The New York Innovative Theatre Awards (also known as NYIT Awards and IT Awards) are accolades given annually by the New York Innovative Theatre Foundation, a

not-for-profit arts organization A not-for-profit arts organization, also known as a nonprofit arts organization, usually takes the form of a not-for-profit organization, association, or foundation. Such organizations are formed for the purpose of developing and promoting the wor ...

founded in 2004, to honor individuals and organizations who have achieved artistic excellence in

off-off-Broadway Off-off-Broadway theaters are smaller New York City theaters than Broadway and off-Broadway theaters, and usually have fewer than 100 seats. The off-off-Broadway movement began in 1958 as part of a response to perceived commercialism of the prof ...

theatre.

Mission statement

The New York Innovative Theatre Foundation was created to bring recognition to the great work being done in New York City's Off-Off-Broadway, to honor its artistic heritage, and to provide a meeting ground for this extensive community. The organization advocates for Off-Off-Broadway and recognizes the unique and essential role it plays in contributing to American and global culture. We believe that publicly recognizing excellence in Off-Off-Broadway will expand audience awareness and appreciation of the full New York theatre experience. The IT Awards is a not-for-profit arts organization supporting the Off-Off-Broadway community by: * Celebrating and Recognizing extraordinary Off-Off-Broadway Theatre * Strengthening the community and collective identity of Off-Off-Broadway * Honoring the artistic heritage of Off-Off-Broadway * Advancing public interest in and understanding of Off-Off-Broadway and the theatrical arts in general

IT Foundation Personnel

This organization was founded in 2004 by Jason Bowcutt, Shay Gines and Nick Micozzi. STAFF: Shay Gines, Executive Director; Nick Micozzi, Executive Director; Akia, Company Manager; Christopher Borg, Communications & Outreach; Hillary Cohen, Judge Wrangler; Desmond Dutcher, Judge Coordinator; Doug Strassler, Update Editor; Morgan Lindsay Tachco, Community Services Manager; Katie Rosin, Public Relations BOARD OF DIRECTORS: Jason Bowcutt, Roman Feeser, Shay Gines, Benjamin Hodges, Bob Lee, Roger LeFevre, Leone Rendon de Litt, Nick Micozzi, Linda S. Nelson ALUMNI STAFF/BOARD: Michael Michell, Board President; Tim Pinckney, Board Member; Nancy Kim, Members Coordinator; Emily Sandack, Update Editor

Judging System

The awards are selected based on a peer evaluation system that includes adjudication from 3 assigned Off-Off-Broadway artists as well as the average of audience votes. The judging system is a direct result of the endeavour to provide opportunities for artists to see each other's work and create a venue for them to become familiar with other Off-Off-Broadway companies and artists, some of which they might otherwise never know. In 2008
video
was created to detail this process and can be viewed on YouTube.

Additional programs

The IT Awards authored a book entitled ''Producing Off-Off-Broadway'' which will be published b
United Stages
in 2007.

2011 IT Awards Recipients

The 2011 New York Innovative Theatre Awards were held on Monday, September 19 at Cooper Union's Great Hall in New York City and was attended by 800 artists and their guests. The event was hosted by comedian

Harrison Greenbaum Harrison Greenbaum (born September 14, 1986) is an American stand-up comedian and comedy writer. Early life Greenbaum was born in Manhattan, New York, and grew up in Woodmere, New York, on Long Island. He graduated as valedictorian of his cl ...

, directed by Tom Wojtunik and a presentation by the Flux Theatre Ensemble. Presenters included

Susan Stroman Susan P. Stroman (born October 17, 1954) is an American theatre director, choreographer, film director and performer. Her notable theater productions include '' The Producers'', '' Crazy for You'', ''Contact'', and '' The Scottsboro Boys''. She i ...

Jay O. Sanders Jay Olcutt Sanders (born April 16, 1953) is an American film, theatre and television actor and playwright. He frequently appears in plays off-Broadway at The Public Theatre. Early life and education Sanders was born on April 16, 1953 in Austin, ...

David Henry Hwang David Henry Hwang (born August 11, 1957) is an American playwright, librettist, screenwriter, and theater professor at Columbia University in New York City. He has won three Obie Awards for his plays '' FOB'', '' Golden Child'', and '' Yellow ...

, John Glover,

Shirley Knight Shirley Knight Hopkins (July 5, 1936 – April 22, 2020) was an American actress who appeared in more than 50 feature films, television films, television series, and Broadway and Off-Broadway productions in her career, playing leading and charac ...

, and

John Patrick Shanley John Patrick Shanley (born October 13, 1950) is an American playwright, screenwriter, and director. He won the 1988 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the film ''Moonstruck''. His play, '' Doubt: A Parable'', won the 2005 Pulitzer P ...

