Livestream from New York: Theatre’s Obie Awards

Tonight marks theatre’s coveted Obie Awards® and the third time you can watch via livestream. The 63rd Annual Awards Ceremony will recognize Off-Broadway and Off-Off broadway’s most adventurous and groundbreaking artists and productions. A Co-presentation by The American Theatre Wing and The Village Voice, the awards categories are informal and there are no advance nominees. Theatre lovers across the globe can watch via livestream on Twitter at twitter.com/obieawards. What you need to know.

Actor of stage and screen, Obie, Tony and Emmy Award-winner John Leguiziamo will host this year’s awards ceremony at Terminal 5 in New York City, Monday, May 21st, 7PM ET. Tony Award-nominated and three-time Obie-winning actress Kathleen Chalfant will receive a special Obie Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Oscar and two-time Tony nominee Andrew Garfield, Tony winner Laura Benanti, Emmy nominee Lucy Liu, and two-time Tony; Obie winner Matthew Broderick, Tony winners William Ivey Long, Natasha Katz, David Henry Hwang, and David Zinn, Tony nominees Oliver Platt, Laura Osnes, Beth Malone, David Morse, Itamar Moses, Arian Moayed, and Emilio Sosa, as well as Lilli Cooper, New York City nightlife celeb Pixie Aventura, American Theatre Wing President and CEO Heather Hitchens, The Village Voice President and CEO Peter Barbey, and Chair of the Obie Judges Michael Feingold.

The 2018 judges panel includes longtime Chair of the Obie Judges Panel, Village Voice critic Michael Feingold; Entertainment Weekly theater critic Melissa Rose Bernardo; Obie-winning projection designer Wendall K. Harrington; Broadway News theater critic Charles Isherwood; Tony nominee and Obie-winning costume designer Toni-Leslie James; Dancer-actress-director Sondra Lee; Tony nominee and Obie-winning actor Arian Moayed and Obie-winning actress Ching Valdes-Aran.

The Obie Awards were created in 1955 by The Village Voice first theatre critic Jerry Talmer to acknowledge and encourage the growing Off-Broadway theatre movement and to acknowledge its achievements. The nation’s first independent newspaper basically put downtown theatre on the map with its in-depth coverage and support and has played a large role in generating excitement about the emerging theatre movement.

The American Theatre Wing joined the Village Voice in 2015 to co-present the Obie Awards and salute excellence in off-Broadway and off-off Broadway theatre.

Today the Obies have become a theatrical tradition and are credited with launching many a career. Its recipient roster over the years is a Who’s Who of actors, directors, writers and designers in the theatre.

Theatre and technology together have Socially Sparked® and enriched our lives in ways we could never have imagined. The advent of modern technology has made it possible for theatre lovers to take a front row seat to see select theatrical productions and theatre awards ceremonies like the Obies. And, livestreaming has afforded us with a whole new way to introduce people to the world of theatre. Good luck to all Obie Award contenders. We’ll be watching! – Abbe is Socially Sparked. Tweet @sosparkednews & @asparks01