The Broadway League Awards have been an annual tradition since 1992.

The Broadway League Awards honor excellence and achievement in the world of Broadway touring. They’re a little different than any other awards I know in that they honor the people in the management office. No stars on stage here—just people who have shown “exemplary service to the Broadway industry.” Tom Gabbard of the Blumenthal Performing Arts in Charlotte, N.C., won the Samuel J. L’Hommedieu Award for Outstanding Achievement in Presenter Management for his work in making the BPA Center a leader in touring houses. Wayne McWorter of the Pantages Theatre in L.A. won the Outstanding Achievement in Road Marking award for creating an in-house marketing team at the theatre. And Judith Lisi was honored with the Distinguished Lifetime Service Award for her work at the David A. Straz Center for the Performing Arts located in Tampa, Fl. Full awards list after the jump.

Bill Sapsis, founder of Sapsis Rigging, provided the training.

It’s good to have a story about rigging in the news that is about proactive safety: Sapsis Rigging provided fall arrest equipment and the training on how to use it correctly to the national touring production of War Horse.

RC4 Wireless dimming systems are now available to rent.

Want to create some magic lighting props, but don’t have the cash to spend purchasing the gear you’ll need from RC4Wireless? Now you can rent the gear  you need for the effect you want. A typical rig from RC4 Wireless of their RC4Magic DMXio transmitter and a pair of DMX2dim 2-channel wireless dimmers costs $1257 retail—but can be rented for $284.50 per month.

NATEAC takes place July 22 and 23

NATEAC is bringing the knowledge, and the star power. In addition to their sessions helping architects, engineers, consultants and manufacturers create better theatres, the keynote address will be given by Richard Pilbrow—one of the most revered theatre designers and lighting designers and founder of Theatre Project Consultants.

Andrea Stolowitz won the inaugural Fowler/Levin Prize. Photo by Roxanne Spiegel

The Artists Reperotry Theatre in Portland launched the Fowler/Levin Prize last year with a call for playwrights to submit their concepts. Now they’ve named the winner of the inaugural prize: Andrea Stolowitz. Stolowitz’s play, about a Marine adjusting to civilian life, will receive a full commission from Artists Rep, which plans to produce the play in their 2012/2013 season.

Evita uses more than 100 moving lights. The focus was documented by FocusTrack.

On the Broadway revival of Evita there are 110 moving head fixtures from ETC, Martin, Vari-Lite and PRG (The Best Boy 4000 made its Broadway debut on the show) with more than 900 focuses. Recording focus and position data for all those fixtures, and documenting it with photos of the looks was a gargantuan task—which the lighting team accomplished in three hours thanks to FocusTrack, which coordinates console data, light positions, and a digital camera to automate the documentation process.

The National Alliance for Musical Theatre gave 15 grants to 14 organizations.

The National Alliance for Musical Theatre has awarded 15 new grants, totaling $48,000, to 14 organizations from its National Fund for New Musicals. Diversionary Theatre in San Diego, Calif., Playwrights Horizons in New York, and TheatreWorks in Palo Alto, Calif., earned National Fund Grants for $10,000 to support full productions. National Fund Grants offering support between $2000-$3000 and $1,000 Writers Residency Grants were also awarded. More details about the fund and a full list of orgs receiving money after the jump.

Viva Broadway will help Broadway establish deeper ties to the Hispanic community.

Broadway was once called “The Great White Way,” and lately it’s been under fire for hewing a little too closely to that appellation. There are lots of creative, intelligent people working to address that issue, however, and the Broadway League has just launched a new initiative to broaden the audience. Called “Viva Broadway,” the initiative aims to develop a partnership with the Hispanic community, reaching out to them as an audience and to help them view Broadway as place to build a career. To start with they’ve partnered with New York City’s Latin Media and Entertainment Commission to increase awareness of Broadway’s shows and educate the Hispanic audience on how to navigate the ticket buying process and they’re looking to create Broadway Speakers Bureaus to let students know about the jobs available in theatre.

Alan Keen has joined the American sales team at Robert Juliat.

Alan Keen has joined the American sales team of Robert Juliat. Keen has worked for ETC, PRG and Philips in the past.

The Outer Critics cover theatre in New York for media based outside New York.

The Outer Critics Circle is an organization of media covering New York theatre for out-of-town papers, radio, and other media. Each year they vote on their picks for the best in NYC theatre in 24 categories in the run up to the Tonys. Yeah, they’re kinda like the Golden Globes of the theatre awards. The big winners at the Outer Critics this year were One Man, Two Guvnors, which picked up the award for Outstanding New Broadway Play and Once, which won Outstanding New Broadway Musical. Both production also picked up a couple other awards in other categories, bring each shows total to three. Full list of winners, including the Off-Broadway categories, after the jump.