Monday night at the Castillo Theatre. The award ceremony will be held on Monday, Sept. 19 at the Lucille Lortel Theatre.
According to the organization’s three young directors, the awards were founded to "bring recognition to the great work being done in Off-Off-Broadway and help create a community base for the estimated 40,000 artists working in the Off-Off-Broadway venue."
"The inspiration came from trying to find ways to see each other’s work and creating a community for it," NYITA executive director Shay Gines said at Monday night’s event. "This is Off-Off-Broadway honoring Off-Off-Broadway. And with God’s help, this’ll be the first of many award ceremonies to come."
The term Off-Off-Broadway technically defines a play performed in a theater of less than 100 seats, but it typically refers to shows produced on a shoestring budget often with edgy content along the ones of one-person dramas, deconstructions of Shakespeare, and avant-garde experiences. Otherwise, an Off-Broadway theater officially has 100 to 499 seats, and a Broadway theater has 500 seats or more.
"This is the first time I’ve been recognized for my acting," Venessa Daniels told Playbill.com, who was nominated for Outstanding Actress in a Featured Role for the Looking Glass Theatre’s production of The Fall. "Our show found a way to bring Shakespeare into the modern stage and contemporize it. It was really special and innovative."
For a full list of nominations visit www.nyitawards.com.
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Members of Collaboration Town, A Theatre Company, nominated for The Astronomer's Triangle
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