Frontmezzjunkies reports: The Recipients of 2025 Actors’ Equity Foundation Performance Awards Announced.
The Actors’ Equity Foundation, the philanthropic branch of Actors’ Equity Association (AEA), the union representing professional actors and stage managers, has revealed the recipients and some of the nominations for its 2025 awards. The non-competitive honors recognize outstanding performances offered within the 2024-2025 season, both on and off-Broadway.
Jessica Hecht and Francis Jue were named winners of the Foundation’s Richard Seff Awards for their respective performances in Jonathan Spector’s Eureka Day and David Henry Hwang’s Yellow Face. The award acknowledges veteran performers, who are over the age of 50 and are a 25-year-plus AEA member, for the most outstanding performance in a featured or unfeatured supporting role in a Broadway or Off-Broadway production. Hecht and Jue are also currently nominated for a 2025 Tony Award for these performances.
The Clarence Derwent Awards, which honor the two most promising performances of the season given by early-career artists, were awarded to Nicholas Barasch for his featured turn in Roundabout Theatre Company’s reconceived Pirates! The Penzance Musical, and Julia Lester for her performance in the Off-Broadway play All Nighter.
Steven Epp (Earl of Worcester/Francis/Silence in Henry IV) and Kimber Elayne Sprawl (Emilia in Othello) received the Joe A. Callaway Awards. This honor notes the two best performances in a classical play.
Beyond New York, the Actors’ Equity Foundation awards body also recognizes Los Angeles-based performers with the Michael McCarty Recognition Award. This year, the award goes to Jennifer Leigh Warren Big River, Little Shop of Horrors). The award is named for Michael McCarty, a veteran Equity actor who intended the award to be given to an established mature actor in Los Angeles.
“These actors may have been in the industry for decades, or for a far shorter time,” said Foundation president Judy Rice in a statement. “The Foundation is proud to celebrate what they share: a demonstration of true commitment to their craft.”
The honorees will be celebrated at a ceremony on June 23 at the Manhattan restaurant Green Fig. The event will also include the presentation of the previously announced humanitarian Paul Robeson Award to Leslie Ishii, as well as the humanitarian Patrick Quinn Award, and the nominees for AEA’s ACCA Award for Outstanding Broadway Chorus include the following companies: Boop! The Musical, Buena Vista Social Club, SMASH, and Pirates! The Penzance Musical.
The performance awards were selected by a panel of judges comprising theater critics Joe Dziemianowicz, Adam Feldman, Elysa Gardner, Harry Haun, Kobi Kassal and Frank Scheck. The Actors’ Equity Foundation was created in 1962 to aid and assist the members of the acting profession and to promote the theatre arts. It is separate from Actors’ Equity Association and is funded by estate bequests and individual donations. Visit ActorsEquityFoundation.org.
