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71-537: Stage Women's War Relief was founded in 1917 to organize charitable giving in support of the war effort. Its founders, led by playwright and director Rachel Crothers , included the actress and playwright Louise Closser Hale and actresses Dorothy Donnelly , Josephine Hull , Minnie Dupree , Elizabeth Tyree and Louise Drew . The organization established workrooms for sewing uniforms and other garments (with total output totaling 1,863,645 articles), set up clothing and food collection centers, sold Liberty Bonds , and opened

142-652: A Special Tony Award , the Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre , and the Isabelle Stevenson Award . The awards were founded by theatre producer and director Brock Pemberton and are named after Antoinette "Tony" Perry , an actress, producer and theatre director who was co-founder and secretary of the American Theatre Wing. The trophy consists of a spinnable medallion, with faces portraying an adaptation of

213-567: A Tony Award , recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre . The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in Manhattan . The ceremony is usually held in June. The awards are given for Broadway productions and performances. One is also given for regional theatre . Several discretionary non-competitive awards are given as well, including

284-628: A 1942 weekly radio show and a 1943 movie called Stage Door Canteen . After World War II, the Wing founded The Community Players to assist war veterans and their families on their return home. Co-chair of the Community Players was Katharine Cornell , who was active in the Stage Door Canteen. With the close of the war, the Wing concentrated on holding seminars about American theater , and on funding numerous scholarship grants . It sponsored

355-537: A Tony. The name stuck." Nevertheless, the awards were sometimes referred to as the "Perry Awards" in their early years. The 1st Tony Awards was held on April 6, 1947, at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York City. The first prizes were "a scroll, cigarette lighter and articles of jewelry such as 14-carat gold compacts and bracelets for the women, and money clips for the men". ATW co-founder Louise Heims Beck

426-464: A bit more significant... By adding height, now someone can grip the Tony, raise it over their head in triumph and not worry about keeping their grip. Believe me, you can tell the difference. For the specific Tony Awards presented to a Broadway production, awards are given to the author and up to two of the producers free of charge. All other members of the above-the-title producing team are eligible to purchase

497-695: A canteen on Broadway for servicemen. It also presented benefit performances to raise money, including some held in a temporary "Liberty Theater" built outside the New York Public Library . In total, the group raised nearly $ 7,000,000 for the war effort. Shortly after the beginning of World War II in 1939, Rachel Crothers re-established the Stage Women's War Relief as a branch of the British War Relief Society in January 1940; this time adopting

568-476: A chance to win the important awards of Best Play or Best Musical (or Best Score or Best Book for musicals). On the other hand, some people feel that allowing plays and musicals that have been frequently produced to be eligible as "new" gives them an unfair advantage because they will have benefited from additional development time as well as additional familiarity with the Tony voters. The Tony Awards Administration Committee has twenty-four members: ten designated by

639-505: A lifetime honor to all above-the-title producers, to ones who had been active in the previous 10 years. This action disenfranchised scores of Tony voters, including Gail Berman , Harve Brosten , Dick Button , Tony Lo Bianco , and Raymond Serra ). To be eligible for Tony Award consideration, a production must have officially opened on Broadway by the eligibility date that the Management Committee establishes each year. For example,

710-496: A number that changes slightly from year to year. The number was decreased in 2009 when the first-night critics were excluded as voters. That decision was changed, and members of the New York Drama Critics' Circle were invited to be Tony voters beginning in the 2010–2011 season. The eligible Tony voters include the board of directors and designated members of the advisory committee of the American Theatre Wing, members of

781-536: A person who has won all four is said to have won the EGOT . The Tony Awards are the U.S. equivalent of the United Kingdom 's Laurence Olivier Awards and France 's Molière Awards . Kimberly Akimbo Previous Best Play Leopoldstadt The Outsiders Best Play Stereophonic As of 2014 , there were 26 categories of awards, in addition to several special awards. Starting with 11 awards in 1947,

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852-421: A political sense. In some plays, her free-spirited young women revert to traditional roles at the end, especially when they are in danger of losing a man they love, and in other plays "Crothers records a sense of disillusionment with the women's movement and a tendency to blame it for deficiencies in women's emotional life." But Crothers wrote in period of rapid social change, as she well knew. "If you want to see

923-441: A public role as an evangelist, for which she is ludicrously ill-equipped. In the end, Susan accepts that she has been deluded by her conversion, that faith and salvation are far more complex than she had acknowledged, and that a more loving and meaningful act would be to help her husband achieve a stable life. Crothers biographer Lois Gottlieb finds the portrayal of the title character "satirical yet ultimately sympathetic." Crothers

