The Ivey Awards were an annual award show, celebrating Twin Cities (Minneapolis/Saint Paul, Minnesota) professional theater. Established in 2004, the non-nomination based awards served to recognize outstanding achievements within the past theater season in direction, performance, design, etc. The awards were founded by Scott Mayer and administered by a panel of local theater professionals and theater patrons. The Iveys ceased in 2018 due to lack of funding.
The Iveys were held each year in September at the historic State Theater, in the theater district of Minneapolis.
About the Award Ceremony
The IVEY awards were created in 2004 in an effort to acknowledge the ever-growing Twin Cities theater community, while providing theater professionals and theater-goers an "annual celebration and recognition ceremony," honoring the previous year's theater season and theatrical accomplishments. The evening of entertainment and awards consists of performances from the past year of theater (ranging from musical theater, dance, scenes), award presentation, and lifetime achievement recognition. Typically, the award presenters, entertainment and hosts are local theater professionals and celebrities. However, the occasional nationally known celebrity, having recent local theatrical experience, has hosted the event and/or presented an award.
Details of the IVEY Awards
Because of the celebratory nature of the IVEY awards, there is not a pre-determined number of awards nor pre-existing categories. Furthermore, the awards are not meant to be a competition, thus there are no nominees.
However, there are three general categories included in the recognition ceremony: Awards for lifetimes achievement and an emerging artist(determined by representatives of all theater organizations participating in the project) Awards for theater highlights (determined by a group of over 100 volunteer evaluators and the theater-going public) Recognition for work in the areas of production, design, direction, performance, and special citations (determined by the group of volunteer evaluators and theater-going public)
Eligibility
Note: all information taken from IVEY Theater Eligibility Requirements
Organizations that elect to participate in the project and be considered for Ivey Awards recognition must represent themselves as a professional theater organization.
Professional theater organizations that wish to participate or be considered for an award must: Be registered in the State of Minnesota as a 501(c)(3) organization or a for-profit business. Have been producing work and in existence for at least one year. Compensate their artists and staff on a regular basis. Be based in and produce in the Twin Cities’ seven county metropolitan area. Provide between six and ten complimentary tickets for each production to be evaluated that are valid for performance dates selected by the assigned evaluators.
All work eligible for an award must: Be produced by an eligible theater organization. Be scripted. Have a run of at least ten days or over two weekends.
The awards will not cover touring theater or college and university theater.
Recognition Evaluation Process
The process of evaluation was developed to include many theater perspectives. The opinions of a group of 100 evaluators, who represent many aspects of the theater audience (theater professionals [actors, directors, designers], general theater-goers, donors, etc.), attend performances and evaluate certain aspects of each performance. These opinions are collected and further evaluated by the IVEY Award panel, and awards are then decided upon.
Furthermore, all opinions from any audience member can contribute to the evaluation process by submittal to the IVEY Award panel, via the official website.
Awards and recipients
2005
2006
Productions
Sez She, emotional impact—Illusion Theater
The Talk: An Intercourse of Coming of Age, unique concept -- Youth Performance Company I Am Anne Frank, direction (Ben Krywoscz) and musical direction (Mindy Eschedor) -- Nautilus Music Theater