Inaugural Antonyo Award Nominations Announced, Celebrating the Best of Black Broadway and Off-Broadway Season
On June 19th, Broadway Black will present the inaugural Antonyo Awards, celebrating the best of the Black Broadway and off-Broadway.
The event is taking place on the holiday Juneteenth, which commemorates the end of slavery in America, will include a virtual red carpet, musical numbers, and live award presentations.
Broadway vets Bryan Terrell Clark and Kristolyn Lloyd announced the nominations on June 9th on the company's YouTube page.
The nominees included:
Best Play
one in two by Donja R. Love
Toni Stone by Lydia R. Diamond
All The Natalie Portmans by C.A. Johnson
STEW by Zora Howard
BLKS by Aziza Barnes
Paris by Eboni Booth
Best Musical
The Secret Life of Bees
A Strange Loop
Tina: The Tina Turner Musical
The Wrong Man
Girl From North Country
Jagged Little Pill
Best Revival
For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/when the rainbow is enuf
West Side Story
Native Son
Little Shop of Horrors
Fires in the Mirror
Two Can Play
Winners will be chosen by the public, with voting open from June 9 at 7:30pm through midnight on June 12. You can vote here.
Current presenters and performers include Audra McDonald, Tituss Burgess, Alex Newell, Jordan E. Cooper, Teyonah Parris, Ephraim Sykes, LaChanze, Derrick Baskin, Nicolette Robinson, Jelani Alladin, Christiani Pitts, James Monroe Iglehart, Amber Iman, Kalen Allen, Nzinga Williams, Jackson Alexander, Cody Renard Richard, Ashton Muñiz, Shereen Pimentel, Kirsten Childs, Aisha Jackson, Antoine L. Smith, Griffin Matthews, Michael McElroy, Jocelyn Bioh, and L. Morgan Lee.
Broadway Black founder Drew Shade serves as executive producer, with a creative team that includes Catherine Caldwell, Darius Barnes, Kim Exum, Neville Braithwaite, Zhailon Levingston, Elijah Lewis, Allen Louis, Eric Lockley, Edward Maware, Emma Claye, Ianne Fields Stewart, and the Press Room.
Four special "Kinfolk Awards" — the Lorraine Hansberry Award, the Langston Hughes Award, Welcome Award, and the Doors of the Theatre are Open Award — will also be presented to members of the Black theater community. A Lifetime Achievement Award will be announced prior to the event.