Tony Awards and NU

<p>Just realized these will merit a separate thread from Oscars over the years. I’ll start with last year and work forward.</p>

<p>Another Tony And More To Come! - 2011</p>

<p>Lookingglass wins Tony Award for Best Regional Theatre
By Wendy Leopold
[Another</a> Tony And (Perhaps) More To Come! : Northwestern University Newscenter](<a href=“http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2011/05/2011-tony-awards.html]Another”>Another Tony And (Perhaps) More To Come!: Northwestern University News)</p>

<p>EVANSTON, Ill. — Lookingglass Theatre Company – which began as a Northwestern University student group and now is an ensemble primarily comprised of Northwestern alumni and faculty – today was named the winner of the 2011 Tony Award for Best Regional Theatre. In addition, faculty members Anna D. Shapiro and Todd Rosenthal and alumni Lily Rabe and David Thompson received Tony nominations.</p>

<p>… snip</p>

<p>Lookingglass Theatre was founded in 1988 by eight Northwestern students, and in two decades has emerged as a powerful theatrical force both in Chicago and the nation. Among its members are alumna Mary Zimmerman, now Jaharis Family Foundation Professor of Performance Studies, and Daniel Ostling, associate professor of theatre. Both received 2002 Tony awards for their work on “Metamorphoses,” Zimmerman’s dramatic adaptation of Ovid’s classic poem.</p>

<p>A year ago, John Logan – a 1983 School of Communication alumnus whose writing career began at Northwestern University in the early 1980s – walked off with the Tony Award for Best Play for “Red,” a drama about abstract artist Mark Rothko that earned six Tony awards. Logan wrote his first play as a student at Northwestern and has gone on to win accolades for screenplays including “The Aviator,” “Gladiator” and “Any Given Sunday.”</p>

<p>This year’s “Motherf**ker with the Hat” also received Tony Nominations for Best Play, Best Featured Actor in a Play and Best Featured Actress in a Play.</p>

<p>May 17, 2012
School of Communication alumni noted by Tony Award nominations
[School</a> of Communication, Northwestern University](<a href=“http://www.communication.northwestern.edu/news/press_release.php?itemID=222]School”>http://www.communication.northwestern.edu/news/press_release.php?itemID=222)</p>

<p>The Tony Award nominations are out, and—as is becoming a tradition—there are some familiar Northwestern University faces attached to them.</p>

<p>School of Communication alumnus Bruce Norris (C82)’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Clybourne Park is up for best play, best direction, best actor, and best scenic design—the latter nomination going to none other than SoC faculty member Daniel Ostling. Alumna Lydia Diamond (C92)’s Stick Fly garnered a nomination for best actress in a featured role. Spencer Kayden (C90) is nominated for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her work in Don’t Dress for Dinner. And Peter and the Starcatcher, a Broadway hit with a good number of Northwestern alumni attached, received a head-turning nine nominations, including best play and best original score.</p>

<p>A musical prequel to Peter Pan, the New York Times called Peter and the Starcatcher “the most enthralling shipwreck since James Cameron sent the Titanic to her watery grave.” The show is based on the best-selling Disney-Hyperion novel by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, and a dozen actors (eleven men and one woman) play more than 100 characters. The School of Communication alums who are part of the production are Betsy Hogg (C10), an understudy for the female lead, and Zachary Baer (C10) and Tom Casserly (C11), who both served as above-the-title producers—an auspicious accomplishment for two very recent grads.</p>

<p>An above-the-title producer is one whose contributions—including fundraising efforts—have been substantial enough to merit the appearance of his or her name above the show’s title in the Playbill.</p>

<p>… snip</p>

<p>Casserly and Baer were joined by their colleague, Nathan Vernon, with whom they run the Three Producers production company. Both Northwestern grads credit their hands-on experience with campus productions like the Dolphin Show and Waa-Mu for helping them get their footing in New York.</p>

<p>“Raising money for a Broadway show is definitely a different experience,” said Casserly, “but we’ve found that so many of the things we learned from our extracurricular experiences at school have transferred here.”</p>

<p>The Starcatcher experience, Baer said, “has been incredibly collaborative. We’ve been honored to sit at the table with some of Broadway’s greatest minds and kindest hearts.”</p>

<p>Of the nine Tony nods Casserly called it an “unexpected and very humbling surprise.” Baer added, “The Peter team boasts a bevy of Northwestern Wildcats”—from the School of Communication, as well as the Bienen School of Music and the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences—“so we’ll be celebrating at the Tony Awards with purple pride.”</p>

<p>Bruce Norris wins best play Tony Award for ‘Clybourne Park’
BY HEDY WEISS
Updated: June 11, 2012 12:35PM
[Bruce</a> Norris wins best play Tony Award for ?Clybourne Park? - Chicago Sun-Times](<a href=“http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/stage/13106774-421/steppenwolf-partner-bruce-norris-wins-tony-for-clybourne-park.html]Bruce”>http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/stage/13106774-421/steppenwolf-partner-bruce-norris-wins-tony-for-clybourne-park.html)</p>

<p>It has been a very good year for Chicago playwright Bruce Norris. Not only did his “Clybourne Park” win the Pulitzer Prize, but on Sunday night it won the 2012 Tony Award for best play.</p>

<p>… snip</p>

<p>Norris, a graduate of Northwestern University who has enjoyed a long association with Steppenwolf Theatre (one of the many places at which “Clybourne Park” was produced before it arrived on Broadway), was clearly nervous.</p>

<p>… cont’d</p>