It's the 1969 Obies!

15 Receive 'Obies' For '68-'69 Season

The 14th annual Village Voice Off-Broadway awards were announced on Saturday afternoon at the Village Gate. More than 500 guests gathered to applaud the 15 winners of the 1968-69 "Obies."

The awards were presented in a bizarre show directed by "Obie" alumna Julie Bovasso, featuring glimpses of her productions at the Cafe La Mama. Ballet dancers posed and pirouetted beneath colored lights as the audience gathered to the strains of "Les Sylphides." Ring-mistress Bovasso took the stage in cowboy hat and bush jacket to introduce this year's judges -- Elizabeth Hardwick of the New York Review of Books, Jerry Tallmer of the New York Post, and Ross Wetzsteon and Robert Pasolli of The Voice...

VILLAGE VOICE OFF-BROADWAY AWARDS

Season 1968-69

The Living Theatre ("Frankenstein")
Jeff Weiss ("The International Wrestling Match")
Julie Bovasso ("Gloria & Esperanza")
Judith Malina ("Antigone")
Julian Beck ("Antigone")
Israel Horovitz ("The Honest-to-God Schnozzola")
Jules Feiffer ("Little Murders")
Ronald Tavel ("The Boy on the Straight Back Chair")
Nathan George & Ron O'Neal ("No Place to be Somebody")
Arlene Rothlein ("The Poor Little Match Girl")
Theatre Genesis (sustained excellence)
Open Theatre ("The Serpent")
Om Theatre ("Riot")
Performance Group ("Dionysus in '69")

Judges: Elizabeth Hardwick, Robert Pasolli, Jerry Tallmer, Ross Wetzsteon

[Each weekday morning, we post an excerpt from another issue of the Voice, going in order from our oldest archives. Visit our Clip Job archive page to see excerpts back to 1956.]