Nominees for the Hewes Design Awards, celebrating design in the New York's Broadway, Off-Broadway and Off-Off Broadway theatres, were announced recently.

The Hewes committee chose 45 designers for their work "originating in the U.S." The Hewes awards were originally called the Maharams and were later known as the American Theatre Wing Design Awards on Theatre. They are now named after theatre critic Henry Hewes.

Winners will receive honoraria and citations at a luncheon Sept. 11 in Manhattan.

The nominees are:

Scenic Design
John Lee Beatty for Proof
Robert Brill for The Laramie Project
Michael Brown for The Price
Myung Hee Cho for Gertrude and Alice
David Gallo for Jitney and The Wild Party (MTC)
Edward T. Gianfrancesco for The Big Bang
David Jenkins for James Joyce's The Dead
Eugene Lee for A Moon for the Misbegotten
Thomas Lynch for The Music Man
Rob Odorisio for An Empty Plate int he Cafe du Grand Boeuf
Neil Patel for Lydie Breeze
Robin Wagner for Kiss Me, Kate and The Wild Party Costume Design
Gabriel Berry for Lydie Breeze
Bob Crowley for Aida
Jane Greenwood for James Joyce's The Dead
Susan Hilferty for Dirty Blonde
William Ivey Long for Contact, The Music Man and Swing
Martin Pakledinaz for Kiss Me, Kate and The Wild Party (MTC)
Basil du Maurier (aka Boyd Graham) for The Big Bang

Lighting Design
Pat Collins for A Moon for the Misbegotten
Natasha Katz for Aida
Peter Kaczorowski for Contact, Kiss Me, Kate and The Music Man
David Lander for Dirty Blonde
Rui Rita for Dinner With Friends
Mimi Jordan Sherin for Gertrude and Alice
Jennifer Tipton for James Joyce's The Dead

Noteworthy Unusual Effects
Diller+Scofidio (design and video concept), Christopher Kondek (video designer), Dan Dobson (sound), Jennifer Tipton (lighting), dbox/James Gibbs & Fric Schuldenfrei (computer animation), Peter Norman (video co designer/video system designer) for Jet Lag
Boyd Graham, Edward T. Gianfrancesco, Jennie Marino for the apartment setting of The Big Bang
Molly Hughes (set), Jane Con (lighting), Laurie Olinder (projections and costumes), J. Hagenbuckle (sound) for Hypatia or The Divine Algebra)
William Ivey Long for the bedroom slippers tap shoes in Swing
Gregory Meeh, special effects for Voices in the Darl
Steve O'Hearn, sets, puppets, costumes for Squonk
Dan Moses Schreier, sound, for Dirty Blonde

Judges for the Hewes Design Awards were Tish Dace (chair), Mario Fratti, Mel Gussow, Henry Hewes, Jeffrey Eric Jenkins and Joan Ungaro.

-- By Kenneth Jones