MANHATTAN THEATRE CLUB ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

LYNNE MEADOW

TO BE HONORED WITH LILLY AWARD
FOR LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT

AWARDS RECOGNIZING WOMEN IN THEATRE
TO BE PRESENTED MONDAY, JUNE 6

Today it was announced that Lynne Meadow, Artistic Director of Manhattan Theatre Club, will receive a Lilly Award for Lifetime Achievement. Named for playwright Lillian Hellman, the Lilly Awards were created in 2010 to recognize the extraordinary contributions made by women to the American theatre. 

This marks Meadow’s second lifetime achievement award this year. In April, she was honored with another Lifetime Achievement Award by the Lucille Lortel Awards for her lifetime of producing and directing new work Off-Broadway.

The body of work created Off-Broadway by Manhattan Theatre Club, under Meadow’s artistic direction has garnered hundreds of awards and the artists nurtured by her and the company has made MTC a world class theatre.

Meadow has been MTC’s Artistic Director since 1972 and has accepted every major theatrical award on behalf of the company including Tonys, Obies, Lortels, Drama Desk Awards, etc. She has directed dozens of new plays both on and off Broadway. On Broadway, she has directed, Donald Margulies’ Collected Stories; the 2001 Tony Award-nominated production of The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife; Alan Ayckbourn’s A Small Family Business; and Donald Margulies’ The Loman Family Picnic.   Off-Broadway she has directed Alan Ayckbourn’s award-winning Woman in Mind and Absent Friends; the Obie Award-winning Ashes by David Rudkin; Charles Busch’s Our Leading Lady; David Greig’s The American Pilot; Ron Hutchinson’sMoonlight and Magnolias; Marsha Norman’s Last Dance; David Edgar’s The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs; Principia Scriptoriae; Lee Blessing’s Eleemosynary; Biography; Simon Gray’s Close of Play and Sally and Marsha.

Under her artistic leadership for the last three decades, MTC has produced five David Lindsay-Abaire plays including Rabbit Hole; six plays by Donald Margulies including Time Stands Still and Sight Unseen; Lynn Nottage's Ruined; nine plays byJohn Patrick Shanley including Doubt; David Auburn's Proof; nine plays by Terrence McNally including Love! Valour! Compassion! and Lisbon Traviata; five plays by Beth Henley including Crimes of the Heart; seven plays by Alan Ayckbournincluding Woman in Mind and Absent Friends; Stephen Sondheim's Putting It Together; Ain't Misbehavin'; and Ashes by David Rudkin.

Most recently, she produced the award-winning world premiere of David Lindsay-Abaire's Good People at MTC's Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on Broadway with Tony nominee Frances McDormand. She is producing a new Broadway production ofTerrence McNally's Master Class featuring Sierra Boggess and Tyne Daly which is now in rehearsals, and Off-Broadway, the recently opened world premiere of Daniel Goldfarb's Cradle and All.

Next season, she will produce the world premieres of Zoe Kazan’s new play We Live Here, Molly Smith Metzler’s new play and Close Up Space, directed by Leigh Silverman featuring David Hyde Pierce, and Daniel Auburn’s newest play The Columnist.

The Lilly Awards are presented by Julia Jordan, Theresa Rebeck, Marsha Norman, Tim Sanford, Gary Garrison, the Committee for Recognizing Women in Theatre, and the Dramatists Guild. The ceremony was held yesterday at Playwrights Horizons. 

The Lilly Awards and The Committee for Recognizing Women in Theater were founded in 2010 by Julie Crosby, John Eisner, Gary Garrison, Tina Howe, Julia Jordan, Marsha Norman, Theresa Rebeck, Susan Rose, and Tim Sanford. Their mission is to celebrate the work of outstanding, successful and up-and-coming women playwrights, directors, designers and advocates for the work of women in the theater.

BIOGRAPHY

Lynne Meadow has been the visionary and artistic leader of Manhattan Theatre Club since 1972, creating work that has put the company at the forefront of the American theatre. Lynne has overseen hundreds of world ,US and New York premieres; directed dozens of new plays on and off Broadway by America's and England's finest playwrights; and accepted every major theatre award, (Tonys, Drama Desks, Obies, etc.) on behalf of the company.

Some of the world and New York premieres produced under her artistic direction include, the Fats Waller musical, Ain't Misbehavin' ; Beth Henley’s Crimes of the Heart (Pulitzer Prize) and The Miss Firecracker Contest; Richard Greenberg’s Eastern Standard; Stephen Sondheim’s Putting It Together; Athol Fugard’s Playland; Charlayne Woodard’s  Pretty Fire; Terrence McNally’s Love! Valour! Compassion! (Tony Award for Best Play) and Lisbon Traviata; A.R. Gurney’s Sylvia; David Lindsay-Abaire’s Fuddy Meers, Rabbit Hole (Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award nomination for Best Play) and Good People; August Wilson’s King Hedley II; David Auburn’s Proof (Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award for Best Play); Donald Margulies’ Sight Unseen(Pulitzer Prize finalist) and Time Stands Still; John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt (Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award for Best Play); Alfred Uhry’s LoveMusik suggested by the letters of Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya, Lynn Nottage’s Ruined (Pulitzer Prize); George S. Kaufman’s and Edna Ferber’s The Royal Family; Lee Hall’s The Pitmen Painters.

Lynne is a graduate of Bryn Mawr, and attended the Yale School of Drama. She has taught at Yale, Fordham, NYU, etc. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Lee Reynolds Award from the League of Professional Theatre Women, the Manhattan Award from Manhattan Magazine, the Person of the Year from National Theatre Conference, the Margo Jones Award and the 2003 Mr. Abbott Award for lifetime achievement.

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