LPTW Lucille Lortel Award

The LPTW Lucille Lortel Award is given annually to an aspiring woman in any discipline of theatre who is showing great creative promise and deserves recognition and encouragement in her efforts.

The award was established in 2000 with a bequest from the Lucille Lortel Estate. Each year, the Lucille Lortel Committee chooses recipients from a pool of recommendations through a collective review process.

Lucille Lortel

Lucille Lortel was born in New York City on December 16, 1900. Lortel studied acting and theatre at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and with Arnold Korff in Europe, and made her Broadway debut in 1925 in the Theatre Guild’s production of Caesar and Cleopatra with Helen Hayes (lortel.org). Lortel has an illustrious list of credits which include, One Man’s Woman, The Dove, The Shanghai Gesture among many more. To further her career, Lortel founded the White Barn Theatre, which was a theatre set in an old horse barn on her estate. With this theatre, Lortel set the mission of presenting works of an unusual and experimental nature, developing the talents of new playwrights, composers, actors, directors and designers, and allowing established artists to open themselves up to new directions in pieces they might not have been able to do in commercial theatre (lortel.org). In 1955, eight years after Ms. Lortel started producing at the White Barn, Lortels husband presented his wife with the Theatre De Lys on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village as an anniversary present. In 1981, during the run of the award winning Tommy Tune production Cloud Nine, the Theatre de Lys was renamed the Lucille Lortel Theatre (lortel.org). As one of her last projects, Lucille Lortel wanted to create a permanent tribute to international playwrights whose work has been performed Off-Broadway. On October 26, 1998 she unveiled the Playwrights’ Sidewalk at the Lucille Lortel Theatre. Lortel’s wish was that the Lucille Lortel Theatre would continue long after her death. To that end, since her death in 1999, the theatre has hosted numerous theatre companies, productions, readings, and benefit performances (lortel.org).


Source: “Lucille’s Biography - Lucille Lortel Theatre.” Lucille Lortel Theatre , November 2, 2023. 


https://lortel.org/lucilles-biography

THIS YEAR WE HONOR

Lynnie Godfrey

The 2026 LPTW Lucille Lortel Visionary Award recognizes Lynnie Godfrey, a visionary artist, dedicated and committed to the theatre. This award is a symbol of encouragement for Lynnie to continue on her path of excellence.


Lynnie’s multifaceted career spans Broadway, television, and film. As founder of GodLee Entertainment and Essence of Acting, Inc., she has championed emerging artists and brought powerful new work—such as Greenwood: An American Dream Destroyed—to the stage. As President of the League, Lynnie devoted herself fully to revitalizing and uniting our organization. No matter the challenge, obstacle or resistance, Lynnie perseveres – with a smile. If she sees something, she says something. As Lucille Lortel always did, Lynnie Godfrey encourages artists to open themselves to new directions.