Winners of the 69th annual Obie Awards, honoring outstanding artists and productions of off-Broadway and off-off Broadway theater, were announced at 7:30 this evening (Saturday, January 31) by Obie-winning actor Michael Urie and On Stage host Frank DiLella on Spectrum News NY1. Begun by The Village Voice in 1955, to celebrate the important boundary-pushing artistic power of works staged downtown, south of Broadway, in intimate performance spaces, the Obies were then, starting in 2015, co-presented with the American Theatre Wing, which became their sole presenter in 2021, while retaining the original awards categories that remain intentionally informal, to allow unlimited recognition of those deemed worthy of distinction.
The 69th awards season considered shows that opened between September 1, 2024-August 31, 2025, and beginning again this past year, the awards returned to the pre-pandemic eligibility of only in-person work, which includes more than 300 productions each season. With the exceptions of the Lifetime Achievement, Best New American Play, the Ross Wetzsteon Award Grant (presented to a theater that nurtures innovative new plays), and the Michael Feingold Award (recognizing achievement in criticism, dramaturgy, translation, scholarship, mentorship, education, or other theatrical contributions), the panel of judges also typically presents one or more special citations.
Judges for the current awards were: Haruna Lee (Co-Chair and Obie-winning playwright); Wilson Chin (Co-Chair and scenic designer for theater, opera, film, and television); Aya Ogawa (award-winning writer, director, translator and performer); Modesto “Flako” Jimenez (multi-hyphenate artist); Ryan J. Haddad (actor and playwright); Barbara Samuels (Obie-winning lighting designer, producer, and organizer); Santiago Orjuela Laverde (member of the award-winning design collective Dots); Jonathan McCrory (Tony- and Emmy-nominated and Obie-winning producer); Stephanie Berry (Obie-winning actor); and Whitney White (Tony-nominated and Obie-winning director, writer, and musician).
And the winners are:
Outstanding New Play: Nazareth Hassan, Bowl EP (Vineyard Theatre/National Black Theatre/The New Group)
Playwriting: Morgan Bassichis, Can I Be Frank? (Mike LaVoie/Carlee Briglia); Sarah Gancher, The Wind and the Rain: A story about Sunny’s Bar (En Garde Arts/Vineyard Theatre)
Directing: Sam Pinkleton, ta-da! (Mike LaVoie/Carlee Briglia) and Can I Be Frank? (Mike LaVoie/Carlee Briglia); abigail jean-baptiste, Chiaroscuro (National Black Theatre/The Flea); Paul Lazar, The Barbarians (Third Ear Theater Co.)
Sustained Achievement in Directing: David Herskovits, Show/Boat: A River (Target Margin Theater/NYU Skirball/Under the Radar Festival); Whitney White, Walden (Second Stage Theater) and Liberation (Roundabout)
Performance: Bulbul Chakraborty, Rheology (The Bushwick Starr/HERE Arts Center/Ma-Yi Theater Company); Quincy Tyler Bernstine, Well, I’ll Let You Go (Regular People/Patrick Catullo/The Cohn Sisters/Shira Friedman/Danny Kopel); Crystal Lucas-Perry, Pericles: A Public Works Concert Experience (The Public Theater) and The Great Privation (How to flip ten cents into a dollar) (SoHo Repertory); Stephanie Weeks, Show/Boat: A River (Target Margin Theater/NYU Skirball/Under the Radar Festival)
Sustained Achievement in Performance: Paul Sparks, Grangeville (Signature Theatre Company); Stephanie Berry, The Gospel At Colonus (Little Island)
Design: Afsoon Pajoufar (Sets), Five Models in Ruins, 1981 (Lincoln Center Theater) and Cold War Choir Practice (Clubbed Thumb/Page 73); Kate McGee (Lighting), Bowl EP (Vineyard Theatre/National Black Theatre/The New Group), Suppose Beautiful Madeline Harvey (La MaMa), and The Beastiary (On The Rocks /Ars Nova); Frank J. Oliva (Sets), Well, I’ll Let You Go (Regular People/Patrick Catullo/The Cohn Sisters/Shira Friedman/Danny Kopel), Danger and Opportunity (Jacob Stuckelman/Andrew Patino/Matt Krauss/Kyle Rogers), and A Knock on the Roof (New York Theatre Workshop/piece by piece productions/Under the Radar)
Sustained Achievement in Design: Cha See (Lighting), Five Models in Ruins, 1981 (Lincoln Center Theater), ta-da! (Mike LaVoie/Carlee Briglia), Liberation (Roundabout), Trophy Boys (MCC Theater), Hold Me in the Water (Playwrights Horizon), Show/Boat: A River (Target Margin Theater/NYU Skirball/Under the Radar Festival), Babe (The New Group), and In the Amazon Warehouse Parking Lot (Playwrights Horizons); David Bengali (Video), We Live in Cairo (New York Theatre Workshop), Joy (Ken Davenport/Sandi Moran), and Lights Out: Nat “King” Cole (New York Theatre Workshop)
Special Citations: On The Rocks Theatre Co. for Concept and Creation, The Beastiary (On The Rocks Theatre Co./Ars Nova); Ensemble of Bowl EP – Felicia Curry, Bowl EP (National Black Theatre/The New Group/Vineyard Theatre); Ensemble of Bowl EP – Oghenero Gbaje, Bowl EP (National Black Theatre/The New Group/Vineyard Theatre); Essence Lotus, Bowl EP (National Black Theatre/The New Group/Vineyard Theatre); Troy Anthony (Libretto, Composition, and Music Direction), Pericles: A Public Works Concert Experience (The Public Theater); Ensemble of Prince Faggot – Rachel Crowl, K Todd Freeman, David Greenspan, Mihir Kumar, John McCrea, and N’yomi Stewart, Prince Faggot (Playwrights Horizons/SoHo Repertory); Mona Pirnot (Playwright), David Greenspan (Performer), and Ken Rus Schmoll (Director), I’m Assuming You Know David Greenspan (Atlantic Theater Company); Mehr Theatre Group for Creation, Blind Runner (St Ann’s Warehouse/Mehr Theatre Group/Waterwe
Lifetime Achievement: Carmelita Tropicana, Performance artist, playwright, lecturer, and Latina comedian; Kate Valk, Founding Member and Director of The Wooster Group
Theatre Grants: Urban Bush Women (UBW); The Apothetae; New Federal Theatre (NFT); ¡OYE! Group; Waterwell
Ross Wetzsteon Award: Pregones/Puerto Rican Traveling Theater
Michael Feingold Award: John Del Gaudio
Morgan Jenness Award: Nicky Paraiso.
Congratulations to the recipients and thanks to all for their trailblazing work!
The Obie Awards episode will re-air on Saturday, January 31, at 10:30 pm, and Sunday, February 1, at 7:30 and 10:30 pm, on Spectrum News NY1, On Stage and is also available for viewing on the NY1 YouTube channel.
