Liza Colón-Zayas and Elizabeth Rodriguez were awarded 2020 Obie Awards for Performance during the 65th Annual Obie Awards ceremony on July 14, 2020.
The ceremony was hosted by entertainer Cole Escola, and continued its tradition of honoring the best in Off- and Off-Off-Broadway theater.
Presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Village Voice, the 2020 Obie Award judges recognized the pair for their guiding presence and commanding performances as Sarge and Miss Rivera.
Obie Award Citation:
“It takes a lot to stand out in a crowd of 18 actors (and a goat!) but it takes even more trust, grace and generosity to share the stage and stand among an ensemble, boldly elevating the performances and stories of a rowdy community of characters often disregarded by society.
With a lot of humanity and unflinching ferocity these two powerhouse women delivered a balanced partnership of riotous comedy and heartbreaking tragedy in Stephen Adly Guirgis’ Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven, co-produced by Atlantic Theater and LAByrinth Theater Company.”
The full ceremony is available on the American Theatre Wing’s official YouTube channel.
LAByrinth’s 2019 co-production with Atlantic Theater Company of Stephen Adly Guirgis’ Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven, directed by Artistic Director John Ortiz, received three 2020 Outer Critics Circle Awards for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play, Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play for Liza Colón-Zayas and Outstanding Director of Play for John Ortiz.
The play has been nominated for 13 awards this year and is the most nominated play of this awards season.
Award Nominations:
-2020 Lucille Lortel Award nominations for Outstanding Play and Outstanding Lead Actress in a Play for Liza Colón-Zayas
-2020 Drama Desk Award nominations for Outstanding Play, Outstanding Actress in a Play for Liza Colón-Zayas, Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play for Victor Almanzar and Esteban Andres Cruz, Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play for Kristina Poe and Elizabeth Rodriguez, Outstanding Director for John Ortiz, and Outstanding Fight Choreography for UnkleDave’s Fight House.
-2019-20 Off Broadway Alliance Award Nomination for Best New Play
-2020 Drama League Distinguished Performance Award nominations for Liza Colón-Zayas and Elizabeth Rodriguez
Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven features Victor Almanzar (Between Riverside and Crazy), David Anzuelo (Se Llama Cristina), Elizabeth Canavan (Between Riverside and Crazy), Lucille Lortel Award winner Sean Carvajal (Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train, King Lear), Patrice Johnson Chevannes (The Homecoming Queen), Molly Collier (Salutations! I’m Creative Dave), Liza Colón-Zayas (Mary Jane, Between Riverside and Crazy), Esteban Andres Cruz (Off-Broadway Debut), Greg Keller (Do You Feel Anger?), Wilemina Olivia-Garcia (Dutch Heart Of Man), Kristina Poe (The Idea of Me), Neil Tyrone Pritchard (The Stowaway), Elizabeth Rodriguez (“Orange is the New Black,” The Motherf#cker with the Hat), Andrea Syglowski (queens), Benja Kay Thomas (Barbecue), viviana valeria (Off-Broadway Debut), Pernell Walker (Seed), and Kara Young (The New Englanders).
Pulitzer Prize winner Stephen Adly Guirgis takes his style to another level in this world premiere play about the harrowing, humorous, and heartbreaking inner workings of a women’s halfway house in New York City.
Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven features scenic design by Narelle Sissons, costume design by Alexis Forte, lighting design by Mary Louise Geiger, sound design and original compositions by Elisheba Ittoop, fight direction by UnkleDave’s Fight House, casting by Telsey + Company, and animals by William Berloni.
About LAByrinth Theater Company
Originally known as Latino Actors Base, LAByrinth Theater Company was founded in 1992 by a small group of actors who wanted to push their artistic limits, and tell more inclusive stories that expanded the boundaries of mainstream theater.
Over twenty-five years, that small group of actors has grown to a company of more than a hundred artists. LAByrinth is an ensemble-driven company comprised of actors, designers, directors, musicians, and writers committed to developing and producing new works for the stage, giving voice to new perspectives that are powerful, groundbreaking, and have changed the face of America’s theatrical landscape.
