Zoe Kazan and Michael Esper Win 2008 Clarence Derwent Awards

Zoe Kazan and Michael Esper have been chosen as the recipients of the 63rd annual Clarence Derwent Awards. Presented by the Actors' Equity Foundation, the honor singles out "the most promising female and male performers on the New York metropolitan scene." Kazan and Esper will receive $2,000 and an engraved crystal trophy during a ceremony that will take place at Equity's Eastern Regional Board Meeting on June 10.

Kazan was acknowledged for her appearance in three productions this season: She made her Broadway debut in Come Back, Little Sheba, and was also seen in Playwrights Horizons' 100 Saints You Should Know and the New Group's Things We Want. The granddaughter of stage and film director Elia Kazan, Zoe Kazan was featured as a Broadway.com Fresh Face last season when she made her off-Broadway debut in a revival of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.

Esper was cited for his turn in the Playwrights Horizons' production of Crazy Mary. His other off-Broadway credits include subUrbia, Manic Flight Reaction and As You Like It. He currently appears in Manhattan Theatre Club's The Four of Us at New York City Center Stage I.

The Clarence Derwent Award is one of Broadway's oldest and most prestigious honors. First presented in 1945, it has since been awarded to Morgan Freeman, Dianne Wiest, John Malkovich, Peter Gallagher, Joan Allen, Annette Bening, Sherie Rene Scott, Anne Hathaway and many others. Last year's recipients were Leslie Kritzer and Lin-Manuel Miranda.