Phoenix Theatre Ensemble Announces First Annual Eve Adamson Theatre Legacy Award For Excellence In Lighting Design

Phoenix Theatre Ensemble, an artist-directed ensemble now in its fifth season, will announce the winner of the first annual Eve Adamson Excellence in Lighting Design Award on Friday, March 14, 2009, at the final performance of the company's upcoming production of Jean Cocteau's Indiscretions (Les Parents Terribles). The performance and announcement of the Award recipient will be followed by a reception honoring the winner, hosted by the Phoenix Theatre Ensemble.

The winner will be selected from outstanding lighting design graduate students nominated by New York University School of the Arts, Brooklyn College, and SUNY Purchase. The winner will be given a cash award and an opportunity to design a main-stage Phoenix production in the 2009-2010 season.

Eve Adamson was the founder of New York's Jean Cocteau Repertory and remained its Artistic Director for 18 years, during which time she presented a demanding repertory ranging from the Greeks to Shakespeare, and from modern theatre pioneers Chekov, Pinter, and Pirandello. Seeking to reach what Cocteau referred to as "the poetry of theatre," where all elements come together as a cohesive whole, she began experimenting with lighting design in the mid 1980s and continued to light her own shows throughout her career. She died in 2006, one week before she was to begin rehearsals for Phoenix Theatre Ensemble's production of Anouilh's Antigone.