55th OBIE Awards will take place on 17 May 2010

The Village Voice, the nation's largest alternative weekly newspaper, has announced the 55th Annual OBIE awards will take place on 17 May 2010 at Webster Hall in the East Village.

The OBIES will be co-hosted by Anika Noni Rose and Michael Cerveris. A list of notable presenters will be released soon.

Anika Noni Rose won an OBIE in 2001 for her performance in 'Eli's Comin'. Most recently, you may have heard Noni Rose as the voice of 'Princess Tiana' in Disney's 'The Princess & The Frog.' She won acclaim in the film version of 'Dreamgirls,' for which she received an NAACP nomination, and she portrayed in 'Caroline or Change,' both Off- and on Broadway. She subsequently starred on Broadway in 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' and as 'Mma Makutsi' in the HBO series "The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency," shot entirely on location in Botswana.

Michael Cerveris says: "I may have snuck in the back door of uptown theater while they weren't looking, but my career, my heart, and my residence have been below 14th Street more often than not over the years." Most recently, he starred on Broadway in Sarah Ruhl's 'In the Next Room (or the Vibrator Play).' His many previous starring roles include 'John Wilkes Booth' in Stephen Sondheim's 'Assassins,' and the title role in the John Doyle revival of 'Sweeney Todd.' Off-Broadway his leading roles include 'Hedwig' in the OBIE-winning musical 'Hedwig and the Angry Inch.'

The Voice's chief theater critic, Michael Feingold, who chairs the OBIE Awards committee again this year, was recently honored as a finalist for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize in Criticism. The Pulitzer jury recognized Feingold "for his engaging, authoritative drama reviews that fuse passion and knowledge as he helps readers understand what makes a play or a performance successful."

Many of the most celebrated names in theater, film and television say thier OBIER was the first recognition of their professional career. Past winners include such well-known stars such as Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, Morgan Freeman, Denzel Washington, Felicity Huffman, Viola Davis, Kevin Kline, Nathan Lane, Alec Baldwin, Kathy Bates, James Earl Jones, Edward Norton, and Sigourney Weaver, to name a few.

Once again, the 2010 OBIES will honor the Off-Broadway theater community by presenting its annual theater grants, announced live at the ceremony.

For the past half-century, the The Village Voice Obie Awards have honored the best of Off Broadway and Off-Off Broadway. Structured with informal categories that change annually, The Village Voice Obie Awards recognize persons and productions of excellence. Unlike most theater awards, The Village Voice Obie Awards have no nominations.