2015 Founder's Award

Contributed by Nick Micozzi, Shay Gines & Jason Bowcutt

 

As you all know, we just finished up our 10th anniversary season. It has been a crazy, but entirely enriching decade. We want to thank all of you who have been a part of this organization. We have watched it grow from an impossible idea to an organization that is that has nearly 60,000 members. And so as we celebrate our first 10 years, we are also looking forward to the next 10 years.

At the Innovative Theatre Foundation, we are all about honoring and recognizing people who have made a big difference to the Indie Theatre Community and recently we had the opportunity to continue a tradition that we started in our first year. We have a very special award called the Founders Award that is given to individuals that the Foundation’s Founders (Jason, Shay, and Nick) feel have made an extraordinary contribution to the organization. It is not given every year. It is rare, but very meaningful to us.

In our first year, it was presented to Paul Adams, who was a major inspiration and provided some important infrastructure support during our formative years. In our fifth year, it was presented to Akia Squiteri who is a beautiful force within our organization and has given it her heart and soul.

Now in our tenth year we are so excited to recognize someone whose generosity and vision is helping to ensure that our organization will be around for another ten years and beyond. For several years, there has been a gentleman who has been a huge support to the Innovative Theatre Foundation. In fact, since the 1960’s he has been quietly supporting independent artists, Off-Off-Broadway, the avant garde; giving these artists and companies funding at crucial moments in their development. He has even written a book called the Avant Guardian: A Theatre Foundations Director’s 25 Years Off-Broadway about his experiences in theatre and supporting new, unusual works and experimental ideas.

We were honored to present the Founders Award to a “Fucking Legend” (if you have the chance, ask him about the story behind that moniker), Mr. Donn Russell.

Donn Russell, A Fucking Legend
Photos by Marc Goldberg

We are truly grateful that he has decided to invest in the Innovative Theatre Foundation and is entrusting us to help further his mission.