Broadway Black’s Antonyo Awards to Celebrate Black Theatre with Streamed Ceremony on Juneteenth

Broadway Black, the multimedia organization highlighting the achievements of Black theatre artists, is presenting the inaugural Antonyo Awards, a celebration of the Black Broadway and Off-Broadway community.

The Antonyos will take place at 7:00 pm EST on June 19, 2020, Juneteenth, and will be shown on Broadway Black’s YouTube and Facebook pages. The streamed ceremony will include a pre-show virtual red carpet at 6:00 pm, original musical numbers, star presenters and performers, and more. 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 theatre community as well as a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Antonyo Award nominations were announced on June 9th on Broadway Black’s YouTube and Facebook pages by Bryan Terrell Clark and Kristolyn Lloyd, and the public voted on their favorites through June 12th.

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.

THE ANTONYO AWARD NOMINATIONS
Best Featured Actor in a Play Off-Broadway
Leland Fowler – One in Two
Nicco Annan – The Hot Wing King
Crystal Lucas Perry – A Bright Room Called Day
John-Andrew Morrison – Blues for an Alabama Sky
Latoya Edwards – The Rolling Stone
Okwui Okpokwasili – For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf

Nicco Annan, Toussaint Jeanlouis, Korey Jackson, Sheldon Best, and Cecil Blutcher star in Katori Hall’s The Hot Wing King, directed by Steve H. Broadnax III, at Signature Theatre. (© Monique Carboni)

Best Featured Actor in a Play on Broadway
David Alan Grier – A Soldier’s Play
Ato Blankson Wood– Slave Play
Chalia La Tour – Slave Play
Zawe Ashton – Betrayal
Grantham Coleman – The Great Society
Jordan Barbour – The Inheritance

James Cusati-Moyer and Ato Blankson-Wood in Slave Play. Photo credit: Matthew Murphy

Best Featured Actor in a Musical Off-Broadway
John Andrew Morrison – A Strange Loop
Starr Busby – Octet
Jasmine Cephas Jones – Cyrano
Saycon Sengbloh – The Secret Life of Bees
L Morgan Lee – A Strange Loop
Taylor Iman Jones – Scotland, PA

Cast of Octet. Photo by Joan Marcus

Best Featured Actor in a Musical Broadway
Sahr Ngaujah – Moulin Rouge
Celia Rose Gooding – Jagged Little Pill
Jeanette Bayardelle – Girl From the North Country
Dharon E. Jones – West Side Story

Best Director
Stevie Walker Webb – One In Two
Robert O’Hara – BLKS
Whitney White – Our Dear Dead Drug Lord
Colette Robert – STEW
Raja Feather Kelly – We’re Gonna Die
Lileana Blain-Cruz – Anatomy of A Suicide

The cast of Slave Play, (on ground l. to r.): Ato Blankson-Wood, James Cusati-Moyer, Sullivan Jones, Annie McNamara, Joaquina Kalukango, Paul Alexander Nolan. (In red boxes l. to r.) Irene Sofia Lucio and Chalia La Tour.(Courtesy of Matthew Murphy)

Best Choreography
Raja Feather Kelly – A Strange Loop
Camille A. Brown – for For Colored Girls Who Have Committed Suicide/when the rainbow is enuf
Edisa Weeks – Novenas For a Lost Hospital
Adesola Osakalumi – Coal Country
Byron Easley – Slave Play
nicHi Douglas – Skinfolk: An American Show

From left to right: James Jackson, Jr., John-Michael Lyles, Jason Veasey, Larry Owens, Antwayn Hopper, John-Andrew Morrison, L Morgan Lee in Michael R. Jackson’s A Strange Loop. Photo by Joan Marcus

Best Quarantine Content
Daniel J. Watts – The Jam IG Live
Eddie Marwere – #BroadwayRemixChallenge
Drew Shade – Inside The Mind, a Mental Wellness series
Jordan E. Cooper – Mama Got A Cough
Sis – Living for Sis IG Series
Camille A. Brown – Social Dance for Social Distance

Best Lighting Design
Allen Lee Hughes – Toni Stone
Alan C. Edwards – The Hot Wing King
Stacey Derosier – Novenas For A Lost Hospital
Allen Lee Hughes – A Soldiers Play

Best Scenic Design
Lawrence E. Moten III – Native Son

Lorenzo Jackson, Katherine Renee Turner, Rosalyn Coleman and Galen Ryan Kane in A NATIVE SON. Photo by T. Charles Erickson

Best Sound
Justin Ellington – One in Two
Rucyl Frison – Anatomy of a Suicide
Luqman Brown – The Hot Wing King