LAB’s journey has taken them from INTAR, to Center Stage NY, to The Public Theater, to the Bank St. Theater and now their newest home, NYC’s oldest continuously running off-broadway theater, the Cherry Lane Theatre.
From LAB’s first two productions in the early 90’s, David Deblinger’s one man show, Nobody’s Home, and Lilian Slugocki’s family drama RoughHouse at INTAR, to multiple Stephen Adly Guirgis world premieres including In Arabia, We’d All be Kings (1999), Jesus Hopped the A Train (2000), and Our Lady of 121st Street (2002) with all three directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman at Center Stage NY, to Brett C. Leonard’s Guinea Pig Solo (2004) and Bob Glaudini’s Jack Goes Boating (2007) at The Public Theater, to Melissa Ross’s Thinner Than Water (2011) at the Bank St Theater, to Maggie Bofill’s Devil of Choice (2018) at the Cherry Lane Theatre, and most recently, our co-production of Stephen Adly Guirgis’s Halfway Bitches Go Straight To Heaven with Atlantic Theater Company, LAByrinth Theater Company has produced over fifty world premieres and developed over 250 new plays.
Stephen Adly Guirgis’s HALFWAY BITCHES GO STRAIGHT TO HEAVEN Receives Three 2020 Outer Critics Circle Honors including Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play, Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play for Liza Colón-Zayas and Outstanding Director of Play for John Ortiz
LAByrinth Presents Benefit Reading of Stephen Adly Guirgis’s OUR LADY OF 121ST STREET Featuring Elizabeth Canavan, Liza Colón-Zayas, Scott Hudson, Russell G. Jones, Portia, Al Roffe, Felix Solis, David Zayas, Bobby Cannavale, John Doman, Laurence Fishburne and Dierdre Friel on May 23
Atlantic Theater Company Extends HALFWAY BITCHES GO STRAIGHT TO HEAVEN by Stephen Adly Guirgis
SOFT POWER Receives Eleven Drama Desk Nominations, HALFWAY BITCHES GO STRAIGHT TO HEAVEN Receives Eight Nods; Full List of Nominees
2020 Drama League Awards Nominees
CAMBODIAN ROCK BAND, HALFWAY BITCHES GO STRAIGHT TO HEAVEN, A STRANGE LOOP, ROMEO & BERNADETTE, THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES and More Nominated for Off Broadway Alliance Awards
SOFT POWER Receives Eleven Drama Desk Nominations, HALFWAY BITCHES GO STRAIGHT TO HEAVEN Receives Eight Nods; Full List of Nominees
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis, Ellen Burstyn, Bobby Cannavale and Paola Lázaro-Muñoz at The Drama Book Shop for BETWEEN RIVERSIDE AND CRAZY Reading and Signing
Broadwayworld.com: Photo Flash: Stephen Adly Guirgis Reads, Signs Plays at The Drama Book Shop with Bobby Cannavale and More
Stephen Adly Guirgis’ Between Riverside and Crazy Garners 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Drama
2014-15 Outer Critics Circle Award Nominations; Something Rotten!, On the Twentieth Century, An American in Paris garner most nods
BETWEEN RIVERSIDE AND CRAZY Starring Stephen McKinley Henderson, Victor Almanzar, Elizabeth Canavan, Rosal Colón, Liza Colón-Zayas, Michael Rispoli and Ron Cephas Jones
THE GET DOWN, Baz Luhrmann’s New Drama Series Set in 1970s NYC That Gave Birth to Hip-Hop, Punk and Disco, to Premiere on Netflix in 2016
Stephen Adly Guirgis’ BETWEEN RIVERSIDE AND CRAZY Extends through March 22
Photos: Ellen Burstyn, Baz Luhrmann, John Leguizamo, Elizabeth Rodriguez, Stephen McKinley Henderson, John Patrick Shanley, David Henry Hwang, Liza Colón-Zayas, Kenneth Lonergan and More Celebrate Stephen Adly Guirgis at The Mimi Awards
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. The Lia Chang theater portfolio collection,1989-2011, is in the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) collection located in the Library of Congress’ Asian Reading Room and can be accessed here.
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