For the primary time in its storied historical past, New York City’s annual Obie Awards will think about digital, digital and audio productions, the occasion’s organizer, the American Theater Wing, . The transfer is available in response to the challenges Off- and Off-Off-Broadway artists and teams have needed to face by way of the coronavirus pandemic. Due to a number of the strictest lockdown restrictions within the nation, many New York theater corporations .

“We wanted to make sure that the work that did happen was eligible,” Heather Hitchens, the CEO and president of the American Theater Wing, instructed . “The Obies respond to the season, and to the evolving nature and rhythms of theater.”

The American Theater Wing hasn’t selected a precise date for this yr’s present, however Hitchens instructed The Times she expects it’s going to happen someday in November and contain an in-person presentation. In addition to increasing the mandate of the Obies to honor on-line productions, judges will think about tasks staged between July 1st, 2020 and August thirty first, 2022. That’s as a result of the newest Obie Awards came about in 2020. The American Theater Wing can also be chargeable for the Tony Awards, and 2022 will mark the primary yr that the group could have staged the Obies by itself.  

It’s exhausting to say what the longer term will deliver, significantly in the midst of a continually altering pandemic, however the American Theater Wing’s determination to think about on-line productions may open the door for the Obies to think about reveals staged outdoors of New York City.