Kenny Leon
for his outstanding direction on Much Ado About Nothing (Public Theater)
Kenny Leon is a Tony Award-winning Broadway and television director. He directed this summer’s acclaimed production of Much Ado About Nothing at the Delacorte Theater/Shakespeare in the Park. His Broadway credits include American Son starring Kerry Washington and Steven Pasquale which was also adapted for Netflix, the revival of Children of a Lesser God, the Tupac musical Holler If Ya Hear Me, A Raisin in the Sun starring Denzel Washington (Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play and Best Revival of a Play), The Mountaintop starring Samuel L. Jackson and Angela Bassett, Stick Fly produced by Alicia Keys, August Wilson’s Fences (which garnered ten Tony nominations and won three Tony Awards, including Best Revival of a Play), Gem of the Ocean and Radio Golf, as well as A Raisin in the Sun starring Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, Phylicia Rashad, and Audra McDonald. He also directed Smart People for Second Stage. Leon’s television work includes “Hairspray Live!”, and “The Wiz Live!” on NBC. He recently released his memoir Take You Wherever You Go. He is the recipient of the 2017 Mr. Abbott Award for Lifetime Achievement in Directing from SDCF and the 2010 Award for Excellence in Directing from the Drama League. Mr. Leon serves on the board of New York’s Public Theater and is Artistic Director Emeritus of Atlanta’s Kenny Leon’s True Colors Theatre Company.
Prior to co-founding True Colors Theatre Company, he served 11 years as Artistic Director of The Alliance Theatre, where he produced the premieres of Disney’s Elaborate Lives: The Legend of Aida, Pearl Cleage’s Blues for an Alabama Sky and Alfred Uhry’s The Last Night of Ballyhoo. Other directorial credits include Alicia Keys World Tour, Toni Morrison’s opera Margaret Garner, the world premiere of Flashdance The Musical, and the complete August Wilson Century Cycle at the Kennedy Center. Leon is a sought after motivational speaker that has done acting and theatre workshops at universities and corporate offices around the country, South Africa and Ireland. He has directed in the UK, and extensively throughout the US, including Chicago’s Goodman Theatre, Boston’s Huntington Theatre Company, Baltimore’s Center Stage, Los Angeles’ Center Theatre Group and New York’s Public Theater. Leon is a graduate of Clark Atlanta and is an honorary Ph.D. recipient of Clark Atlanta and Roosevelt Universities and has served as the Denzel Washington Chair at Fordham University.
Rick & Jeff Kuperman
for their outstanding choreography on Alice By Heart (MCC Theater)
Rick & Jeff Kuperman are directors and choreographers. Recent choreography: Alice by Heart (MCC, Lortel & Chita Rivera Awards, Drama Desk nom), Cyrano with Peter Dinklage (The New Group & Goodspeed), A$AP Rocky’s “Lab Rat,” Phish at Madison Square Garden, The Count of Monte Cristo (St. Petersburg, Russia), Peter Pan Beijing (Broadway Asia), Beardo (Pipeline), The Light Princess (A.R.T. & The New Victory), Orpheus in the Berkshires (Williamstown). For camera: “Living with Yourself” with Paul Rudd (Netflix), Silent Retreat (Miramax). As directors: Roll! (Ars Nova), Smile (FringeNYC), Rules of the Game (Film Society of Lincoln Center), The 39 Steps (PST), Dispossessed (HERE), Please Do [Not] Disturb (Sightline), and many readings, commercials, and music videos. Upcoming: co-directing and choreographing a new immersive show. BAs: Harvard (Rick) & Princeton (Jeff). www.kupermanbrothers.com
This season’s finalists for direction were Annie Tippe on Octet (Signature Theatre) and Stephen Brackett on A Strange Loop (Playwrights Horizons in Association with Page 73 Productions). The finalists for choreography were Raja Feather Kelly on A Strange Loop (Playwrights Horizons in Association with Page 73 Productions and Fairview (Theatre for A New Audience’s production of Soho Rep’s Fairview) and Camille A. Brown on Much Ado About Nothing (Public Theater).