Hermitage Announces Imani Uzuri as Third Recipient of $35,000 Hermitage Major Theater Award

December 16, 2022 – Osprey

Andy Sandberg, Artistic Director and CEO of the Hermitage Artist Retreat, announced today that composer and theater artist Imani Uzuri has been selected as the third recipient of the Hermitage Major Theater Award (HMTA). This national jury-selected prize, established by the Hermitage in 2021 with generous support from the Kutya Major Foundation, offers one of the largest non-profit theater commissions in the country. Uzuri will receive a cash prize of $35,000, as well as a residency at the Hermitage (Sarasota County, Florida) and a developmental workshop in a major arts capital such as New York, Chicago, or London in the fall of 2024. Uzuri, raised in rural North Carolina, is an award-winning composer, vocalist, experimental librettist, improviser, and lyricist.

“I am ebullient, in awe, and overwhelmed with joy and gratitude!” said Imani Uzuri on receiving the news. “I am in reverence and beyond grateful to the Award Committee, to the Hermitage, and to Flora Major and the generous Kutya Major Foundation. I am also thrilled that the Hermitage is committed to ecology, preservation, and community,” Uzuri added. “These are values that are significantly important to me as an artist. Receiving this phenomenal award and residency will enhance my artistic life immeasurably and transform the landscape of my theater career.”

The Hermitage Major Theater Award (HMTA) was established in 2021 to recognize a playwright or theater artist with a $35,000 commission to create a new, original, and impactful piece of theater. Three distinguished finalists for the third Hermitage Major Theater Award include Nissy Aya, a playwright, educator, and cultural worker; AnnMarie Milazzo, a Tony and Grammy Award-nominated vocal designer, orchestrator, and composer; and Daniel J. Watts, a Tony Award-nominated actor and theater artist. Each has been awarded a Hermitage residency and Fellowship, in addition to a cash prize of $1,000.

HMTA winners and finalists are nominated and selected by a jury of nationally recognized arts leaders in the field of theater. The 2022 HMTA Award Committee included Christopher Burney, a member of the Hermitage Curatorial Council and the outgoing Artistic Director of New York Stage and Film; Patricia McGregor, an acclaimed director and the new Artistic Director of New York Theatre Workshop; and Jeanine Tesori, a Hermitage alumna and the Tony Award-winning composer of Kimberly Akimbo, Caroline or Change, and more.

“We bring the artists forward first,” said Jeanine Tesori of the award. “The [HMTA] process is not project related at first – it’s about the artists. I don’t know that I know of another award like that. Writers don’t get paid to write. I have never been paid to write in my life. I am paid to have written. That’s what makes this award different and so incredibly powerful and unlike anything out there. There are very few recognitions which give structure and freedom at the same time as capital – there is a graciousness, generosity, and elegance to this award.”

Patricia McGregor added, “When I think of the great orchestration of life, we might miss a note – but when that note reveals itself, when it is given the space to be a part of the orchestration, we are all richer. The full thing comes into being in a deeper way – so I’m excited for Imani and what this can do for her and for this intimate, magical, liberatory, intergenerational piece. I’m also excited for us and I’m very grateful to the Hermitage because this award is going to allow for this ‘note’ in the great orchestration of life, to sing, to live, and to breathe in a way that it legitimately might not have without this moment, this opportunity – and we will all benefit so greatly from that… I want to bring my daughter to see Imani’s piece.”

“There are few opportunities like this award, and the space that the Hermitage affords an artist is really unparalleled,” said Christopher Burney. “To be able to get out of your day-to-day life, and to be able to be in a community that richly supports artistic expression is something that very few artists receive; it’s a special gift for both the artist and the community in which they’re creating. What moved me so deeply about Imani is her interest in creating a piece that will speak across generations, and that can engage the local community – a work that creates a sense of belonging for all audiences.”

“Amidst four extraordinary and worthy finalists, Imani Uzuri revealed herself to be a passionate theater artist who impressed the Award Committee with her heartfelt and inspired vision,” said Hermitage Artistic Director and CEO Andy Sandberg. “We are honored to support Imani as she creates through this commission a compelling and ambitious new musical – a piece that aspires to not only entertain but to build community. I must thank our brilliant and dedicated Award Committee – Chris Burney, Patricia McGregor, and Jeanine Tesori – for their thoughtfulness, leadership, and care throughout this process. I also want to congratulate Nissy Aya, AnnMarie Milazzo, and Daniel J. Watts, each of whom are exceptional artists with bold voices and thrilling ideas. We are excited to welcome all four of these extraordinary talents into the Hermitage family.”

Imani Uzuri, raised in rural North Carolina, is an award-winning composer, vocalist, experimental librettist, improviser, and lyricist. She composes, performs, and creates interdisciplinary works including concerts, ritual performances, albums, sound art installations, and compositions for chamber ensembles, film, voice, and theater (including experimental and musical theater), often dealing with themes of ancestral memory, magical realism, liminality, haunting, Black American vernacular culture, spirituality, and landscape. 

