In its 41st annual ceremony, the Boston Theater Critics Association presented Elliot Norton Awards across 37 categories Monday night to actors, designers, choreographers and productions in the Boston area.
Joyce Kulhawik, president of the Boston Theater Critics Association, said Greater Boston has an “extraordinary” theater community — and that it was exciting to honor the work behind productions in the area.
“The Boston theater community should be proud of the breadth, the depth and the diversity and the quality of the work they turn out,” she said. “They should be proud of how they keep going in the face of very little external support, very little funding.”
Prizes were awarded to local productions — like “John Proctor is the Villain” at the Huntington Theatre for outstanding play in a large production, and to visiting productions, including “Girl from the North Country” for outstanding visiting musical.
Productions of “Oklahoma!” “Angels in America” and “The Band’s Visit” all took home three awards each, tying for the most of the night.
“The Elliot Norton Awards are like Boston’s version of the Tony Awards. This is a night where they can be seen and heard and celebrated as themselves.”Joyce Kulhawik, president of the Boston Theater Critics Association
The biggest award of the night, the Elliot Norton Prize for Sustained Excellence, went to Janie. E. Howland, a Boston-based scenic designer. She has previously won four Elliot Norton Awards for outstanding design and is making her Trinity Repertory Company debut in May with “La Cage aux Folles.”
Howland said she feels honored to have her work acknowledged and be among the celebration of theater in Boston.
“I hope the theater community in Boston continues to thrive,” she said. “I hope audiences continue to grow, especially given, post-Covid. And I hope that audiences are also willing to see more experimental theater and more new theater. I just hope to continue working and doing my work in Boston and growing my career further.”
An Education Award was given to the Hyde Square Task Force, whose programs focus on Afro-Latin arts enrichment.
Kulhawik said this year’s award ceremony, held at the Huntington, had the biggest turnout of any year. She’s excited for the future of theater in Boston.
“It lifts everybody up,” she said. “People have to know that theater artists are not in this for the money. They make no money. They get very little recognition. The Elliot Norton Awards are like Boston’s version of the Tony Awards. This is a night where they can be seen and heard and celebrated as themselves.”
“This is what the Boston Theater Critics want to do, we are trying to hold up to the light what artists do and what they bring and what they reveal, and the light they shed on the human condition. When the lights go down in a theater and we feel what’s going on on that stage, it’s a beautiful thing.”
Valyn Lyric Turner took home the award for Outstanding Featured Performance in a Play, Small, for her role in “A Raisin in the Sun” at the New Repertory Theatre. She said winning the awards felt “surreal.”
“I’m proud that I was part of an unapologetically black show and black cast,” she said. “I’m proud that I was able to use my training. I wasn’t even out of college six months, when we did ‘A Raisin in the Sun.’ So I just felt very proud that I was able to apply all that I had learned and touch so many people.”
The full list of winners can be found here .
