The Obie Awards, sponsored by The Village Voice and created to celebrate alternative theatre in New York, were given out May 19. Among the design winners were Anthony Ward, for the production design of Uncle Vanya at Brooklyn Academy of Music, and Kimberly Glennon and Anne Lommel, for the costume and mask design, respectively, of The Blacks: A Clown Show, produced by Classical Theatre of Harlem.
Lighting designer Kenneth Posner received an award for sustained achievement, although his work this season has been more uptown (Hairspray, Imaginary Friends) than downtown; his one Off Broadway production this year was the Joseph Papp Public Theatre production of F---ing A.
Among those receiving Obie citations, director/designer Loy Arcenas won for the Ma-Yi Theatre production of The Romance of Magno Rubio, as did the entire design team of the Talking Band production of A Painted Snake in a Painted Chair: Nick Ularu (scenery), Carol Mullins (lighting), and Kiki Smith (costumes).