Monday night, February 10, at a celebration honoring outstanding theater on stages across the Washington area, theater artists, administrators, patrons, and special guests gathered at Theater J at the Edlavich DCJCC for Theatre Washington’s announcement of nominees for the 41st Helen Hayes Awards, which will be presented on Monday, May 19, at an event at The Anthem. The nominations are for productions in the Washington, DC, region in the 2024 calendar year.
Amy Austin, President & CEO of Theatre Washington, welcomed the audience and Washington, DC-area performers Dylan Arredondo, Kelli Blackwell, Deimoni Brewington, Nicole Halmos, Raghad Makhlouf, and Jordan Stocksdale joined her to announce the nominations. Austin said, “Each year, the Helen Hayes Awards offer our community a chance to reflect and be proud of our extraordinary work together. They also offer us an opportunity to tell the world that the work on stages in the Washington, DC region is some of the best you will find anywhere. The DC theater industry is formidable and our collective contributions to art, to empathy, to understanding, and to our fellow humans are essential.”
Recognizing work from 165 eligible productions, nominations were announced in 41 categories and grouped in “Helen” or “Hayes” cohorts, depending on the number of Equity members involved in the production. Nominations are the result of 51 carefully vetted judges considering 2,188 individual pieces of work, such as design, direction, choreography, performances, writing, and more. Productions under consideration in 2024 included 57 musicals, 108 plays, and 37 world premieres.
Signature Theatre and The Kennedy Center saw the most nominations, with 25 and 24, respectively. The most nominated productions include: The Nance at 1st Stage (with 11), Private Jones at Signature Theatre (with 10), and Jaja’s African Hair Braiding at Arena Stage with Berkeley Repertory Theatre, and Chicago Shakespeare Theater (with 9).
View all nominations by category.
View all nominations by production.
View all nominations by theatre.
Performer, producer, and activist Robert Hooks will receive the 2025 Helen Hayes Tribute. Hooks, a Washington, DC native, founded three significant Black theater companies: New York’s Group Theatre Workshop and Negro Ensemble Company and the DC Black Repertory Company. He performed in many productions on Broadway, including original productions of Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, Jean Genet’s The Blacks, and Hallelujah, Baby! for which he earned a Tony nomination for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical. He also originated the role of Clay in the off-Broadway premiere of Dutchman by Amiri Baraka at Cherry Lane Theatre and played the title role in Henry V for New York Shakespeare Festival [now The Public Theatre], produced by Joseph Papp. On screen, he starred as New York City Police Detective Jeff Ward in N.Y.P.D. from 1967-1969. He has earned an NAACP Image Award for Lifetime Achievement, an induction into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame, and a producing Emmy Award for his PBS special Voices of Our People. Hooks has also been a political force and a voice for Black artists in the civil rights movement for decades, working and meeting with icons such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and Yuri Kochiyama. In 1973, Hooks was invited to testify in front of the House Senate Committee regarding the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act.
Named for actor Helen Hayes — a Washington native and legendary First Lady of the American Theater — the Helen Hayes Awards has honored excellence in professional theater throughout the Washington region for four decades.
The full list of nominations — by category, production, and theater — is available at theatrewashington.org
About Theatre Washington
Through collaborative partnerships, advocacy and programs, Theatre Washington supports the Washington, DC-area’s professional theater community to celebrate artistic achievement, strengthen the theatrical workforce, support institutional growth and advancement, and cultivate collective action. Theatre Washington’s core programs include: the Helen Hayes Awards, Theatre Week, Theatre Work, and the Taking Care Fund.
