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VILLAGE VOICE OBIE AWARDS

MAY 21, 2012

Every May, the Village Voice Obie Awards celebrate excellence and achievement in Off-Broadway theater. On May 21, 2012 the Fifty-Sevent Annual Obie Awards ceremony will be held at Webster Hall in New York City. The Obies were created in 1955 by then Village Voice theater editor Jerry Tallmer, and have since become the freewheeling wild child of New York’s theater’s awards world. Each year, the Obie winners are picked by a committee of Village Voice critics and New York theater professionals.

The Obie Awards were purposely structured with informal categories, to recognize those persons and productions worthy of distinction each theater season. The Obie Awards are an important part of the Village Voice’s long history of championing Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway productions. The Village Voice put the new downtown theater movement on the map with in-depth coverage and support. The paper was a forumof conflicting viewpoints, which helped generate excitement about the new theater.

In 1964, Off-Off Broadway plays were included in the Obie Awards for the first time, while Off-Broadway became a testing ground for Broadway hits. The influence of Off-Broadway on “main-stream” theater cannot be overlooked — productions such as “Hair,” “A Chorus Line,” and “Ain’t Misbehavin’” evolved from Off-Broadway workshops. Yet Off-Broadway retained its original identity as a place for adventurous theater and artistic ideas.

The Obies have become a theatrical tradition, a meaningful way of acknowledging the best of Off- Broadway and Off-Off Broadway and the list of actors, directors, writers and designers who have been launched by the Obies is a who’s who of theater. The categories for the awards have changed almost annually, but the spirit remains the same. The Village Voice Obie Awards continue to salute a theatrical movement that’s as important — and as vibrant and dynamic — as it was in 1955.

Past Obie winners include such stars and notables as Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep, William Hurt, Morgan Freeman, Al Pacino, Mos Def, Amy Irving, Kevin Kline, Nathan Lane, Olympia Dukakis, Robert Duvall, Kevin Bacon, Alec Baldwin, Kathy Bates, James Earl Jones, Joan Cusack, and Harvey Fierstein, among many, many others.

OBIES.VILLAGEVOICE.COM

THE GAY PRIDE PARADE

Each summer, The Village Voice produces an indie-rock music festival, showcasing renowned and emerging artists on today’s breaking music scene. The Village Voice 4 Knots Music Festival will return on Saturday, July 14, 2012 at the South Street Seaport’s Pier 17, New York City.

Voice music events attract an audience of young adults in a unique environment, creating an experience like no other. Music fans throughout the tri-state area and beyond have flocked each year, drawing more than 100,000 people.

Working together with the Seaport, the festival will be located at this designated New York City historic district which features some of the oldest architecture in downtown Manhattan. This iconic location includes renovated original mercantile buildings and sailing ships, the former Fulton Fish Market, food, shopping and nightlife, with a view of the Brooklyn Bridge. The entire Seaport neighborhood is meant to transport its visitors back in time to New York’s mid-19th century, to demonstrate what life in the commercial maritime trade was like. The name of the festival “Four Knots” comes from this rich nautical history at the seaport meaning “the speed at which the water moves through New York’s East River”.

The Village Voice 4 Knots Music Festival will continue to grow and forge the path of developing new music and nurturing the musical landscape of New York. In the past 10 years, The Village Voice has showcased bands such as Death Cab for Cutie, TV on the Radio, Broken Social Scene, Built to Spill, Spoon, New York Dolls, Grand Duchy, Hot Hot Heat, M.I.A., Modest Mouse, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, Scissor Sisters, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Superchunk, The Shins, Dr. Dog, White Rabbits, The Donnas and many more. This year will be no exception!

VILLAGE VOICE BROOKLYN POUR CRAFT BEER FESTIVAL

TBD 2012

The Village Voice’s beer festival will kick off its second annual Village Voice Brooklyn Pour craft beer tasting event in Brooklyn this Fall. The event will feature local tri-state area craft beers, food, entertainment and more. The afternoon event will enable Voice readers to taste a variety of beers in one location, similar to the Choice Eats food tasting event.