The 17th Annual Lucille Lortel Awards, honoring achievement in the Off-Broadway theatre and including 2002 kudos to Edward Albee and Romulus Linney, will be presented May 6 at a gala benefit for The Actor's Fund of America.
Winners of the awards will be announced April 22.The League of Off-Broadway Theatres and Producers and The Lortel Foundation jointly sponsor the annual celebration. The May 6 gala begins 7 PM at the Lucille Lortel Theatre on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village, followed by a dinner at the Bryant Park Grill in Midtown. Nominees are announced April 2. The eligibility cutoff date is March 31.
Playwright Edward Albee has been announced as earning the Lifetime Achievement Award and playwright Romulus Linney will be inducted into Playwrights Sidewalk in front of the Lortel.
Nominees for the annual awards will be announced on a new website, LortelAwards.com.
* Albee will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award for his longstanding and unique contribution to Off-Broadway. His plays include The Zoo Story, The American Dream, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Tiny Alice, A Delicate Balance (1966 Pulitzer Prize), All Over, Seascape (Pulitzer Prize), The Lady From Dubuque, The Man Who Had Three Arms, Marriage Play, Three Tall Women (Pulitzer Prize), The Play About the Baby, The Goat or Who Is Sylvia? and Occupant.
Linney has written more than 25 plays, including The Sorrows of Frederick, Holy Ghosts, Childe Byron, A Woman Without a Name, Three Poets and 2 (all premiered Off-Broadway). His plays have been produced widely over the past 30 years in theatres across the U.S. and abroad.
The Lucille Lortel Awards 2002 nominating-voting committee includes representatives of the Off-Broadway League, the Lortel Foundation, Actors' Equity Association, Society of Stage Directors & Choreographers, journalists, educators and other artistic contributors to Off-Broadway.
The League of Off-Broadway Theatres and Producers created these Awards in recognition of Lucille Lortel's lifelong devotion to Off-Broadway. Awarded annually since 1986, the Lortel Awards are produced by the League in association with the Lucille Lortel Foundation. Additional support is provided by Theatre Development Fund.
Recent recipients of Lortel Awards include Jane Alexander, Eileen Atkins, Alan Bates, Uta Hagen, Ed Harris, Kitty Carlisle Hart, Eileen Heckart, Cherry Jones, Moises Kaufman, Nathan Lane, Linda Lavin, John Leguizamo, Julianna Margulies, Arthur Miller, Jerry Orbach, Mary Louise Parker, Jason Robards, Mark Ruffalo, Anna Devere Smith, Susan Stroman, Eli Wallach and Irene Worth, among others.
— By Kenneth Jones