994-495: A real world of good intentions and hard facts: true equality is still a pretense, even among liberal men and women, and someone has to take care of the children. The values of the older generation for whom there is nothing to debate (represented by Ann's father) and the values of the New Woman (represented by the fiancée of Tom's assistant who has no intention of giving up her job when she marries) are also effectively noted. He and She

1065-658: A woman's place in the world were a part of Crothers' life from her earliest years. The family intended that their daughters should be educated, and Crothers graduated from Illinois State Normal University in 1891. The following year, she attended the New England School of Dramatic Instruction in Boston, where her passion for the stage was nurtured. Her hopes of moving to New York to seek a career in theater were opposed by her parents, who insisted she return home to Illinois. Her interest in acting continued even there, however, and she

1136-546: A young dramatist of serious potential with an interest in the Ibsen-style "social problem drama." Her big break came in 1906, when her first full-length play, The Three of Us, was produced. It enjoyed a 277-performance run at the Madison Square Theatre in New York City. The play received its London premiere at Terry's Theatre on June 10, 1908, with Fannie Ward playing the leading role. From that time on, through

1207-445: Is honest about expecting his fiancée to give up her career as a journalist and become a homemaker when they marry (not an agreeable prospect to the young woman); Ann's father, who is dismayed that his daughter would even consider jeopardizing her marriage in this way; and Tom's unmarried sister, who is self-supporting but has achieved this status by not having a husband and children, a loss she regrets. The play ends with Ann arguing that

1278-490: Is named after Antoinette Perry , nicknamed Tony, an actress, director, producer and co-founder of the American Theatre Wing, who died in 1946. As her official biography at the Tony Awards website states, "At [ Warner Bros. story editor] Jacob Wilk's suggestion, [Pemberton] proposed an award in her honor for distinguished stage acting and technical achievement. At the initial event in 1947, as he handed out an award, he called it

1349-444: Is no brothel in the play to entertain a voyeuristic audience; there is a clear suggestion that male sexual appetites are the problem, not women's weakness or immorality; and the author expresses some skepticism about reformist intentions in a society wedded to its hypocrisy. Crothers goes further, though: one character (clearly echoing the writer's view) explicitly suggests that the men should be judged as harshly and readily by society as

1420-640: Is not "determined… to be a 'classic' or in the historical or popular repertoire", as determined by the Administration Committee (per Section (2g) of the Rules and Regulations). The rule about "classic" productions was instituted by the Tony Award Administration Committee in 2002, and stated (in summary) "A play or musical that is determined ... to be a 'classic' or in the historical or popular repertoire shall not be eligible for an award in

1491-549: Is selected by the Tony Awards Administration Committee. Nominators serve three-year terms and are asked to see every new Broadway production. The Nominating Committee for the 2012–13 Broadway season (named in June 2012) had 42 members; the Nominating Committee for the 2014–2015 season has 50 members and was appointed in June 2014. There are approximately 868 eligible Tony Award voters (as of 2014),

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1562-562: The American Theatre Wing for War Relief, which operated the famed Stage Door Canteen, and remained its executive director until 1950. On April 25, 1939, Crothers was awarded the Chi Omega sorority national achievement award by Eleanor Roosevelt, a gold medal award given “to an American woman of notable accomplishments in the professions, public affairs, art, letters, business and finance, or education." According to her biography on Literature OnLine, Rachel Crothers "distinguished herself as one of

1633-496: The sound design awards in 2014. In 2014, a petition calling for the return of the Sound Design categories received more than 30,000 signatures. Addressing their previous concerns over Tony voters in the category, it was announced that upon the awards' return for the 2017–2018 season, they would be decided by a subset of voters based on their expertise. Some advocates of gender equality and non-binary people have criticized

1704-519: The 1940s, Crothers was a major name in the Broadway theater world. Her commercial record was erratic—hits and flops, equally mixed—but she was a productive and respected writer with a considerable body of work to her name by the time she was middle-aged. In 1917, during World War I , Crothers founded and led the Stage Women's Relief Fund. In 1932, she helped found the Stage Relief Fund, a response to

1775-527: The ATW in 1950–1951, was responsible for overseeing the organization of the 1st Tony Awards . The initial presentation of the Wing's Tony Awards program on radio and television was broadcast only locally in New York City. In 1967, it partnered with the League of American Theatres and Producers , now called The Broadway League , to present them on nationwide network television . From 1965 to 1998, Isabelle Stevenson

