The League of Professional Theatre Women (LPTW) held its first Lucille Lortel Awards Toast March 28 at The Green Room 42, where the organization honored playwright, performer, and activist Ianne Fields Stewart. The toast is expected to become an annual tradition.
Stewart (she/her/they/them) is a black, queer, lesbian, and nonbinary transfeminine New York-based storyteller and activist. As a performer (actor, singer and dancer), Ianne has worked consistently in stage productions at NYC venues such as: Joe’s Pub, Dixon Place, La Mama, and many more. Film and TV acting credits include Dash & Lily, The Bold Type, and Pose. She also played opposite Sara Ramirez in the three-time Emmy nominated web series The Feels. As a writer, Stewart's play A Dying Breed has had several productions throughout the United States including a run in New York City, and her original spoken word work has been showcased at The Duplex and Joe’s Pub.
An activist with a national platform, Stewart was a US Fellows for Humanity in Action's John Lewis Fellowship recipient and received the 2021’s inaugural Logo Legends Award, among many other honors. Stewart is also the founder of The Okra Project, which seeks to address the global crisis faced by Black Trans people by bringing home cooked, healthy, and culturally specific meals and resources to Black Trans People wherever they can reach them. Stewart co-organized 2020’s Brooklyn Liberation: A Rally for Black Trans Lives and delivered a speech in front of 15,000 people who gathered to march for Black Trans lives.
The League of Professional Theatre Women is a membership organization for professional theatre women representing a diversity of identities, backgrounds, and disciplines. Through its programs and initiatives, LPTW creates community, cultivates leadership, and seeks to increase opportunities and recognition for women in professional theatre. Its mission is to champion, promote, and celebrate the voices, presence and visibility of women theatre professionals and to advocate for parity and recognition for women in theatre across all disciplines.
See photos from the event below:
Ianne Fields Stewart
Malini Singh McDonald, Alexis Greene, Ianne Fields Stewart, Donja R. Love, Katrin Hilbe, and Linda Chapman
Katrin Hilbe, Ianne Fields Stewart, and Malini Singh McDonald
Ianne Fields Stewart
Pamlea Hunt, Joan Firestone, Shellen Lubin, and Katrin Hilbe
Ludovica Villar-Hauser, Melody Brooks, Malini Singh McDonald, Shellen Lubin, Alexis Greene, and Joan Firestone
Ianne Fields Stewart with Family and Friends
The League received a bequest from the Lucille Lortel Estate in 1999 requesting that a fund be established and maintained by the League to support The Lucille Lortel Grant with a monetary award given annually to an aspiring woman in any discipline of theatre who is showing creative promise and deserves recognition and encouragement. In 2008, 2013, and 2017, an additional amount was awarded as the LPTW Lucille Lortel Visionary Award. Each year the Lucille Lortel Committee gives an award to an aspiring woman who is showing creative promise and is deserving of recognition and encouragement.
Current Lortel Committee members include Liz Amadio, Jessica Burr, Linda Chapman, Jess Chayes, Megan Finn, Jennifer Joy, Katherine Kovner, Cara Reichel, Taylor Reynolds, Deborah Savadge, Natasha Sinha, Harriet Slaughter, and Ludovica Villar-Hauser.
