RACHEL BLOOM TO HOST THE 64TH ANNUAL OBIE AWARDS
Press Contact:
DKC/O&M
Rick Miramontez / Michael Jorgensen
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, PLEASE
RACHEL BLOOM
TO HOST THE
64TH ANNUAL OBIE AWARDS
ON MONDAY, MAY 20
AT TERMINAL 5
New York, NY (April 3, 2019) —The American Theatre Wing (Heather Hitchens, President and CEO) and The Village Voice (Peter Barbey, CEO) are thrilled to announce that Golden Globe® winning “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” creator and star Rachel Bloom will host the 64th Annual Obie Awards. Audible, the world’s leading producer and provider of audiobooks and other spoken-word entertainment, will be the Presenting Sponsor. As previously announced, the 64th Annual Obie Awards will be held on Monday, May 20, 2019 at Terminal 5 (610 West 56th Street). Tickets to the 2019 Obie Awards can be purchased at www.ObieAwards.com
“I am THRILLED to be hosting The Obies this year and can confirm that a tiny hat will be incorporated into my wardrobe,” said Rachel Bloom.
“I’m excited to expand on The Wing’s existing relationship with Rachel, who has brought her unique brand of comedy backstage at the Tony Awards for the last two telecasts. She’s a giant talent and, as evidenced by her casting choices on ‘Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,’ a huge supporter and treasured member of our New York theater community,” said Heather Hitchens, President & CEO of the American Theatre Wing.
The judges’ panel for the 64th Annual Obie Awards, chaired as in previous years by longtime Village Voice critic Michael Feingold, includes Obie-winning director Arin Arbus, Obie-winning scenic designer Rachel Hauck, Obie-winning scenic designer Riccardo Hernandez, two-time Obie-winning playwright Rajiv Joseph, Obie-winning actress Kecia Lewis, and New York Stage Review theater critic Jesse Oxfeld. Productions that wish to invite consideration from the judges should visit www.ObieAwards.com/about and click on the link to submit your show via the Online Portal. Please direct questions regarding Obie consideration to ObieInvites@AmericanTheatreWing.org.
Audible, the Presenting Sponsor of the 2019 Obie Awards announced the Minetta Lane Theatre as its creative home for live performances in New York last year, and Billy Crudup’s performance of Harry Clarke, the company’s inaugural live show at the Minetta Lane, won an Obie Award in 2018.
For more information, visit www.ObieAwards.com.
ABOUT RACHEL BLOOM
Rachel Bloom currently stars in the final season of “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” which she co-created and executive produces alongside Aline Brosh McKenna. Bloom stars as Rebecca Bunch, a successful, driven, and arguably crazy young woman who impulsively gives up everything – partnership at a prestigious law firm, an upscale apartment in Manhattan – in a desperate attempt to find love and happiness in suburban West Covina, California. The series debuted on The CW Network in October 2015 to positive reviews. For her performance, Rachel won both the 2016 Golden Globe for Best Actress in a TV Series – Musical or Comedy and Critics’ Choice Award for Best Actress in a TV Comedy. She has also been included in myriad “Best Performers of 2015” lists. She recently joined the cast of Angry Birds 2, to be released later this year. Bloom has been prominently featured in The New York Times Magazine, Elle, Entertainment Weekly, Time, and Backstage, among others. Well known for her comedy music videos on YouTube under the name “Racheldoesstuff,” her channel currently has over 60,000 subscribers. Bloom released her first Internet music video “F*ck Me, Ray Bradbury” in 2010. The video went viral and was nominated a Hugo Award for “Best Dramatic Presentation: Short Form” and won “Best Music Video” at Dragon*Con. Her comedic music videos have appeared on the Onion/AV Club, Jezebel, Huffington Post, Buzzfeed and Cracked, among others. In 2012, Bloom performed in the Just for Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal in the “New Faces: Characters” Showcase. She performs all over Los Angeles, and her other touring performance credits include Fun Fun Fun Fest, the Arlington Drafthouse, and The Limestone Comedy Festival. Her past acting work includes “How I Met Your Mother” and “The Fuzz”; voice work includes “Bojack Horseman,” “Robot Chicken,” and the CW web-series “Very Mallory.” She has written and starred in two live musical sketch comedy shows at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in Los Angeles and New York: Rachel Bloom is a Triple Threat!!! and Sing Out, Louise! Her writing credits include Adult Swim’s “Robot Chicken,” Fox’s “Allen Gregory,” and Lucasfilm’s upcoming “Star Wars Detours.” She has also released two albums: “Please Love Me” (a compilation of old/new hits) and “Suck It, Christmas!!! (A Chanukah Album).” After attending NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts for theater, where she served as head writer and director of the prestigious Hammerkatz sketch group, Bloom studied improv and sketch at Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in New York. She has been named one of Variety’s “10 Scribes To Watch” for 2015, as well as a “Comic to Watch” by Cosmopolitan, Time Out LA, and other publications.
