Drama Desk Awards on May 17

The 54th Annual Drama Desk Awards will take place on Sunday, May 17, at 9pm at the F.H. LaGuardia Concert Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City, it was announced by Robert R. Blume, Executive Producer of the annual Drama Desk Awards ceremony and telecast, and William Wolf, President of the Drama Desk, an organization of theater critics, writers and editors that honors excellence in all areas of New York theatre, including Broadway, Off Broadway, Off Off Broadway and not-for-profit theater.

The nominations will be announced at a news conference on Monday, April 27, at 9am at the New York Friars Club, 57 East 55th Street. The annual Nominees Cocktail Reception will take place on Tuesday, May 5, at 4pm at a location to be announced. The Drama Desk, organized in 1949, presented its first awards in 1955. The Drama Desk Awards are unique in that Broadway, Off-Broadway and Off-Off Broadway shows and creative personal compete in the same categories.

The 2008/2009 Nominating Committee for the Drama Desk Awards is composed of: Barbara Siegel (Chairperson) TalkinBroadway.com, TheaterMania.com; Dan Bacalzo, TheaterMania.com; Christopher Byrne, Gay City News; Patrick Christiano, TheaterLife.com, Dan’s Papers; Jason Clark, Entertainment Weekly, TheaterOnline.com; Gerard Raymond, Back Stage, The Advocate; and Richard Ridge, Broadway Beat TV.

Robert R. Blume is Executive Producer of the 54th Annual Drama Desk Awards and Blume Media Group Ltd is the producing company. Lauren Class Schneider is Producer and Jeff Kalpak is Director of the Awards ceremony. For the production, the Associate Producers (alphabetically) are Margot Astrachan, Jacki Barlia Florin, Joseph Callari, and Les Schecter, who is also Director of Publicity and Promotions. Felicia M. Lopes is the General Manager; Ellis Nassour is Press Liaison, and Corine Dana Cohen is Director of Program Ad Sales. Randie Levine-Miller is Special Events Director for the Drama Desk organization.

The Board of Directors of the Drama Desk is composed of: William Wolf, President; Leslie (Hoban) Blake, Vice President; Charles Wright, Treasurer and 2nd Vice President; Richard Ridge, Secretary; Michael Bracken; Robert Cashill; David Kaufman; Ellis Nassour; Sam Norkin; and Barbara Siegel.