(NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ) -- Writer, actor and George Street Playhouse Artistic Associate Laiona Michelle has received a 2022 Lilly Award. Ms. Michelle will receive the $5,000 Stacey Mindich Go Work in Theater Award. The Lillys celebrate, fund, and fight for women by promoting gender and racial parity in the American theater. The awards are funded by Lilly Board member and producer Stacey Mindich.
Ms. Michelle will be directing George Street Playhouse’s upcoming production of Her Portmanteau by Mfoniso Udofia this fall.
Laiona Michelle added writer to her resume with her double bill as writer and star of the critical and box-office smash, Little Girl Blue, The Nina Simone Musical, which launched its world premiere engagement at the George Street Playhouse on Feb 1, 2019. Now, she takes on the mantle of book writer, for a new project, Mandela -- a musical based on Nelson Mandela’s life; from his days as a leading activist against Apartheid, to his imprisonment and eventual release to become the nation’s President.
Laiona Michelle began to gain national notoriety when she made her Broadway debut in 2015, in the musical, Amazing Grace, which opened at the Nederlander. Cast in the principal role of Nanna, a woman stolen away from her family by slave traders, she delivers one of the stand out musical moments of the play.
Laiona Michelle has been nominated for numerous awards including the Independent Reviewers of New England, Best Lead Actress award (2001, Stonewall Jackson’s House); and she is the recipient of the Barrymore and Carbonell Awards (2004, Constant Star); The NAACP Hollywood award (2005, Constant Star), and she was nominated for the Helen Hayes Award (2005, Yellowman). Television: Lift, All My Children, Law & Order: SVU, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, The Blacklist, and Crashing, as well as Amazon’s Sneaky Pete. Special thanks to the George Street Playhouse for their love and support.
Under the leadership of Artistic Director David Saint since 1997, and Kelly Ryman -- Managing Director since 2013, George Street Playhouse produces groundbreaking new works, inspiring productions of the classics, and hit Broadway plays and musicals that speak to the heart and mind, with an unwavering commitment to producing new work.
As New Brunswick’s first producing theatre, George Street Playhouse became the cornerstone of the revitalization of the City’s arts and cultural landscape. With its 47-year history of producing nationally renowned theatre, the Playhouse continues to fill a unique theatre and arts education role in the city, state and greater metropolitan region.
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