1846-542: The American Theatre Wing, ten by The Broadway League, and one each by the Dramatists Guild, Actors' Equity Association, United Scenic Artists and the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers. This committee, among other duties, determines eligibility for nominations in all awards categories. The Tony Awards Nominating Committee makes the nominations for the various categories. This rotating group of theatre professionals

1917-595: The Best Play or Best Musical Category but may be eligible in that appropriate Best Revival category." Shows transferred from Off-Broadway or the West End are eligible as "new", as are productions based closely on films. This rule has been the subject of some controversy, as some shows, such as Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Violet , have been ruled ineligible for the "new" category, meaning that their authors did not have

1988-496: The British people from American businessman including 1,000 coats for women and children and 4,000 pounds (1,800 kg) of coffee in addition to medical supplies and other clothing and materials. Others, encompassing both women and men, soon joined the ATW, including Tallulah Bankhead , Ray Bolger , Clare Boothe , Ilka Chase , Lynn Fontanne , Helen Hayes , Burgess Meredith , Cornelia Otis Skinner , and Clifton Webb . In 1941, with

2059-429: The Broadway theatre community..." The producers "accept the situation ... because just as much as actually winning a Tony, a performance that lands well with the viewing public can translate into big box-office sales." Producer Robyn Goodman noted that, if the presentation at the ceremony shows well and the show wins a Tony, "you're going to spike at the box office". The awards met further criticism when they eliminated

2130-482: The First American Congress of Theatre (FACT) in 1947, but it is best known in contemporary times for having created, in the same year, The American Theatre Wing's Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Theatre , or Tony Awards for short, which it still sponsors and which awards were themselves named for Perry, its co-founder and wartime chair , who had died in 1946. Heims Beck, who was later chairman of

2201-510: The Great Depression, and remained a director until 1951. In 1940, she led in organizing the American Theatre Wing , which operated the famed Stage Door Canteen , and remained its executive director until 1950. She died on July 5, 1958, in Danbury, Connecticut . She never married. Rachel Crothers' plays often dealt with contemporary social themes and moral problems affecting women, including

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2272-527: The Tony Awards to be the Oscars of live theatre, critics have suggested that the Tony Awards are primarily a promotional vehicle for a small number of large production companies and theatre owners in New York City . In a 2014 Playbill article, Robert Simonson wrote that "Who gets to perform on the Tony Awards broadcast, what they get to perform, and for how long, have long been politically charged questions in

2343-459: The Tony show sold almost all its advertising slots shortly after CBS announced it would present the three hours. 'It draws upscale premium viewers who are attractive to upscale premium advertisers,' Mr. Sussman said..." The viewership has declined from the early years of its broadcast history (for example, the number of viewers in 1974 was 20 million; in 1999, 9.2 million) but has settled into between six and eight million viewers for most of

2414-566: The US canteens, servicewomen were denied entry, although this was not the case in the European locations. Lauren Bacall worked as a hostess in the New York Stage Door Canteen, and later recalled seeing Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne washing dishes and serving coffee there. The Andrews Sisters were frequent performers. The Stage Door Canteen made its way into national popular culture with

2485-528: The awards. Audience size for the telecast is generally well below that of the Academy Awards shows, but the program reaches an affluent audience, which is prized by advertisers. According to a June 2003 article in The New York Times : "What the Tony broadcast does have, say CBS officials, is an all-important demographic: rich and smart. Jack Sussman, CBS's senior vice president in charge of specials, said

2556-533: The board until 2016 when current board chair, the Pulitzer Prize –winning playwright David Henry Hwang , assumed his duties. Angela Lansbury currently serves as honorary chairman and Heather A. Hitchens is president and CEO of the American Theatre Wing. Besides the Tonys, ATW operates an array of programs to support its goals, including: Rachel Crothers Rachel Crothers (December 12, 1870 – July 5, 1958)

2627-645: The comedy and tragedy masks, mounted on a black base with a pewter swivel. The rules for the Tony Awards are set forth in the official document "Rules and Regulations of The American Theatre Wing's Tony Awards", which applies for that season only. The Tony Awards are the New York theatre industry's equivalent to the Emmy Awards for television, the Grammy Awards for music, and the Academy Awards (Oscars) for film, and

