Fun Home, Appropriate, The Open House & More Take Home 2014 Obie Awards

The 59th annual Village Voice Obie Awards were announced on May 19 at a ceremony at Webster Hall hosted by Hamish Linklater and Tamara Tunie. The awards feature informal categories that change annually, recognizing excellence in off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway theater. Presenters for the evening included 2014 Tony nominees Lena Hall, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Andy Karl and Kelli O’Hara. Fun Home, now eyeing a Broadway transfer, took home a Musical Theater win for book writer and lyricist Lisa Kron, composer Jeanine Tesori and director Sam Gold, while Appropriate and An Octoroon playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins received the Best New American Play award. Fun Home star Sydney Lucas became the youngest recipient in the history of the Obies at 10-years-old (Lucas performed the number "Ring of Keys" at the ceremony).  As previously reported, Oscar winner and The Velocity of Autumn Tony nominee Estelle Parsons received the 2014 Lifetime Achievement Obie, presented by Nice Work If You Can Get It co-star O'Hara. A complete list of winners follows:

Performance
Marylouise Burke, Sustained Excellence of Performance
Johanna Day, Appropriate
John Ellison Conlee, The (Curious Case of the) Watson Intelligence
K. Todd Freeman, Fetch Clay, Make Man
John Earl Jelks, Sunset Baby / Fetch Clay, Make Man
Mia Katigbak, Awake and Sing
Sydney Lucas, Fun Home
Chris Myers, An Octoroon
Larry Pine, A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay about the Death of Walt Disney

Playwriting
Will Eno, The Open House

Musical Theater
Lisa Kron (book and lyrics), Jeanine Tesori (music) and Sam Gold (director), Fun Home

Direction
James MacDonald, Love and Information
Oliver Butler, The Open House
Liesl Tommy, Appropriate

Design/Music
Ben Rubin (projections), Arguendo
Emmanuel Brown and Sonya Tayeh (fight direction and choreography), Kung Fu
Eric Southern (lights), The Correspondent
Justin Townsend, Sustained Excellence of Lighting Design

Special Citations
Mallory Catlett, This Was the End
Heather Christian (music), Jiyoun Chang (lights) and Hannah Wasileski (projections), The World Is Round
Rattlestick Playwrights Theater and Lucy Thurber, The Hill Town Plays

The Ross Wetzsteon Award
Arbons Arts Center

Grants
600 Highwaymen
48 Hours in Harlem

Best New American Play
Branden Jacobs-Jenkens, Appropriate and An Octoroon

Lifetime Achievement
Estelle Parsons