Two-Time Tony Award Winner Chita Rivera, Broadway Producer Daryl Roth, Graciela Daniele, Lisa D’Amour, Deirdre O’Connell, Shakina Nayfack, Boo Killebrew, Quincy Tyler Bernstein to be honored at the 6th Annual Lilly Awards on June 1

Chita Rivera & Cast of THE VISIT. Photo by Thom Kaine

The 2015 winners of the Lilly Awards, celebrating and honoring women of distinction in American theater, were announced today by The Lilly Awards Foundation.  The winners will be celebrated at the 6th Annual Lilly Awards Ceremony on Monday, June 1, 2015 beginning at 5:00 p.m. at Playwrights Horizons (416 West 42nd Street) and hosted by double 2015 Tony Award nominee Lisa Kron (Fun Home).  The ceremony will be live-streamed on the Lilly Awards website (www.thelillyawards.org) and HowlRound TV (www.Howlround.com/tv). #lillyawards #howlround

The Lilly Awards will honor two-time Tony Award-winner Chita Rivera (Chicago; Kiss of the Spider Woman; Bye, Bye, Birdie; West Side Story), currently starring on Broadway in the new Tony nominated musical, The Visit, for which she received a 2015 Tony Award nomination, with the first-ever Legendary Lilly Award presented by four-time Tony Award-winner Terrence McNally (The Visit; Master Class; Ragtime; Love! Valor! Compassion!), and veteran Broadway producer Daryl Roth (It Shoulda Been You; Clybourne Park; August: Osage County; Kinky Boots) who will receive the Lilly Lifetime Achievement Award.

2015 Lilly Award winners include choreographer and director Graciela Daniele, playwright Lisa D’Amour (2015 Tony nominee, Airline Highway; Detroit), beloved actor Deirdre O’Connell, founding artistic director of the Musical Theatre Factory Shakina Nayfack, Boo Killebrew, Quincy Tyler Bernstein, and three surprise winners to be announced during the ceremony.

Guest presenters include Lynn Ahrens, Lynne Meadow, Rebecca Naomi Jones, Jordan Roth, Cusi Cram, Zoe Sarnak, Heidi Schreck, Julia Jordan, and more.

The ceremony will include performances by FIVE PLAY, the sister group of the world-renowned all-female jazz ensemble DIVA, and a special announcement by the Ziegfeld Club. The winners of the Stacey Mindich $25,000 Go-Write-a-Play Prize and the Leah Ryan Prize will also be announced. And the presentation of the annual Miss Lilly Award, given to the man who has done the most in any given year to make the theater a better place for women, will also be announced.

The Lilly Awards are made possible by generous grants from The Dramatists Guild and The New York Women’s Foundation, and sustaining assistance from the Lilly Awards Leadership Circle.

The Lilly Awards were founded in the spring of 2010, by Julia Jordan, Marsha Norman and Theresa Rebeck to honor the work of women in the American Theater. The awards are named for Lillian Hellman, who famously said to be a female playwright, “You need to write like the devil and act like one too when necessary.”

The Honorees were chosen by over 100 theater professionals.  Previous winners of Lilly Awards include Mary Rogers, Dominique Morrisseau, Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Jeanine Tesori, Liesl Tommy, Kelli O’Hara, Pam MacKinnon, Leigh Silverman, Anne Kauffman, Sarah Ruhl, Kristin Chenoweth, Annie Baker, Susan Stroman, Lynn Ahrens, Tina Fallon, Amy Herzog, Nina Arianda, Diane Paulus, Katori Hall, Tina Howe, Estella Parsons, Lynne Meadow, Ntozake Shange, Jessica Hecht and Lois Smith.  Previous winners of the much-coveted Miss Lilly award, for outstanding contribution to the lives of women, include Tim Sanford, Todd London, Gary Garrison, and David Ives.

For additional information about The Lilly Awards (including a list of all past recipients), visit www.thelillyawards.org

Lia Chang is an actor, a performance and fine art botanical photographer, and an award-winning multi-platform journalist. Lia has appeared in the films Wolf, New Jack City, A Kiss Before Dying, King of New York, Big Trouble in Little China, The Last Dragon and Taxman. She has guest starred on “One Life to Live,” “As the World Turns,” and “New York Undercover.” Lia starred as Carole Barbara in Lorey Hayes’ Power Play at the National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, N.C., with Pauletta Pearson Washington and Roscoe Orman. She is profiled in Jade Magazine.

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