2698-496: The cut-off date for eligibility the 2013–2014 season was April 24, 2014. The season for Tony Award eligibility is defined in the Rules and Regulations. In 2020, the 74th Annual Tony Awards were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On August 21, 2020, it was announced that the 74th Annual Tony Awards would take place digitally later in 2020. A Broadway theatre is defined as having 500 or more seats, among other requirements. While

2769-422: The decade of the 2000s. In contrast, the 2009 Oscar telecast had 36.3 million viewers. The Tony Award medallion was designed by art director Herman Rosse and is a mix of mostly brass and a little bronze , with a nickel plating on the outside; a black acrylic glass base, and the nickel-plated pewter swivel. The face of the medallion portrays an adaptation of the comedy and tragedy masks. Originally,

2840-620: The decision to have children, for a woman, changes everything; motherhood must take precedence over a career. Yet He and She manages not to feel like a reactionary or anti-feminist tract. The inherent unfairness of the dilemma the Herfords confront has been well-established, leaving audiences food for thought. Ann's capacities and largeness of spirit have been ably displayed (she is one of the great female characters in American drama c.  1920 ). Most importantly, Crothers has situated her story in

2911-740: The entry of the United States into the war, the organization shifted its focus to the American war effort. Under the leadership of Perry, Heims Beck, and Crothers, the Wing opened the Stage Door Canteen to entertain American servicemen in New York. The first canteen was in the basement of the 44th Street Theatre , and similar entertainment and dining venues were established in Los Angeles, Boston, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Cleveland, Newark, and San Francisco, as well as abroad in London and Paris. In

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2982-438: The family's beliefs are put to the test: Can Tom live with his wife's public success and his own very visible failure? Can Ann live with Tom's embarrassment and the effect it may have on their relationship? Will Ann's professional commitments now take her even further from her maternal duties to a teenaged daughter who is already feeling neglected because of her parents' busy work lives? Other characters include Tom's assistant, who

3053-509: The female protagonist, a Nevada mine owner, protests the idea that a woman's "honor" is something men should feel obliged to protect; A Man's World (1910), the story of a woman writer who publishes under a man's name in the hope of greater acceptance; and Young Wisdom (1914), a satire of the New Woman and the idea of trial marriages. Nice People (1921) and Mary the Third (1923) include comic portrayals of flappers (Tallulah Bankhead played one of

3124-573: The flappers in Nice People ), while As Husbands Go (1931) and When Ladies Meet (1933) explore Depression-era attitudes toward women's advancement since suffrage. Crothers' last professionally produced play Susan and God (1937) was her greatest commercial success. The play tells the story of a wealthy, spoiled, and restless woman who finds meaning for her aimless life in an evangelical movement and attempts to convert her Park Avenue friends. She plans to leave her alcoholic husband and daughter to assume

3195-481: The gender problems modern Americans were confronting in this period of change. Set in 1910, at about the time she originally drafted the play, He and She takes as its protagonists an appealing married couple, Tom and Ann Herford. They are a cosmopolitan pair with careers, a child, and a happy marriage. Tom supports women's rights and is pleased that his wife has demonstrated talent in his own field, sculpture. But when he loses an important sculptural commission to Ann,

3266-620: The governing boards of Actors' Equity Association, the Dramatists Guild, the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, United Scenic Artists, and the Association of Theatrical Press Agents and Managers, members of the Theatrical Council of the Casting Society of America and voting members of The Broadway League (in 2000, what was then The League of American Theaters and Producers changed membership eligibility and Tony voting status from

3337-512: The most significant American playwrights of the early twentieth century and as an influential force in the development of modern drama." A "genuine trailblazer" was Ethan Mordden's description of her in his history of Broadway, All That Glitters. Crothers, who never married, died in her Danbury, Connecticut , home in 1958 at age 79. Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre , more commonly known as

3408-692: The name the American Theatre Wing (ATW). The revived organization's first and founding members included Mary Antoinette "Toni" Perry , Josephine Hull , Gertrude Lawrence , Theresa Helburn , and Vera Allen ; with Louise Heims Beck serving as the organization's first vice president. They began fundraising and organizing clothing donations to send overseas to the British people and to provide relief for European refugees in America. The organization initially worked from two rooms located inside 30 Rockefeller Plaza . In its first few months of operations they successfully lobbied businesses to donate supplies, with donations to

3479-411: The names and number of categories have changed over the years. Some examples: the category Best Book of a Musical was originally called "Best Author (Musical)." The category of Best Costume Design was one of the original awards. For two years, in 1960 and 1961, this category was split into Best Costume Designer (Dramatic) and Best Costume Designer (Musical). It then went to a single category, but in 2005 it

