Zoe Sarnak and Shaina Taub are the honorable mentions chosen by the awards panel. Recipients will be honored November 7 at the New Amsterdam Theatre during a reception that will feature Jeanine Tesori and a special musical performance by Masi Asare, who is the recipient of last year’s inaugural award.
The reception will also honor teaching artist Cecilia Smith, who was chosen to receive the first annual Liz Swados Inspiration Grant. In collaboration with The Ziegfeld Club, Oscar-nominated actor Diane Lane created the Liz Swados Inspiration Grant for NYC-based female educators vested in music, in honor of the composer.
Jacobs is a Brooklyn-based composer and lyricist from Sydney, Australia, whose musicals include POP! (Yale Rep); Harmony, Kansas; and Stella and the Moon Man. She is currently developing a musical adaptation of the 2007 Sundance Award-winning indie horror film, Teeth, and Echo, a three-woman reimagining of the Echo and Narcissus myth. Jacobs is a Musical Theatre Factory Artist in Residence and holds an M.F.A. in Musical Theatre Writing from The New York University Tisch School of the Arts.
Billie Burke was an American actress remembered for her sparkling comic technique and distinguished career on stage and screen. The recipient of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, she is recognizable to all as Glinda the Good in MGM’s classic The Wizard of Oz. Less well known, as widow of master showman Florenz Ziegfeld, she continued as Broadway producer of the Ziegfeld Follies after his death.
For more information, visit TheZiegfeldClubInc.com.
(Updated October 18, 2016)
