Obie Awards Announce Village Voice's Michael Feingold as Chairman; Ceremony Set for 5/20 at Webster Hall

The Village Voice, the nation's first and largest alternative weekly newspaper, announced today that esteemed critic and longtime judge of the awards will resume his former position as Obie chairman for the 58th Annual Village Voice OBIE Awards, replacing former Chairman Brian Parks who has moved on from The Village Voice.

"We are thrilled to have Michael Feingold back as Obie Chariman for our 58th annual Obie Awards ceremony," said Josh Fromson, Publisher of the Village Voice. "Michael brings his elevated skill and expertise as an icon of the New York theater community with a deep history and love for the Obies."

Michael Feingold is the Voice's chief theater critic, a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, and.a produced playwright and translator. He became OBIE Chairman in 2012 after chairing the OBIE awards from 2006 through 2011. He resumes his role of Chairman again this month.

Alexis Soloski, will assist the committee handling some administrative duties and serve as an advisor for the awards ceremony. Alexis is a Post-Doctoral Lecturer in Literature Humanities at Columbia and a longtime drama critic at The Village Voice.

Joining Michael and Alexis as this years judge's are:

Erin Courtney. Erin is an OBIE Award-winning playwright for her work A Map of Virtue. Her other plays include Honey Drop, Black Cat Lost, Alice the Magnet, Quiver and Twitch, and Demon Baby. Her work has been produced and developed by Clubbed Thumb, the Flea, New York Stage and Film, Adhesive Theater, Soho Rep, the Vineyard, and The Public Theater. She is an affiliated artist with Clubbed Thumb, a member of 13P, and a member of New Dramatists. Courtney teaches in the MFA playwriting program at Brooklyn College and is a co-founder of Brooklyn Writers Space. MFA, Brooklyn College, 2003. BA, Brown University, 1990.

Mia Katigbak. Mia is an award-winning artistic producing director and co-founder of the New York City-based, 22-year-old NAATCO (National Asian American Theatre Company). She is a founding member of the newly formed Consortium of Asian American Theaters & Artists (CAATA), is the current president of its board, and chaired its Strategic Planning Subcommittee. Together with two other founding members, Jorge Ortoll of Ma-Yi Theater and Tisa Chang of Pan Asian Rep, she was one of the organizers of the 1st National Asian American Theater Festival in 2007, and along with Lloyd Suh of Second Generation, spearheaded the 2nd Festival held in October 2009. She is currently appearing at LaMaMa's Ellen Stewart Theater in the Foundry Theater's production of Brecht's [itals] Good Person of Szechuan.

Tom Sellar. Tom is the editor of Theater magazine, published by the Yale School of Drama, where he is also professor of dramaturgy and dramatic criticism. He has been a critic and journalist for The Village Voice since 2001.

Leigh Silverman. Leigh won a double directing OBIE Award in 2011 for her work on Lisa Kron's In the Wake (Public Theater) and David Greenspan's Go Back to Where You Are (Playwrights Horizons). She recently directed the West Coast premiere of Chinglish (Berkeley Rep/South Coast Rep) after directing it at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago (Jeff nomination) and on Broadway.

Founded in 1955 by Voice cultural editor Jerry Tallmer, The Village Voice OBIE Awards annually honor the best of Off-Broadway and Off-Off Broadway. Unlike most theater awards, the Obies do not publicize nominations or employ rigid categories. In the conviction that creativity is not competitive, the judges select outstanding artists and productions and may even invent new categories to reward artistic merit. Past winners have included such well-known stars as Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep, William Hurt, Morgan Freeman, Mos Def, Felicity Huffman, Kevin Kline, Nathan Lane, Olympia Dukakis, Denzel Washington, Glenn Close, Kevin Bacon, Alec Baldwin, Kathy Bates, James Earl Jones, Viola Davis, and Harvey Fierstein, to name a few.

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