2009 IT Awards Recipients

The 2009 New York Innovative Theatre Awards were held on Monday, September 21 at New World Stages in New York City and was attended by 750 artists and their guests. The event was hosted by

Julie Halston Julie Halston is an American actress and comedian. She was born in Flushing, Queens on December 7, 1954. Her parents, Rudolph “Rudy” Abatelli and her mother Julia Madeline “Dolly” (née Gardner) moved to Commack, Long Island when Halst ...

with script contributions by Matthew Freeman, opening number performed by Scott Williams and directed by Christopher Borg and a presentation by The Brick Theater Company. * HONORARY AWARDS The 2009 Artistic Achievement Award for significant artistic contribution to the Off-Off-Broadway community was presented by

Nilo Cruz Nilo Cruz is a Cuban-American playwright and pedagogue. With his award of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play ''Anna in the Tropics'', he became the second Latino so honored, after Nicholas Dante. Biography Early years Cruz was born ...

Maria Irene Fornes Maria may refer to: People * Mary, mother of Jesus * Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages Place names Extraterrestrial * 170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877 * Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, ...

. The 2009 Stewardship Award for significant contribution to the Off-Off-Broadway community through service, support and leadership was presented by Commissioner of Cultural Affairs Kate D. Levin to Harriet Taub and Materials for the Arts. The 2009 Caffe Cino Fellowship Award for consistent production of outstanding work, was presented by Ben Hodges and Jeff Riebe to

The Brick Theater The Brick Theater is a venue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn that presents dance, performance art, drag, comedy, film, music, experimental theatre, and more. Gothamist has hailed the space as “one of the city’s most reliable sources for smart, funny, ...

. * PRODUCTION AWARDS
Full web broadcast
of the ceremony with blog commentary by Aaron Riccio.
Podcast of backstage interviews
with the presenters and recipients by Michael Gilboe on Broadway Bullet
List of all of the artists and companies
that were nominated for the 2009 awards

2008 IT Awards Recipients

The 2008 New York Innovative Theatre Awards were held on Monday, September 22 at the Fashion Institute of Technology's Haft Auditorium in New York City and was attended by 750 artists and their guests. The event was hosted by

Lisa Kron Elizabeth S. "Lisa" Kron (born May 20, 1961) is an American actress and playwright. She is best known for writing the lyrics and book to the musical ''Fun Home'' for which she won both the Tony Award for Best Original Score and the Tony Award for ...

with performances by the

Blue Man Group Blue Man Group is an American performance art company formed in 1987. It was purchased in July 2017 by the Canadian company Cirque du Soleil. Blue Man Group is known for its stage productions, which incorporate many kinds of music and art, bot ...

and a presentation by Boomerang Theatre Company's Jennifer Larkin, Joe Whelski and Vinnie Penna. * HONORARY AWARDS The 2008 Artistic Achievement Award for significant artistic contribution to the Off-Off-Broadway community was presented by

Olympia Dukakis Olympia Dukakis (June 20, 1931 – May 1, 2021) was an American actress. She performed in more than 130 stage productions, more than 60 films and in 50 television series. Best known as a screen actress, she started her career in theater. Not lon ...

Judith Malina Judith Malina (June 4, 1926 – April 10, 2015) was a German-born American actress, director and writer. With her husband, Julian Beck, Malina co-founded The Living Theatre, a radical political theatre troupe that rose to prominence in New York C ...

. The 2008 Stewardship Award for significant contribution to the Off-Off-Broadway community through service, support and leadership was presented by Kirk Wood Bromley to th
New York Theatre Experience
Martin Denton and Rochelle Denton. The 2008 Caffe Cino Fellowship Award for consistent production of outstanding work, was presented by Leonard Jacobs and Akia t
Boomerang Theatre Company
* PRODUCTION AWARDS
Podcast of interviews
with the presenters and nominees on Broadway Bullet
Honorary Award Recipients
article by Doug Strassler
List of all of the artists and companies that were nominated
for the 2008 awards

2007 IT Awards Recipients

The 2007 New York Innovative Theatre Awards were held on Monday, September 24 at the Fashion Institute of Technology's Haft Auditorium in New York City and was attended by 750 artists and their guests. The event was hosted by

with a presentation by Rising Phoenix Repertory's Elizabeth West. * HONORARY AWARDS The 2007 Artistic Achievement Award for significant artistic contribution to the Off-Off-Broadway community was presented by Mark Finley to

Doric Wilson Doric Wilson (February 24, 1939May 7, 2011) was an American playwright, director, producer, critic and gay rights activist. He was born Alan Doric Wilson in Los Angeles, California, where his family was temporarily located. Originally from the ...