In addition to the $35,000 commission, the recipient of the annual HMTA will receive six weeks of residency at the Hermitage’s historic beachfront campus to develop the new theatrical work, as well as a reading or workshop in a leading arts and cultural center. Imani Uzuri’s commission is expected to receive a development workshop in the fall of 2024.

          In describing her intended HMTA commission, for which she will be writing original music, lyrics, and book, Uzuri shares: “Lighthouse of the Singing Birds will be an immersive magical realist work of musical theater centering a young Black girl on the precipice of her thirteenth birthday – a special one,” shared Uzuri of her plans for the commission. “She lives in an enchanted lighthouse and bird sanctuary on a small island (populated with elusive wild horses) surrounded by a Sound with a purple beach (made so by coral) off the coast of the Outerbanks in rural North Carolina with her beloved grandmother (matriarch and head lighthouse keeper) and her intergenerational quirky extended family of artists including quilters, singers, moonshiners and instrument makers.”

 In the spirit of the Hermitage’s commitment to the arts across multiple disciplines, recipients of the Hermitage Major Theater Award are encouraged to create a commission that directly or indirectly represents the role and impact of art – musical, literary, theatrical, visual, dance, or otherwise – in our culture and society. As to how this will infuse Uzuri’s commission, she explains that her new work will “illuminate Southern Black American vernacular art practices and folkways – quilting, yard art, congregational sacred singing, instrument making, storytelling, folklore, healing modalities, and foodways – celebrating the ways these cultural practices are used to heal, transform, protect, sustain, and unite family and community.”

This distinguished Hermitage Major Theater Award recognition is not an award for an existing work, but rather it is designed as a commission that shall serve as a catalyst and inspiration to a theater artist to create a new, original, and impactful piece of theater. Further, the prize is intended to bridge the connection between the Hermitage and Sarasota County, where the commission is born, and other leading arts and culture centers around the world, including New York, London, Chicago, and notable arts capitals where great theater is frequently developed and presented. Previous recipients of the HMTA have included playwright and screenwriter Madeleine George, and theater-maker and director Shariffa Ali. Their respective commissions are expected to receive developmental workshops in the fall of 2023.

 “This award is designed to be transformational for its recipients, providing not only significant funds and recognition, but also invaluable time, space, and inspiration at the Hermitage, plus an opportunity for these innovative theater artists to workshop and develop their original ideas,” said Andy Sandberg. An acclaimed director, writer, and Tony Award-winning producer, Sandberg took the helm as Artistic Director and CEO of the Hermitage in early 2020. “In addition to introducing a new work of theater to the American canon each year, this is an exciting opportunity for the Hermitage to take a further step in supporting the artistic process as we offer developmental resources to these extraordinary artists and their new commissions along their journey.”

The Hermitage Major Theater Award is made possible with a generous multi-year gift to the Hermitage from Flora Major and the Kutya Major Foundation. In the aftermath of the pandemic and recognizing the difficult challenges facing theater artists, the Hermitage and Major have awarded three HMTA commissions in the inaugural twelve months of this initiative. Starting in the fall of 2023 and each fall thereafter, an annual recipient will be selected and will have two years to complete their respective commissions.

“No one does more for the arts and the creation of new work than the Hermitage,” added Flora Major, founder and trustee of the Kutya Major Foundation. “Andy and his team have grown the Hermitage to be a leading national arts incubator, and I hope others who are passionate about the arts will recognize and support the important work that the Hermitage is doing. I am absolutely delighted that this truly unbelievable Award Committee has chosen to celebrate Imani’s talent and joyous spirit with this recognition!”

In addition to this newly created commission, the Hermitage Artist Retreat annually awards the prestigious jury-selected Hermitage Greenfield Prize (HGP), a $30,000 commission that rotates each year between the disciplines of music, theater, and visual art. Past recipients in theater have included Aleshea Harris (2021), Martyna Majok (2018), Nilo Cruz (2015), John Guare (2012), and Craig Lucas (2009).

The Hermitage hosts artists on its Gulf Coast Manasota Key campus for multi-week residencies, where diverse and accomplished artists from around the world and across multiple disciplines create and develop new works of theater, music, visual art, literature, dance, and more. As part of their residencies, Hermitage Fellows participate in free community programs, offering audiences in the region a unique opportunity to engage with some of the world’s leading artists and to get an authentic “sneak peek” into extraordinary projects and artistic minds before their works go on to major theaters, galleries, concert halls, and museums around the world. These free and innovative programs include performances, lectures, readings, interactive experiences, open studios, school programs, teacher workshops, and more, serving thousands in our community each year. The Hermitage is the only major arts organization in Florida’s Gulf Coast region exclusively committed to supporting the development and creation of new work across all artistic disciplines.

For more information about the Hermitage and the Hermitage Major Theater Award, visit HermitageArtistRetreat.org.