Eight announced for Theater Hall of Fame, class of 2012

Andre Bishop, Betty Buckley, Christopher Durang, Michael Kahn, Trevor Nunn, Paula Vogel, Sam Waterston and the late Martin Pakledinaz form the 2012 class of the Theater Hall of Fame, announced yesterday by Hall producer, Terry Hodge Taylor. That’s a pair each of actors, directors and playwrights plus a producer and costume designer, chosen from a slate of 51 nominees by an electorate made up of the ATCA members and previously elected members of the Hall of Fame.

The 42nd annual induction ceremony will be held Jan. 28, 2013, at 7:30 PM in the North Rotunda of the Gershwin Theatre, where the names of Hall of Fame members are inscribed on the walls in raised gold letters. (For the fullest list of members, go to the Hall’s website, www.theaterhalloffame.org.)

Basic requirements for the Hall of Fame are at least five major credits (whether on Broadway or nationally) in a career of at least 25 years.

Bishop has been artistic director of Lincoln Center Theater since 1992 and before that, of Playwright Horizons. He has produced dozens of productions that have played on Broadway, including (most recently) Other Desert Cities and War Horse.

After making her 1969 Broadway debut in 1776, Buckley made her name and won a Tony as Grizabella in Cats. She earned a Tony nomination in Triumph of Love and appeared also in Carrie, Song & Dance, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Pippin and Sunset Boulevard, sometimes as a replacement. She also starred in London in Promises, Promises and Sunset Boulevard, earning an Olivier Award nomination in the latter.

Durang is one of America’s most fertile playwrights. Only four plays have appeared on Broadway, but he is a favorite off-Broadway and across the country, especially for A History of the American Film, Beyond Therapy, Betty’s Summer Vacation and Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You.

Kahn won a Tony nomination for the 1983 Show Boat and directed seven more Broadway shows, but he is being honored primarily for his more than 25 years as artistic director of the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C., and his years as head of theater at Juilliard.

Nunn won directing Tonys for Nicholas Nickleby, Cats and Les Misérables and six Tony nominations, ranging from All’s Well That Ends Well and Oklahoma! to Starlight Express, Aspects of Love, Sunset Boulevard and Not About Nightingales. His other Broadway shows include A Little Night Music, Arcadia and Chess. He was also artistic director of London’s Royal National Theatre (although English credits don’t count toward the Hall of Fame).

Playwright Vogel received a 1998 Pulitzer Prize for How I Learned to Drive and a 1992 Obie for The Baltimore Waltz. Her other works, mostly produced nationally, include And Baby Makes Seven, Hot ‘N Throbbing and Desdemona, A Play About A Handkerchief. She has also led distinguished playwriting programs at Brown and Yale.

Waterston made his Broadway debut in Oh Dad, Poor Dad (1963). Among more than a dozen other Broadway appearances, his most noted included Abe Lincoln in Illinois, A Walk in the Woods, Benefactors, Hamlet and Much Ado About Nothing.

Pakledinaz, who died earlier this year, won Tonys for his costume designs for Thoroughly Modern Millie and Kiss Me, Kate and Tony nominations for The Life, Golden Child, The Pajama Game, Gypsy, Blithe Spirit, Lend Me a Tenor, Anything Goes and Nice Work If You Can Get It, among his 35 Broadway shows.

James M. Nederlander and Marian Seldes are the Honorary Chairs. The induction ceremony will be followed by dinner at the New York Friars Club.

Last year’s inductees were actors Tyne Daly and Ben Vereen; costume designer Ann Roth; director Daniel Sullivan; producers George White, Elliot Martin and Woodie King Jr.; and, posthumously, director Paul Sills.

ATCA members Jeffrey Eric Jenkins and Jay Novick serve on the Hall of Fame nominating committee, chaired by Chris Rawson, who then tabulates and reports the final vote.