Michael Feingold, Lear deBessonet, and More Named Judges for the 60th OBIE Awards

The American Theatre Wing and The Village Voice have announced the judges for the 60th annual Obie Awards. Obie Administration Committee chairman and TheaterMania contributor Michael Feingold will be joined by playwright Adam Bock, orchestrator Bruce Coughlin, director Lear deBessonet, scenic designer Mimi Lien, critic David Rooney, Village Voice critic Tom Sellar, and director Liesl Tommy, to form the judging panel.

As previously announced, the American Theatre Wing and The Village Voice have formed a partnership to copresent the Obie Awards. Within the partnership, the Wing will take overall responsibility for running the awards. The Village Voice has licensed the Obie trademark to the American Theatre Wing for an initial period of 10 years.

"We are very excited to embark on our first year as partners in presenting the Obie Awards," said Heather Hitchens, president of the American Theatre Wing, and Josh Fromson, publisher of The Village Voice, in a statement. "Putting together a great judging panel is the single most important step in maintaining the integrity of the Obie Awards. Michael Feingold’s constant dedication to this work is a tribute to the vision with which the late Jerry Tallmer founded the Obie Awards to champion the downtown theater scene."

The first Obie Award Ceremony to take place under this new partnership is scheduled for May 2015. It will mark the award's 60th anniversary. The Obies were originally created by The Village Voice to encourage off-Broadway theater and to acknowledge its achievements. The American Theatre Wing, founder of the Tony Awards, is dedicated to advancing artistic excellence and nurturing theater's next generation.