Alley Theatre’s Lifetime Achievement Awards Honor National Theater Greats in Houston

What: The Alley Theatre Award for Lifetime Achievement: A Tony Award-Winning Evening

Where: The Hubbard Stage of the Alley Theatre

PC Moment: Four nationally renowned individuals were spotlighted with the highly regarded honors. The Lifetime Achievement award winners are:

— New York based costume designer Susan Hilferty, with dozens of operas, musicals and dramas to her credit including Wicked, Funny Girl and La Traviata.

— Tony and Grammy award winning sound designer Scott Lehrer, noted for his work on Broadway plays, musicals, music recordings, TV documentaries, radio dramas, film soundtracks and museum installations.

— Tony Award-winning playwright and director Richard Nelson, who is the director of Alley Theatre’s production of Anton Chekhov’s Little Comedies.

— Revered lighting designer Jennifer Tipton, who holds Tony Awards, Bessie awards, an Obie for lifetime achievement and a MacArthur fellowship.

In fact, the work of all four can be seen in the Alley Theatre’s current production of Little Comedies, which runs through October 29 in the intimate Neuhaus Arena Stage.

Combined, these four talents boast 109 Broadway productions, five Tony Awards, including 21 nominations, one Olivier Award, one Grammy Award, nine Drama Desk Awards, including 29 nominations, and numerous other accolades. The seventh awards evening included a thoughtful conversation between the four honorees and Alley Theatre artistic director Rob Melrose.

Past recipients of the Alley Theatre Lifetime Achievement Award, which was conceived of by Lois Stark in 1984, have included Arthur Miller, Hume Cronyn, John Houseman, Colleen Dewhurst, Jessica Tandy and Horton Foote. Stark is in her own right a noted Emmy Award-winning producer, documentary filmmaker and author.

The dinner evening, with catering from Culinaire, was chaired by Wendi and Jeremy Monthy.

PC Seen: George Stark, Franci Neely, Carl Palazzolo, Craig and Angela Jarchow, Steve and Christina Morse, Roger and Connie Plank, Tom Mays and Orlando Zayas, Derek and Lara Hollingsworth, Erin Carpenter, Amelia Hartman, Alejandra and Dimitri Papakyriacou, Lisa Helper and Patrick Myatt, Dick and Jane Schmitt, Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, and Heather Almond.