Every spring, theatre fans look to The Ensemblist when they ask why there isn’t a Tony Award for Best Ensemble? And this year, I wanted to provide listeners with an informed and thoughtful look at the challenges and barriers of adding a category to the New York Theatre Awards. Beyond emotions, I’m interested in why adding a category is more complex than listeners may imagine.
This week, I got to sit down with the president of the Outer Critics Circle Awards, David Gordon. The OCCs bestow awards to both Broadway and off-Broadway theatre, but have never had a category for Outstanding Ensemble in their more than 70 years of existence. So I sat down with David to learn about the OCC nominating process and why, according to him, creating an Outstanding Ensemble Award is a lot more complicated than I had imagined. Here’s our conversation…
