Arnie Burton and Mary Testa, the recipients of the 2017 Joe A. Callaway Awards, are presented with their awards January 9 at Actors’ Equity Association’s Eastern Regional Membership Meeting in Manhattan.
The awards honor the best performances in a professional production of a classic play (one written prior to 1920) in the New York metropolitan area. Burton and Testa are being celebrated for their performances as, respectively, the Postmaster and Anna Andreyevena in the Red Bull Theater production of Jeffrey Hatcher’s adaptation of Gogol’s The Government Inspector.
Established by Equity member Joe A. Callaway in 1989, the award includes a $1,000 check plus a commemorative, engraved plaque for each recipient.
Previous recipients of the Callaway Award include Kate Burton, Byron Jennings, Frank Langella, Laura Linney, Lily Rabe, Liev Schreiber and, in 2016, Lisa Harrow and Corey Stoll.
The judges for the award included Joe Dziemianowicz, Daily News; Adam Feldman, Time Out New York; Susan Haskins, Theater Talk; Harry Haun, The Observer; and David Rosenberg, Hearst Media.
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Burton also appeared in Red Bull’s The Mystery of Irma Vep (Drama League nomination). Among his Broadway credits are Machinal, Peter and the Starcatcher, The 39 Steps, A Free Man of Color, and Amadeus. Off-Broadway appearances include The Temperamentals (Drama Desk Award), The Explorers Club, Lives of the Saints, Mere Mortals, The Last Sunday in June, and The Jew of Malta/The Merchant of Venice.
Testa earned multiple Tony, Lucille Lortel, Drama Desk, and Drama League nominations as well as a special Drama Desk Award celebrating “three decades of outstanding work.” She has appeared on Broadway in Wicked, Guys and Dolls, Xanadu, Chicago, 42nd Street, Marie Christine, On the Town, Forum, and The Rink and Off-Broadway in Orange Julius, First Daughter Suite, Queen of the Mist, See What I Wanna See, A New Brain, and Tartuffe.
