Tonys Honors for Excellence Awarded to The 1/52 Project, Jake Bell Among those being awarded Tony Honors for Excellence in the theatre this year are the 1/52 Project and production manager Jake Bell. Established in 1990, the honors are awarded annually to institutions, individuals, and/or organizations that have demonstrated extraordinary achievement in theatre but are not eligible in any of the established Tony Award categories. The OBIE Award-winning 1/52 Project provides financial support to encourage early-career designers from historically excluded groups to strengthen the theatre community by diversifying the stories we tell. The 1/52 Project considers all women of all ethnicities as part of a historically excluded group. Tony Award-winning scenic designer Beowulf Boritt had the idea that if every designer with a show running on Broadway were willing to donate one week's additional weekly compensation (1/52 of their yearly AWC), it could create a fund to support early-career designers. Since its founding in January 2022, 401 individual donations (largely from designers, but also from producers, directors, managers, educators, and significant donations from many shops) have added up to over half a million dollars in grants provided to thirty-five early-career scenic, costume, lighting, sound, projections, hair, and makeup designers. The grant decisions are made by a volunteer committee of eighteen world-class designers from historically excluded groups. Twenty-six individual designers have served on the committee over the Project's life. The administration is handled by Bethany Weinstein Stewert and Boritt, with help from a volunteer advisory committee. Among the 1/52 Project's past recipients is the projection designer, Stefania Bulbarella, who made her Broadway debut with Jaja's African Hair Braiding, earning a 2024 Tony Award for her work; designed Jeff Ross: Take A Banana For The Ride this season, and will design Wanted on Broadway next season. Other recipients have included the lighting designer Mextly Couzin, who made her Broadway debut with JOB in 2024 and designed the off-Broadway hit Mexodous; the costume designer illberth Gonzales, who made his Broadway co-design debut last season with Real Women Have Curves and will make his Metropolitan Opera co-design debut with Frida Y Diego; the set designer Teresa L. Williams, who made her Broadway co-design debut with John Proctor Is The Villain, and designed Proof this season; and the projection designer, Brittany Bland, who made her Broadway debut with Cats: The Jellicle Ball -- and who we believe to be the first Black woman to design projections on Broadway. Bell began as a stage manager for Broadway and touring shows, beginning with A Chorus Line. Later, he served as production manager on many of the longest-running Broadway shows in American history. He worked closely with directors such as Michael Bennett, Trevor Nunn, Joe Mantello, Christopher Wheeldon, and Hal Prince. He worked with designers such as John Napier, Robin Wagner, Bob Crowley, Maria Bjornson, Eugene Lee, Tharon Musser, Natasha Katz, David Hersey, Ken Posner, and Andrew Bridge. In the 1980s, after stage managing Cats, Chess, and Dreamgirls, Bell was hired by producer Cameron Mackintosh to lead his technical production management team for his repertoire for Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, and Miss Saigon. In addition to opening the first international production of Les Miserables in Shanghai, China in 2001, Bell helped bring Broadway shows to Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Paris and Canada, and consulted on theatre renovations all across the US. In 1994, Forbes magazine profiled the technical wizardry of Miss Saigon as it was moved around the US, referring to Bell as the "George Patton" of the theatre for overseeing 190 tractor-trailers as they crossed the US. Multiple companies of Broadway show sets, electrical and lighting equipment, and costumes were destined for on-time openings in cities around the country. Bell managed to keep shows opening on time through snowstorms, earthquakes, helicopter (set) crashes, and building construction mishaps. Only COVID delayed any of his productions. In 2002, Bell opened his own company, Jake Bell Production Services, while continuing to manage Mackintosh's shows, which had grown to include Five Guys Named Moe, Swan Lake, and a revival of Oklahoma!. He then added Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Pippin, Rocky, A Streetcar Named Desire, We Will Rock You, If/Then, Putting it Together, and An American in Paris to his roster. Wicked became another signature show for Bell in 2003, opening it originally in San Francisco for an out-of-town tryout. Twenty-three years later, it is still going strong. Bell retired on December 31, 2025. Also being honored this year are Kenn Lubin, a key creative leader at the Broadway marketing firm Serino Coyne, and entertainment lawyer Loren Plotkin, who has represented roughly 100 Broadway and West End shows. 
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