The Hermitage Artist Retreat (Andy Sandberg, Artistic Director and CEO), today released photos from the premiere presentation of newly commissioned work by Imani Uzuri. The third recipient of the $35,000 Hermitage Major Theater Award (HMTA), Uzuri shared a workshop presentation of her newly commissioned musical Lighthouse of the Singing Birds at Off-Broadway’s New York Theatre Workshop, an institution noted for its long history of producing new and groundbreaking work, on November 18th. Imani Uzuri is an award-winning composer, vocalist, librettist, improviser, and lyricist. Her original commission is coming to fruition less than two years from the date the recipient learned of her recognition.
The Hermitage Major Theater Award was established in 2021 to recognize a playwright or theater artist with a substantial commission to create a new, original, and impactful piece of theater. This international, jury-selected award, established by the Hermitage with generous support from Flora Majorand the Kutya Major Foundation, offers one of the largest nonprofit theater commissions in the United States. Uzuri received a cash prize of $35,000, as well as a residency at the Hermitage Artist Retreat, plus developmental and financial support for this developmental reading in New York. The prize is intended to bridge the connection between the Hermitage (Sarasota County, Florida), where the commission is born, and other leading arts and culture centers around the world where great theater is frequently developed and presented, including New York, London, and Chicago.
Lighthouse of the Singing Birds is a magical realist musical with book, music, and lyrics by Hermitage Major Theater Award winner Imani Uzuri. Monday’s presentation was introduced by Hermitage Artistic Director and CEO Andy Sandberg and NYTW Artistic Director Patricia McGregor. Told through song and immersive storytelling, Lighthouse of the Singing Birds deals with themes of mysticism, death, liminality, ecology, Black American vernacular artistic culture (music, art, foodways, folklore healing modalities, and so forth), as well as illuminating the sublimated history of Black lighthouse keepers and celebrating Black American vernacular sacred/secular song traditions. The cast the first concert reading of Lighthouse of the Singing Birds included Tony Award winner Lillias White (The Life, Hadestown, Disney’s “Hercules”), Nichelle Lewis (The Wiz on Broadway, Ragtime at Encores), plus stage and screen talents Charlie Burnham (violinist/composer), Starr Busby (Octet, The Beautiful Lady), Jared Wayne Gladly (Aladdin, Frozen), Yayoi Ikawa (jazz pianist/composer), Polanco Jones (The Wiz), Marla Louissaint(Theater Producers of Color 2023, Hadestown), Mercy Viola (cultural worker/performance artist), and dramaturgy by musicologist Matthew D. Morrison.
HMTA winners are nominated and selected by a jury of recognized arts leaders in the field of theater. The 2022 Award Committee that selected Imani Uzuri included two-time Tony Award-winning composer Jeanine Tesori, Tony Award-nominated producer, educator, and artistic director Christopher Burney, and New York Theatre Workshop Artistic Director Patricia McGregor.
Past recipients of the Hermitage Major Theater Award include Madeleine George (2021), who is a Pulitzer Prize finalist for her play The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence, and is currently a writer and producer for Hulu’s hit series “Only Murders in the Building.” George presented the first full-length reading of her new play The Sore Loser to an invitation-only audience at MCC Theatre last winter. Theater-maker and director Shariffa Ali was selected as the second recipient of the Hermitage Major Theater Award. Ali shared an in-process presentation of her newly devised work Hero for an invitation-only audience on in November of 2023, also at MCC Theater.
Olivier Award-winning playwright and librettist Chris Bush (Standing at the Sky’s Edge) was announced in January of 2024 as the fourth recipient of the Hermitage Major Theater Award, and the Hermitage will present a workshop reading of her original commission in London in the fall of 2025. California-based playwright Naomi Iizuka was announced earlier this month as the fifth recipient of the HMTA, and her work will receive its first workshop presentation in Chicago in the fall of 2026.