Monday evening, February 23, at a celebration honoring excellent theater on levels throughout the Washington space, theater artists, directors, patrons, and particular company gathered at Studio Theatre for Theatre Washington’s announcement of nominees for the forty second Helen Hayes Awards, which can be introduced on Monday, Might 18, at an occasion at The Anthem. The nominations are for productions within the Washington, DC, area within the 2025 calendar 12 months.
Reginald L. Douglas, Creative Director of Mosaic Theater Firm and Board of Administrators Member for Theatre Washington, welcomed the viewers and Washington, DC-area performers Leela Aviles Dawson, Fabiolla Da Silva, Kecia Deroly, Lolita Marie, Michael Russotto, and Justin Schmitz joined him to announce the nominations.
Amy Austin, President & CEO of Theatre Washington, mentioned, “With the current bulletins of The Kennedy Heart’s two-year closure and the huge cuts to arts journalists at The Washington Submit, the Washington, DC, space theater trade is at a second of reflection about our collective future. The Helen Hayes Awards, as they do annually, provide our group an opportunity to have fun and display the massive, sturdy, and actually extraordinary work that’s being produced on our levels. Our collective contributions to artwork, to empathy, to understanding, and to our fellow people at the moment are extra important than ever.”
Recognizing work from 149 eligible productions, nominations had been introduced in 41 classes and grouped in “Helen” or “Hayes” cohorts, relying on the variety of Fairness members concerned within the manufacturing. Nominations are the results of 49 rigorously vetted judges contemplating 1,997 particular person items of labor, resembling design, course, choreography, performances, writing, and extra. Productions into account in 2025 included 42 musicals, 107 performs, and 33 world premieres.
Signature Theatre noticed essentially the most nominations with 28, adopted by Spherical Home Theatre with 21 and Area Stage with 19. Essentially the most nominated productions embrace The Inheritance: Elements One and Two at Spherical Home Theatre (with 14), Rattling Yankees at Area Stage (with 13), The Immigrant at Synetic Theater (with 10), and The American 5 at Ford’s Theatre (with 9).
View all nominations by class.
View all nominations by manufacturing.
View all nominations by theater.
The inventive staff for the Helen Hayes Awards Ceremony on Might 18 was additionally introduced. Ashleigh King and Holly Twyford will co-direct, with music course by Christopher Wingert, script writing by Trey Graham, and manufacturing stage administration by Julia Singer. The hosts for the night can be celebrated performers Felicia Curry, Awa Sal Secka, and Derrick Truby.
Adrienne Arsht, philanthropist and enterprise chief, will obtain the Transformative Cultural Affect Award on the ceremony in Might. Arsht has made transformative contributions to a number of the nation’s main arts establishments, together with Lincoln Heart for the Performing Arts, the Metropolitan Museum of Artwork, and the John F. Kennedy Heart for the Performing Arts, the place she served on the Board of Trustees. In 2008, she made a landmark present to Miami’s Performing Arts Heart, which turned the Adrienne Arsht Heart for the Performing Arts, and endowed the Heart to determine a completely paid internship program, increasing entry to careers in arts administration. In Washington, DC, Arsht based the Adrienne Arsht Latin America Heart on the Atlantic Council to give attention to the position of Latin America and the Caribbean within the trans-Atlantic group. She additionally created and funded a Heart for Resilience on the Atlantic Council, which advanced into the Nationwide Safety Resilience Initiative, and launched the Group-Based mostly Resilience Options Initiative on the Smithsonian Establishment.
Helen Hayes Awards Honorary Chairs are Robert Pullen and Luke Frazier, with lead Host Committee members Jan Du Plain, Edie Fraser, Catherine Hand, Beth Mendelson, Bonnie Nelson Schwartz (founding father of the Helen Hayes Awards), Annie Simonian Totah, and Jose Alberto Ucles and Tom Noll. Sponsors embrace Vacation spot DC, Occasions DC, Big Meals, and OTJ Architects.
Named for actor Helen Hayes — a Washington native and legendary First Girl of the American Theatre — the Helen Hayes Awards have honored excellence in skilled theater all through the Washington area for 4 many years.
The total checklist of nominations — by class, manufacturing, and theater — is accessible at theatrewashington.org.
About Theatre Washington
By way of collaborative partnerships, advocacy and packages, Theatre Washington helps the Washington, DC-area’s skilled theatre group to have fun creative achievement, strengthen the theatrical workforce, assist institutional progress and development, and domesticate collective motion. Theatre Washington’s core packages embrace: the Helen Hayes Awards, Theatre Week, Theatre Work, and the Taking Care Fund.
SEE ALSO:
Recipients of the 2026 Victor Shargai Management Award Introduced (information story, January 25, 2026)