3550-507: The offending women, while Crothers acknowledges that women's sexual urges are not entirely irrelevant to the predicament she is dramatizing. Reviews for the play were mixed, with many reviewers complaining that Crothers had written too few male parts (only four out of twenty-one characters are men) and focused too exclusively on "the feminine point of view." Other plays by Crothers that deal with female identity and societal pressures to conform include her first, The Three of Us (1906), in which

3621-427: The physical award. Sums collected are designed to help defray the cost of the Tony Awards ceremony itself. An award cost $ 400 as of at least 2000, $ 750 as of at least 2009, and, as of 2013, had been $ 2,500 "for several years", according to Tony Award Productions. Source: Tony Awards Official Site, Rules For the purposes of the award, a new play or musical is one that has not previously been produced on Broadway and

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3692-562: The reverse side had a relief profile of Antoinette Perry; this later was changed to contain the winner's name, award category, production and year. The medallion has been mounted on a black base since 1967. A larger base was introduced and first presented in the 2010 award ceremony. That base is slightly taller – 5 inches (13 cm), up from 3 + 1 ⁄ 4 inches (8.3 cm) – and heavier – 3 + 1 ⁄ 2 pounds (1.6 kg), up from 1 + 1 ⁄ 2 pounds (680 grams). This change

3763-414: The rules define a Broadway theatre in terms of its size, not its geographical location, the list of Broadway theatres is determined solely by the Tony Awards Administration Committee. As of the 2016–2017 season, the list consisted solely of 41 theaters: 40 located in the vicinity of Times Square in New York City and Lincoln Center 's Vivian Beaumont Theater . While the theatre-going public may consider

3834-611: The separation of male and female acting categories in the Tony Awards, Academy Awards, and Emmy Awards. Though some commentators worry that gender discrimination would cause men to dominate unsegregated categories, other categories are unsegregated. The Grammy Awards went gender-neutral in 2012, while the Daytime Emmy Awards introduced a single Outstanding Younger Performer in a Drama Series category in 2019 to replace their two gender-specific younger actor and actress categories. In 2023, J. Harrison Ghee and Alex Newell became

3905-452: The sexual double standard, trial marriage , " free love ," divorce, prostitution, and Freudian psychology . Though some of her plays are clear, provocative expressions of sympathy for the challenges twentieth-century women had to confront and present young female characters of boldness and originality, others involve an element of comedy, even parody, and an implied criticism of radical feminism; thus, her work cannot be easily characterized in

3976-762: The sign of the times, watch women," she commented in 1912. "Their evolution is the most important thing in modern life." When The Three of Us was written, the Nineteenth Amendment was fourteen years in the future and relatively few women questioned marital inequities; by the time she ceased writing plays in the late 1930s, the world, at least for middle-class women in the United States, had been altered in profound ways. Crothers' over thirty one-act and full-length plays reflect those changes, more subtly than she has sometimes been given credit for. He and She (1920), for example, illustrates Crothers' nuanced sense of

4047-502: The stage in the decades before the rise of Lillian Hellman in the 1930s. Rachel Crothers opened doors for women in the theater before World War II. She was also known as a philanthropist and activist. She established a number of organizations to improve the welfare of her theatrical colleagues: the United Theatre Relief Committee, the Stage Relief Fund (director from 1932 to 1951), the Stage Women's War Relief Fund, and

4118-421: The strong roles she created for them, and leading parts in her plays were performed by Ethel Barrymore , Estelle Winwood , Katharine Cornell , Tallulah Bankhead , and Gertrude Lawrence . Crothers broke new ground by directing, staging, and casting most of her own plays. She also directed several plays written by others. Though little-known today, Crothers was regarded as the most successful woman to write for

4189-411: The white slave plays" of the era, Ourselves tells the story of a woman attempting to make a new life after being released from jail but confronted on all sides by people who want her to fall back into her old ways, don't believe that such a goal is possible for a "fallen woman," or profess a good-will that they cannot bring themselves to act on. Like George Bernard Shaw's Mrs. Warren's Profession, there

4260-614: The writers were male, of course, and a borderline-legal but titillating Act I brothel or abduction scene was part of the pattern of these usually formulaic plays. Crothers' approach in Ourselves (1913) was different. She began work on the play in 1912 before the vogue was underway, visited the Bedford Street Reformatory for Women to talk to some imprisoned sex workers, and elected to adopt an entirely female-centered perspective. In what one theater historian has called "the best of all

