A. Dean Irby and Lisa Dawn Cave ’79 Receive Honors
Given by the International Black Theatre Festival, Irby received the Lloyd Richards Director Award and Cave the Outstanding Achievement in Stage Management Award.
Associate Professor of Acting A. Dean Irby has been awarded the Lloyd Richards Director Award and Lisa Dawn Cave ’79 (dance) won the Outstanding Achievement in Stage Management given by the North Carolina Black Repertory Theatre Company’s International Black Theatre Festival, begun in 1989 as a celebration of African American theater and those who continue to push the culture forward.
Nearly 65,000 theatre cognoscenti gathered in Winston-Salem, NC for the historic event that “illuminates the powerful theatrical spirit and extraordinary talent of performers, designers, directors, producers, and technicians from across the country and abroad.” The gala awards cerremony celebrates actors, playwrights, directors, and other creatives for their contributions to preserving Black theater.
An award-winning director, actor, and educator on the faculty since 1989, Irby has a distinguished career spanning more than three decades. He’s acted and directed on Broadway and Off Broadway, for the New York Shakespeare Festival, Negro Ensemble Company, Arena Stage, New Federal Theatre, and Crossroads Theatre, and at numerous regional and university theatres.
This significant honor is named after the influential and pioneering theatre director and educator Lloyd Richards, the first Black director nominated for the Tony Award for Best Direction in 1960 for A Raisin in the Sun who later became the Dean of the Yale School of Drama and the Artistic Director of Yale Repertory Theatre. (Richards eventually won a Tony Award for Best Directing in 1987 for Fences.)
Lisa Dawn Cave ’79 got her start as a dancer, then switched to stage management in 1994 following a car accident that ended her dance career. Her long list of Broadway credits in production stage management range from Showboat to The Lion King, with Frozen, Smoky Joe’s Cafe, Into The Woods, The Color Purple, West Side Story, Bring It On The Musical, and many more in between. She’s also mounted touring productions on stages around the world.
Cave won the Tony Award for Excellence in Theatre in 2023, an award to honor institutions, individuals and/or organizations that have demonstrated extraordinary achievement in theatre, but are not eligible in any of the established Tony Award categories.