On Monday, August 8, The New York Innovative Theatre Foundation, which recognizes excellence in Off-Off-Broadway productions, announced its nominations for the 2016 New York IT Awards. Among those honored was Ian Harkins ’11, nominated for Outstanding Director for his directorial debut of She Stoops to Conquer at the Hudson Warehouse.
Oliver Goldsmith’s 18th-century play helped usher in the rebirth of “laughing comedy” to puritanical British theatre. In She Stoops to Conquer, an upper-class woman poses as a maid to win the affection of a wealthy London gentleman who is uncomfortable around aristocratic women. Thanks to a grant from the city of New York and then–Mayor Bloomberg's office, the Hudson Warehouse, under direction from Ian Harkins, staged She Stoops to Conquer in July 2015 at the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument in Manhattan’s Riverside Park.
“The Innovative Theatre nomination is a blessing, and such a rewarding button on something that took a year in the making for the Hudson Warehouse company and me,” says Harkins. “It's the first show I have directed outside of the Cornell campus. I could never have felt I could tackle this without the instruction of Professor David Feldshuh, my directing teacher at Cornell. It's wonderful to see how Cornell prepared me for this project.” In addition to directing, Ian Harkins works as a theatre, television, and voiceover actor.
The New York Innovative Theatre Awards ceremony will be televised on Monday, September 26, 2016.
