TONY AND DRAMA Desk Award-winning actors, Brian Stokes Mitchell (?Ragtime,? ?Man of La Mancha?) and Cady Huffman (?The Producers,? ?Will Rogers? Follies?), announced the nominations for the 55th annual Drama Desk Awards last May 3 at the New York Friars Club.
Each year, the Drama Desk bestows special awards to recognize excellence and significant contributions to the theater. This year, it has chosen to honor Ma-Yi Theater Company for ?more than two decades of excellence, and for nurturing Asian-American voices in stylistically varied and engaging theater.?

Among those receiving special awards are Jerry Herman, the cast of Horton Foote?s ?The Orphan?s Home Cycle,? and Godlight Theater Company.
Ma-Yi was previously nominated for a Best Play Drama Desk Award for its production of Warren Leight?s ?No Foreigners Beyond This Point.?

Excellence

The Drama Desk is an organization of theater critics, writers and editors that honors excellence in all areas of New York theater: Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway and not-for-profit.
This year?s notable Drama Desk nominees include Kander and Ebb?s ?The Scottsboro Boys,? as well as the Broadway revival of ?Ragtime.?
Ma-Yi is an Obie Award-winning company, and one of the country?s leading incubators of new Asian-American plays. Some of its notable productions include Ralph Peña?s ?Flipzoids,? Han Ong?s ?Middle Finger,? Lonnie Carter?s ?The Romance of Magno Rubio,? Lloyd Suh?s ?American Hwangap,? and Michi Barall?s ?Rescue Me.?
Ma-Yi is led by its executive director Jorge Z. Ortoll, artistic director Ralph B. Peña, and associate producing director Suzette Porte.