The Tony Awards: Honoring Theater Education and the First Nonbinary Lead Actor

Gary Edwin Robinson, the head of Boys and Girls High School’s theater arts, was awarded a Tony Award for Theater Education on Sunday, June 8, for his notable theater program in Brooklyn. His commitment to developing a curriculum that helps get students into professional careers in theater earned him this Tony.

“It’s not every day you get a notice saying that you’re winning an award for the work that you do and you love to do,” Gary Robinson said to the New York Times in a phone interview, “That was a surprise.”

Mr. Robinson was born and raised in Queens, New York and graduated from Andrew Jackson High School in Queens. Then, he went to the Dance Theater of Harlem and then to Howard University and got a bachelor of fine arts in theater education. He has been a teacher for 35 years and does not plan to stop.

Gary Edwin Robinson firmly stated, “I will never retire from the theater, this is what I do”.

On Sunday, June 8th, Cole Escola won the Tony for Best Actor in a Play. the character is Mary Todd Lincoln, who wants to become a chanteuse. She is described as miserable in the week leading to Abraham’s assassination.

Last summer, “Oh, Mary!”, directed by Sam Pinkleton, opened at the Lyceum Theater when it sold out and went off-Broadway twice. It was the first show in Lyceum’s history to gross more than 1 million in one week. The play “Oh, Mary!” was nominated for five Tony Awards in these categories: Best Play, Best Leading Actor, Best Featured Actor, Best Direction, and Best Costume Design.

Escola, who is nonbinary, won their first Tony; they are the first nonbinary Tony winner for lead actor in a play but are not the first nonbinary Tony winner. J. Harrison Ghee made history in 2023 as the first nonbinary winner of the Tony for Best Leading Actor in a Musical.