The Helen Hayes Awards are theater awards recognizing excellence in professional theater in the Washington, D.C. area since 1983. The awards are named in tribute of Helen Hayes, who is also known as the "First Lady of American Theatre." They are presented by Theatre Washington, sponsored by TodayTix, a ticketing company, and supported in part by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, The Max and Victoria Dreyfus Foundation, The Share Fund, Prince Charitable Trust, and Craig Pascal and Victor Shargai.
Ralph William John Brown is an English actor and writer, known for playing Danny the drug dealer in Withnail and I, the security guard Aaron in Alien 3, DJ Bob Silver in The Boat That Rocked aka Pirate Radio, super-roadie Del Preston in Wayne's World 2, the pilot Ric Olié in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace and Henry Clinton in Turn: Washington's Spies. He won The Samuel Beckett Award for his first play Sanctuary written for Joint Stock Theatre Company in 1987, and the Raindance and Sapporo Film Festival awards for his first screenplay for the British film New Year's Day in 2001.
The Drama League Awards, created in 1922, honor distinguished productions and performances both on Broadway and Off-Broadway, in addition to recognizing exemplary career achievements in theatre, musical theatre, and directing. Each May, the awards are presented by The Drama League at the Annual Awards Luncheon with performers, directors, producers, and Drama League members in attendance. The Drama League membership comprises the entire theater community, including award-winning actors, designers, directors, playwrights, producers, industry veterans, critics and theater-going audiences from across the U.S.
The Roundabout Theatre Company is a non-profit theatre company based in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, affiliated with the League of Resident Theatres.
John Patrick Page is an American actor, low bass singer, and playwright. He originated the roles of Norman Osborn/Green Goblin in Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, the Grinch in Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical, and Hades in Hadestown. He also played Menenius in Red Bull Theater's Coriolanus.
Ron Aniello is an American songwriter, record producer, composer and musician who has enjoyed a diverse career working with Bruce Springsteen, Matthew Koma, Shania Twain, Wanting Qu, Gavin DeGraw, Lifehouse, Patti Scialfa, Barenaked Ladies, Guster, Jars of Clay, Bridgit Mendler, Sixpence None the Richer, Jude Cole, Vanessa Amorosi, Moshav Band and many more artists. In addition, Aniello has composed scores for film and television, and the Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus, and has been nominated for Grammy Awards.
The Jessie Richardson Theatre Award is given to recognize achievement in professional theatre in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Jessies are presented by the Jessie Richardson Theatre Award Society, at an annual ceremony. The awards are named after Jessie Richardson, co-founder of the Playhouse Holiday Theatre, local actor, director and designer.
Signature Theatre Company is an American theatre based in Manhattan, New York. It was founded in 1991 by James Houghton and is now led by Artistic Director Paige Evans. Signature is known for their season-long focus on one artist's work. It has been located in the Pershing Square Signature Center since 2012.
Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company is a non-profit theatre company located at 641 D Street NW in the Penn Quarter neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1980, it produces new plays which it believes to be edgy, challenging, and thought-provoking. Performances are in a 265-seat courtyard-style theater.
Daniel Anthony D'Aniello is an American billionaire businessman. He is the cofounder and chairman of the Carlyle Group, a private equity firm headquartered in Washington, D.C.
The Studio Theatre is a non-profit theater production company located in the 14th Street corridor of Washington, D.C. It produces contemporary plays in a four-stage complex. Stages include the Metheny, the Mead and Milton, and Stage 4, a black box.
Synetic Theater is a non-profit physical theater company located in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. It performs at the Crystal City Theatre in Arlington Virginia. Since its formation its productions have received numerous awards.
Factory 449: a theatre collective is a not-for-profit theatre company based in Washington, D.C. Factory 449's mission is to maintain an ensemble of multi-disciplinary artists and professionals who are dedicated to the collaborative process of creating "theatre as event". The members of this collective will assume roles involved in the development of new productions, affording artists the opportunity to write, act, direct and produce.
The Robert Merritt Awards, commonly known as The Merritt Awards, were started in 2002 and are administered by Theatre Nova Scotia. The Merritts honour excellence in theatre throughout the province of Nova Scotia. They are named for Robert Merritt, who was well known to the Halifax community both as a teacher of playwriting in the Theatre Department at Dalhousie University, and as the film critic for CBC's Information Morning.
Constellation Theatre Company is a non-profit theater company located in Washington, D.C., performing at the Source Theatre, a black box theatre. Since its founding in 2007, Constellation has received several Helen Hayes Awards, including the John Aniello Award for Outstanding Emerging Theatre Company in 2009.
Paul W. Downs is an American actor, writer, director, and producer. He is the co-creator, co-showrunner and star of the critically-acclaimed HBO Max series Hacks, for which he has received a Primetime Emmy, Golden Globe, and Peabody Award, among others. Downs first gained notoriety for his role in the Comedy Central series Broad City, which ran for five seasons and for which he was also a writer, director and executive producer.
Sam Gold is an American theater director and actor. He has directed both musicals and plays, on Broadway and Off-Broadway. He won the 2015 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical for Fun Home.
Lucia Aniello is an Italian-born American director, writer, and producer best known for her work on Hacks, for which she won multiple Emmy Awards, and Broad City. She has directed and written episodes of both shows, as well as the miniseries Time Traveling Bong and the 2017 film Rough Night.
James Ijames is an American performer and playwright from Bessemer City, North Carolina born sometime in the early 1980s. He is currently based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He received a B.A. in Drama from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, and received his MFA in Acting from Temple University in Philadelphia. He is an Associate Professor of Theatre at Villanova University where he teaches acting and also directs. He is a co-artistic director of the Wilma Theater in Philadelphia. His adaptation of Hamlet, called Fat Ham, won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2022. It ran at The Public Theater in the summer of 2022, and opened on Broadway in April 2023.
Toby's Dinner Theatre is a Washington–Baltimore metropolitan area professional dinner theater based in Columbia, Maryland.