. The 2007 Stewardship Award for significant contribution to the Off-Off-Broadway community through service, support and leadership was presented by

Christine Quinn Christine Callaghan Quinn (born July 25, 1966) is an American politician. A member of the Democratic Party, she formerly served as the Speaker of the New York City Council. The third person to hold this office, she was the first female and firs ...

t
Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York (A.R.T./New York)
The 2007 Caffe Cino Fellowship Award for consistent production of outstanding work, was presented by Leonard Jacobs and Paul Adams t
Rising Phoenix Repertory
* PRODUCTION AWARDS

2006 IT Awards Recipients

The 2006 New York Innovative Theatre Awards were held on Monday, September 18 at the historic

Cooper Union The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art (Cooper Union) is a private college at Cooper Square in New York City. Peter Cooper founded the institution in 1859 after learning about the government-supported École Polytechnique in ...

in New York City and was attended by 600 artists and their guests. The event was hosted by

Charles Busch Charles Louis Busch (born August 23, 1954) is an American actor, screenwriter, playwright and drag queen, known for his appearances on stage in his own camp style plays and in film and television. He wrote and starred in his early plays Off-off- ...

with a special presentation by Lisa Stevenson o
ART/NY
* HONORARY AWARDS The 2006 Artistic Achievement Award for significant artistic contribution to the Off-Off-Broadway community was presented by

Ben Vereen Benjamin Augustus Vereen (born October 10, 1946) is an American actor, dancer and singer. Vereen gained prominence for his performances in the original Broadway productions of the musicals '' Jesus Christ Superstar'', for which he received a To ...

Tom O'Horgan Tom O'Horgan (May 3, 1924 – January 11, 2009) was an American theatre and film director, composer, actor and musician. He is best known for his Broadway work as director of the hit musicals ''Hair'' and ''Jesus Christ Superstar''. During his ca ...

. The 2006 Stewardship Award for significant contribution to the Off-Off-Broadway community through service, support and leadership was presented by William Russo and Tim Errickson to '
The Field
The 2006

Caffe Cino Caffe Cino was an Off-Off-Broadway theater founded in 1958 by Joe Cino. The West Village coffeehouse, located at 31 Cornelia Street, was initially conceived as a venue for poetry, folk music, and visual art exhibitions. The plays produced at th ...

Fellowship Award for consistent production of outstanding work includes a grant to be used toward an Off-Off-Broadway production, was presented by Leonard Jacobs to The

Vampire Cowboys Theatre Company Vampire Cowboys Theatre Company is an Obie Award and Caffe Cino Award winning NYC downtown theatre company first established in 2000, with a mission towards the creation and production of theatrical events based in stage combat and dark comedy wit ...

* PRODUCTION AWARDS

2005 IT Awards Recipients

The inaugural awards ceremony was held on Monday, September 19New York IT Award Nominees Announced
by

Adam Klasfeld Adam Klasfeld is a journalist and playwright. He has written and directed several theater plays and is a journalist for the Courthouse News and also a regular reporter for a variety of news outlets. Education He studied theatre at Rutgers Univer ...

, TheaterMania, July 20, 2005 at the Lucille Lortel Theatre and was attend by 300 nominees and guests. It was hosted by

with a special presentation by Judith Haking and the opening number was performed by the cast of '' itle of show',

Hunter Bell Hunter Houston Bell is an American writer and theatre actor. Early life and education Bell was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and was raised in Wilson, North Carolina until the seventh grade, when he moved to Atlanta, Georgia. Hunter earned a B. ...

Jeff Bowen Jeff Bowen (born August 30, 1971, in Baltimore, Maryland) is an American composer, lyricist and actor. He is best known as one of the authors and stars of the Broadway musical '' itle of show'. He also wrote the music and lyrics to the musica ...

Susan Blackwell Susan Blackwell is an American actress, writer, and singer, best known for playing characters based on herself in the original musicals '' itle of show' and ''Now. Here. This''. She has appeared in other plays, musicals, films, and television s ...

Heidi Blickenstaff Heidi Blickenstaff (born December 28, 1971) is an American actress based in New York City best known for playing a version of herself in the musical '' itle of show' during its Off-Broadway and Broadway runs, as well as for originating the role ...

and Larry Pressgrove. * HONORARY AWARDS The 2005 Artistic Achievement Award for significant artistic contribution to the Off-Off-Broadway community was presented by Leonard Jacobs to

Basil Twist Basil Twist is a New York City-based puppeteer who is known for his underwater puppet show, "''Symphonie Fantastique''". He was named a MacArthur Fellowship recipient on September 29, 2015. Life and work Originally from San Francisco, Basil Twis ...

. The 2005 Stewardship Award for significant contribution to the Off-Off-Broadway community through service, support and leadership was presented by

Ellen Stewart Ellen Stewart (November 7, 1919 – January 13, 2011) was an American theatre director and producer and the founder of La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club. During the 1950s she worked as a fashion designer for Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodm ...

. The 2005

Fellowship Award for consistent production of outstanding work includes a grant to be used toward an Off-Off-Broadway production, was presented by Leonard Jacobs and Jeff Riebe t
Inverse Theatre Company
* PRODUCTION AWARDS

References

External links

* {{Official website American theater awards