Obie Awards Announced: Kenneth Posner, Anthony Ward Among the Winners

The Obie Awards, sponsored by The Village Voice and created to celebrate alternative theatre in New York, were given out last night. 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, althoug 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------ 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).

The full list of winners:

Performance
Kathleen Chalfant, Talking Heads
Daniel Davis, Talking Heads
Christine Ebersole, Talking Heads
Valerie Mahaffey, Talking Heads
Lynn Redgrave, Talking Heads
Brenda Wehle, Talking Heads
Mos Def, F------- A
Rosemary Harris, All Over
Ty Jones, The Blacks: A Clown Show
J. Kyle Manzay, The Blacks: A Clown Show
Stephen Mellor, Bitter Bierce or, The Friction We Call Grief
Edward Norton, Burn This
Jim Norton, Dublin Carol
Denis O'Hare, Take Me Out
Jason Petty, Hank Williams: Lost Highway
Simon Russell Beale, Uncle Vanya
Fiona Shaw, Medea
Barry Del Sherman, The Mystery of Attraction

Direction
Emily Mann, All Over
Deborah Warner, Medea

Design
Kimberly Glennon, costume design, The Blacks: A Clown Show
Anne Lommel, mask design, The Blacks: A Clown Show
Kenneth Posner, sustained excellence of lighting design
Anthony Ward, set design, Uncle Vanya

Special Citations
Art Acuna, The Romance of Magno Rubio
Loy Arcenas, The Romance of Magno Rubio
Lonnie Carter, The Romance of Magno Rubio
Ramon de Ocampo, The Romance of Magno Rubio
Ron Domingo, The Romance of Magno Rubio
Jojo Gonzalez, The Romance of Magno Rubio
Orlando Pabotoy, The Romance of Magno Rubio
Ralph B. Pena, The Romance of Magno Rubio
Brooklyn Academy of Music International Programming- Lisa D'Amour, Nita and Zita
Katie Pearl, Nita and Zita
Kathy Randels, Nita and Zita
David Greenspan, She Stoops to Comedy
Morgan Jenness, Longtime Support of Playwrights
John Kani and Winston Ntshona, The Island
Erika Munk, Editorship of Theater
Ellen Maddow, A Painted Snake in a Painted Chair
Paul Zimet, A Painted Snake in a Painted Chair
Diane Beckett, A Painted Snake in a Painted Chair
Gary Brownlee, A Painted Snake in a Painted Chair
Randolph Curtis Rand, A Painted Snake in a Painted Chair
Steven Rattazzi, A Painted Snake in a Painted Chair
Tina Shepard, A Painted Snake in a Painted Chair
Louise Smith, A Painted Snake in a Painted Chair
Nic Ularu, A Painted Snake in a Painted Chair
Kiki Smith, A Painted Snake in a Painted Chair
Carol Mullins, A Painted Snake in a Painted Chair
Karinne Keithley, A Painted Snake in a Painted Chair
"Blue" Gene Tyranny, A Painted Snake in a Painted Chair

Lifetime Achievement
Mac Wellman

Grants
Collapsable Hole
Galapagos
The Immigrant Theatre Project

The Ross Wetzsteon Award
Soho Think Tank's Ice Factory series at the Ohio Theatre