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

Claudine Cassan Jellison

The Lucille Lortel Award recognizes an emerging artist, young or old, dedicated and committed to the theatre. The award is a symbol of encouragement for the artist to continue their path of excellence. Claudine Cassan Jellison is the 2025 LPTW Lucille Lortel awardee.

Claudine has performed in national tours, in regional theatre off- broadway, and internationally, including Maltby & Shire’s, Closer Than Ever at Cherry Lane, Godspell National and Italian tours, Paquette in Candide at Arena Stage, Berlin to Broadway with Kurt Weill, Anna Held in Tintypes, Petra in A Little Night Music, Julie in Showboat, Anne in Shenandoah, Meg in Brigadoon. She performed Peter in the musical Peter Pan in Moscow, a cultural exchange, put forward by the United States State Department. She received outstanding notices and the praise of Raisa Gorbacheva who attended one of her performances.


At the same time Claudine worked to promote literacy and arts education as a teacher and administrator for 25 years with the NYC Department of Education nurturing school partnerships with Teachers College, City College of New York, The Lincoln Center Institute, The New Victory Theatre and the Lucy Moses School. She was dedicated to making the Theatre a part of young people’s education.



Then tragedy struck, Claudine was diagnosed with essential tremor. It becomes worse with age. It’s neurological and affected her vocal cords, pharynx, even tongue, and soft palate. There is no cure, only experimentation. Claudine’s love of the theatre did not allow her to give up. She developed a one woman show: Idol Curiosity, a tribute to her singing idols, Mary Martin, Mable Mercer, and Edith Piaf. It was successfully received, and she was honored and encouraged by the prestigious O’Neil Cabaret Conference. She developed Just Visiting, the journey of a first generation American, Packing Orders, packing up and downsizing memories and, Hey Frenchy, stories and songs from the pantry.

Sherry Eaker, former LPTW Board member honored Claudine with a Bistro Award for Hey Frenchy for Outstanding Achievement and in addition, Claudine received a 2022 Broadway World nomination. She continues to develop her one woman shows even though she only has an octave range and much of that is speaking. Claudine is currently planning her next one woman show. Her dedication to the theatre on and off stage is remarkable, and is deserving of the Lucille Lortel Award.