Eric Berryman, Jonathan Burke, April Matthis, Daniel J. Bryant, and Ezra Knight inThe Roundabout Theatre Company production of Lydia R. Diamond’s Toni Stone. Photo by Joan Marcus

Best Costumes
Toni Leslie James – For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/when the rainbow is enuf
Dede Ayite – BLKS
Andy Jean for One in Two
Karen Perry- runboyrun/ In Old Age
Sarita P Fellows – Native Son
Ari Fulton – Novenas For a Lost Hospital

Chiké Johnson plays Disciple Ufot, and Patrice Johnson Chevannes plays Abasiama Ufot in runboyrun. (© Joan Marcus)

Best Hair & Wig Design
Cookie Jordan – Toni Stone
Nikiya Mathis – STEW
Greg Cooper Spencer – A Soldier’s Play
Nikiya Mathis – For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/when the rainbow is enuf
Cookie Jordan – A Strange Loop

Sasha Allen and cast of for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf Photo credit: Joan Marcus

Lifetime Achievement Award
Chuck Cooper

Best Orchestrations
The Secret of Life Bees
A Strange Loop
Tina: The Tina Turner Musical
We’re Gonna Die
The Wrong Man
Skinfolk: An American Show

Adrienne Warren and Daniel J. Watts in Tina (Photo: Manuel Harlan)

Best Original Score
The Secret of Life Bees
A Strange Loop
Broadbend, Arkansas
We’re Gonna Die
The Wrong Man

Ciara Renée and Joshua Henry in The Wrong Man at MCC Theater. (Photo: Matthew Murphy)

Best Book
Michael R. Jackson – A Strange Loop
Lynn Nottage – The Secret Life of Bees
Katori Hall – Tina: A Tina Turner Musical
Harrison David Rivers – Broadbend, Arkansas

Best Solo Performance
Donnetta Lavinia Grays – Where We Stand
Michael Benjamin Washington – Fires in the Mirror
Dierdra McDowell – Down to Eartha

Michael Benjamin Washington in Fires in the Mirror. Photo by Joan Marcus

Best Actor in a Play Off-Broadway
Kara Young – All The Natalie Portmans
Portia – STEW
April Mathis – Toni Stone
Kristolyn Lloyd – Little Women
Ato Blankson Wood – The Rolling Stone
Danielle Brooks – Much Ado About Nothing

Best Actor in a Play on Broadway
Audra McDonald – Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune
LaChanze – A Christmas Carol
Joaquina Kalukango – Slave Play
Blair Underwood – A Soldier’s Play

Michael Shannon and Audra McDonald in Frankie and Johnny. Photo by Deen van Meer

Best Actor in a Musical Off-Broadway
Ciara Renee – The Wrong Man
Larry Owens – A Strange Loop
Janelle McDermoth – We’re Gonna Die
Danyel Fulton – Broadbend, Arkansas
Joshua Henry – The Wrong Man
LaChanze – The Secret Life of Bees

Saycon Sengbloh, Nathaniel Stampley, Eisa Davis, Anastacia McCleskey, and LaChanze in The Secret Life of Bees. Photo: Ahron R. Foster

Best Actor in a Musical on Broadway
Kimber Elayne Sprawl – Girl From North Country
Adrienne Warren – Tina: The Tina Turner Musical
Isaac Cole Powell – West Side Story
Daniel J. Watts – Tina: The Tina Turner Musical
Shereen Pimental – West Side Story

Adrienne Warren, company, ‘Tina – The Tina Turner Musical’ Photo by Manuel Harlan

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

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

From left to right: Leland Fowler, Jamyl Dobson, and Edward Mawere star in one in two. Monique Carboni

Best Musical
The Secret Life of Bees
A Strange Loop
Tina: The Tina Turner Musical
The Wrong Man
Girl From North Country

Lia Chang. Photo by Garth Kravits

Lia Chang is an actor, a multi-media content producer and co-founder of Bev’s Girl Films, making films that foster inclusion and diversity on both sides of the camera. Bev’s Girl Films’ debut short film, Hide and Seek was a top ten film in the Asian American Film Lab’s 2015 72 Hour Shootout Filmmaking Competition, and she received a Best Actress nomination. BGF collaborates with and produces multi-media content for artists, actors, designers, theatrical productions, composers,  musicians and corporations. 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, Taxman. She stars in and served as Executive Producer for the short independent films Hide and Seek, Balancing Act, Rom-Com Gone Wrong, Belongingness and When the World was Young. She is also the Executive Producer for The Cactus, The Language Lesson, The Writer and Cream and 2 Shugahs.

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