CARBONELL AWARDS Announces Recipients of Five Special Awards in 2024

LAUDERHILL, Fla. - Aug. 13, 2024 - PRLog -- (South Florida – August 12, 2024) Gary Schweikhart, board president of the Carbonell Awards, South Florida's Theater & Arts Honors, today announced the recipients of five prestigious Special Awards that will be presented at the Carbonell Awards Ceremony on Monday, November 11, at 7:30 pm at the Lauderhill Performing Arts Center at 3800 NW 11th Place, Lauderhill, FL 33311. Tickets are just $40 each (including facility fee) and will be available for public purchase next month.

"While we will be honoring 20 specific theatre performances, production elements, and shows presented from September 2023 through August 2024, the Carbonell board of directors has voted to also bestow the following Special Awards," said Schweikhart.

The Vinnette Carroll Award

For significant achievement in advancing the cause of diversity, equality, and inclusion in South Florida theater.

John Pryor

Director and actor John Pryor has been a valued theater professor at Miami-Dade Community College and Florida Memorial College who taught hundreds of students the joys of theater while exposing them to playwrights such as August Wilson, Charles Fuller, Lorraine Hansberry, Samm Art-Williams, and Vinnette Carroll. Pryor not only produced Carroll's Don't Bother Me I Can't Cope for Miami-Dade Community College, he also served as her stage manager when she produced and directed her musical Your Arms Too Short to Box with God starring Patti Labelle in a brief Miami run. Pryor has directed more than 100 productions over the last 34 years and has appeared in many as an actor. He also directed M Ensemble's production of the late Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson's complete, 10-play Century Cycle.

Previous Winners:

Christie Alexander & Katie Christie, for leading the South Florida Theatre League's AntiRacism Theatre Strategies Cohorts (2023); Marshall L. Davis (2022), managing director of the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center (AHCAC) in Miami's Liberty City, a facility newly renamed in his honor.

The Ruth Foreman Award

Recognizes contributions to South Florida theater development by an individual or group, for singular achievement and/or career contributions.

Attached Images:

1.   John Pryor

2.   Marilynn Wick

(Photo supplied by The Wick)

3.   Carl Waisanen

4.   Kermit Christman

5.   Arena Theatre production of Beauty & the Beast

(Photo Credit: Morgan Sophia Photography)

Media Contact:

Gary Schweikhart, President

The Carbonell Board of Directors

561.756.4298 / gary@pr-bs.net