4331-558: Was a founding member of the Bloomington Dramatic Club. (Her taste in plays was rather advanced for the time: Ibsen's still-scandalous A Doll's House was one of her suggestions for a Club production. ) In 1898, five years after her father's death, Crothers was allowed to realize her dream and move on her own to New York. "I knew no one in New York," she later recalled, "but I had heard of David Belasco and Daniel Frohman , and they were kind enough to answer my letters." That

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4402-441: Was an American playwright and theater director known for her well-crafted plays that often dealt with feminist themes. Among theater historians, she is generally recognized as "the most successful and prolific woman dramatist writing in the first part of the twentieth century." One of her most famous plays was Susan and God (1937), which was made into a film by MGM in 1940 starring Joan Crawford and Fredric March . Crothers

4473-695: Was born on December 12, 1870, in Bloomington, Illinois , to Dr. Eli Kirk Crothers and Dr. Marie Louise (de Pew) Crothers. Crothers' mother, an independent-minded woman whose father had been friends with Abraham Lincoln, went to medical school at forty and became one of the first woman physicians in Illinois, encountering and eventually overcoming much opposition to her practice in Bloomington. Though her parents were religious and conservative, with no particular interest in theater, issues of money, equality, risk-taking, and

4544-512: Was divided again. For the category of Best Director of a Play, a single category was for directors of plays and musicals prior to 1960. A newly established non-competitive award, The Isabelle Stevenson Award , was given for the first time at the awards ceremony in 2009. The award is for an individual who has made a "substantial contribution of volunteered time and effort on behalf of one or more humanitarian, social service or charitable organizations." The category of Best Special Theatrical Event

4615-414: Was encouragement enough and, though the famous producers' help ended there, she left Bloomington for Manhattan, and, with the financial backing of her mother, enrolled in acting classes and found small parts in stock and touring companies. By 1899, Crothers was writing her own one-act plays, and over the next few years, as these plays received showcase productions and good notices, she gained a reputation as

4686-570: Was implemented to make the award "feel more substantial" and easier to handle at the moment the award is presented to the winners, according to Howard Sherman, the executive director of the American Theatre Wing: We know the physical scale of the Oscars , Emmys and Grammys . While we're not attempting to keep up with the Joneses , we felt this is a significant award, and it could feel and look

4757-496: Was part of an "old girls' network" of theater professionals that took shape in the 1920s. Asked by Djuna Barnes in a 1931 interview about how she had been able to make a successful career in a male-dominated field, Crothers answered: "For a woman, it is best to look to women for help; women are more daring, they are glad to take the most extraordinary chances...I think I should have been longer about my destiny if I had to battle with men alone." Actresses were especially appreciative of

4828-443: Was performed on Broadway in 1920 to critical approval (though not a strong box-office run) and was revived in New York, in a well-received production, in 1980 and again in 2005. Crothers worked in a context that was both timely and, in some ways, strikingly against the grain. In the years immediately before World War I, for instance, Broadway saw a vogue for plays about white slavery, sexually-transmitted disease, and brothels. Most of

4899-478: Was responsible for over seeing the organization of the first awards. It was not until the third awards ceremony in 1949 that the first Tony medallion was given to award winners. Since 1967, the award ceremony has been broadcast on U.S. national television and includes songs from the nominated musicals, and occasionally has included video clips of, or presentations about, nominated plays. The American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League jointly present and administer

4970-492: Was retired as of the 2009–2010 season. The categories of Best Sound Design of a Play and Best Sound Design of a Musical were retired as of the 2014–2015 season. On April 24, 2017, the Tony Awards administration committee announced that the Sound Design Award would be reintroduced for the 2017–2018 season. The award was founded in 1947 by a committee of the American Theatre Wing (ATW) headed by Brock Pemberton. The award

5041-713: Was the president of the ATW. After retiring, she served as chairwoman of the board of directors until her death in 2003. A special non-competitive Tony Award, for humanitarian or charitable work, is named in her honor, and is called The Isabelle Stevenson Award . It is Tony's equivalent to the Motion Picture Academy's Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award . Sondra Gilman succeeded Stevenson as chair and Doug Leeds served as president from 2004 to 2008. When they completed their four-year terms, Theodore S. (Ted) Chapin assumed both roles from 2008 to 2012. In 2012, Tony Award-winning costume designer William Ivey Long became chair of

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