The 2011 Margo Jones Award
The Ohio State University Arts and Humanities and University Libraries’ Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute presented the 2011 Margo Jones Award to Lincoln Center Theater dramaturg Anne Cattaneo in a ceremony in the Vivian Beaumont Theater lobby on Monday, July 11. The award is given annually to a "citizen-of-the-theatre who has demonstrated a significant impact, understanding and affirmation of the craft of playwriting, with a lifetime commitment to the encouragement of the living theatre everywhere." This year’s award was a triple-threat in that it commemorated Margo Jones’ 100th birthday, was the 50th year of the award itself which was founded in 1961. And finally, Anne Cattaneo is the first dramaturg to receive the Margo Jones Award.
Mark Shanda, Paula Robison, Deborah Robison, Meryl Streep, 2011 Margo Jones Awardee Anne Cattaneo, Andre Bishop, John Guare, Beth Kattelman, Nena Couch
Divisional Dean Mark Shanda, Anne Cattaneo
The award was presented to Ms. Cattaneo by Ohio State University Arts and Humanties Dean Mark Shanda, joined by Ms. Cattaneo’s colleagues LCT Artistic Director Andre Bishop, playwright John Guare and actress Meryl Streep.
Mark Shanda, his wife Ginny, and Meryl Streep taken at The Margo Jones Awards in NYC on July 11, 2011
Also participating in the ceremony was Deborah Robison, niece of Jerome Lawrence, who founded the award 50 years ago with playwriting partner Robert E. Lee, and Nena Couch of Ohio State University. Beth Kattelman and Mary Tarantino, of Ohio State, and Lawrence’s niece Paula Robison also represented the Margo Jones Committee and Lawrence and Lee families.
Judy Jones, niece of Margo Jones, and Helen Sheehy, Jones’ biographer, attended, as did 1969 Margo Jones awardee Adrian Hall, actors Blair Brown, Lois Smith, and Joe Grifasi, musician/composer Jane Ira Bloom, costume designer Carrie Robbins, theatre critic Jeffrey Eric Jenkins, Anne Bowen Paulle, daughter of Roy Bowen who directed the premieres of two Lawrence and Lee plays, and many others.
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