She currently resides in Los Angeles.
ABOUT THE OBIE AWARDS
The Village Voice created the Obie Awards, at the suggestion of then editor Jerry Tallmer, soon after the publication’s own inception in 1955, to encourage the newly burgeoning Off Broadway theater movement and to acknowledge its achievements. The Obies are structured with informal categories, to recognize artists and productions worthy of distinction in each theatrical year. Over the decades, the Obie Awards have played a major role in the Voice’s long history of championing work of innovative and exceptional quality Off and Off-Off Broadway. The Village Voice put the new downtown theater movement on the map with its in-depth coverage, becoming a forum for conflicting viewpoints which helped generate excitement over new works and new approaches to theater-making. The Obies have become a theatrical tradition, a meaningful way to acknowledge the best artistic achievements of downtown theater. The list of actors, writers, directors, and designers who have received Obies at pivotal moments in their careers is a virtual who’s who of contemporary theater. While the categories of the awards have continued to change almost annually, the creative spirit remains the same. The Obie Awards salute a theatrical movement that’s as important, and as vibrant, today as it was in 1955.
ABOUT THE AMERICAN THEATRE WING
One hundred years ago, on the eve of America’s entry into World War I, seven suffragists—all women of the theatre—came together to form The Stage Women’s War Relief. A century later, the spirit and vision behind the founding of American Theatre Wing remains a touchstone for all we do. The Wing continues to champion bravery, with a focus on developing the next generation of brave artists. The Wing advances the future of American Theatre by celebrating excellence and nurturing the next generation: on stage, behind the scenes, and in the audience. We envision an American Theatre that is as vital, multi-faceted, and diverse as the American people.
The Wing’s programs span the nation to invest in the growth and evolution of American Theatre. We provide theatre education opportunities for underserved students through the Andrew Lloyd Webber Initiative, develop the next generation of theatre professionals through the SpringboardNYC and Theatre Intern Network programs, incubate innovative theatre across the country through the National Theatre Company Grants, foster the song of American Theatre through the Jonathan Larson® Grants, honor the best in New York theatrical design with the Henry Hewes Design Award, and illuminate the creative process through the Emmy-nominated “Working in the Theatre” documentary series. In addition to founding the Tony Awards® which are co-presented with The Broadway League, the American Theatre Wing co-presents the Obie Awards®, Off Broadway’s Highest Honor, with The Village Voice.
Visitors to AmericanTheatreWing.org can gain inspiration and insight into the artistic process through the Wing’s extensive media collection, and learn more about its programming for students, aspiring and working professionals, and audiences. Follow the Wing on Twitter and Instagram @TheWing, and on Facebook.com/TheAmericanTheatreWing.
ABOUT THE VILLAGE VOICE
Founded in 1955 by a small group led by Norman Mailer, The Village Voice was the nation’s first alternative newsweekly. The winner of three Pulitzers, it built a reputation for itself as an aggressive interrogator of ‘the powers that be’ as well as a reliable resource for finding and promoting cutting edge arts and culture. Over the years it was a home to a wide range of writers and artists, including e.e. Cummings, Katherine Anne Porter, James Baldwin and Ta-Nehisi Coates plus photographers Fred McDarrah and Sylvia Plachy, cartoonist Lynda Barry, investigative journalists Wayne Barrett and Tom Robbins, music writer Robert Christgau, and film writer J. Hoberman, a virtual who’s who of essential American political and cultural commentators.
On August 31, 2018, The Voice stopped publishing new material but The Village Voice archives are still available. One can enjoy the history of Off and Off-Off Broadway by reviewing the rich repository of theatrical reviews.
For more information, visit www.villagevoice.com
ABOUT AUDIBLE
Audible is a rich listening destination that offers insight and inspiration to millions of listeners and is the world’s leading audio and spoken-word media service. Audible’s theater initiative unleashes the artistic creativity of playwrights around the globe to deliver language-driven storytelling and inspire captivating performances on stage and in audio. Off-Broadway, Audible has produced Harry Clarke by David Cale starring Billy Crudup, Girls & Boys by Dennis Kelly starring Carey Mulligan, Patti Smith: Words and Music, and many others. In audio, Audible has produced Stories by Heart starring John Lithgow, True West starring Kit Harington and Johnny Flynn, and more. In 2017, Audible launched a five million-dollar Emerging Playwrights Fund that identifies, nurtures and invests in emerging playwrights, making their works available to millions of listeners around the world. Proof of Love, the inaugural stage production from the Emerging Playwrights Fund, will premiere at the Minetta Lane Theatre this May.
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www.AmericanTheatreWing.org
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