AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN CREATIVE PRODUCING
Each year, we invite our membership to nominate distinguished producers for the CIPA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Creative Producing, presented at the annual APAP conference in NYC. Established in 2022 in collaboration with the Association of Performing Arts Professionals (APAP), the CIPA Creative Producing Award recognizes a US-based independent creative producer working in the live performing arts, whose pioneering spirit in the independent sector and body of work have had a significant impact on the field of performing arts, an artist(s), and/or a body of work.
PAST RECIPIENTS
2026: Emma Orme
Born & raised in Brooklyn, Emma Orme (she/her) is an Obie award-winning creative producer who works in close partnership with experimental artists like Lisa Fagan & Lena Engelstein (the “High Weird” - Helen Shaw) and nicHi douglas, and companies like Fake Friends and CHILD. She is currently the Producing Director of the internationally renowned theater collective the TEAM, working in close partnership with Artistic Director Rachel Chavkin and artists such as Libby King, Josiah Davis, Eric Berryman, Zhailon Levingston, James Monaco, Jillian Walker, and more. Emma has a steady track record of stewarding ambitious works from nascent idea to critical acclaim & box office hits—at institutions like New York Live Arts, BAM, Theater Mitu, NYTW, The Public, La MaMa, Baryshnikov Arts Center, The Flea, Atlantic Theater, Drama League, Colt Coeur, and more. Hallmark productions include the Obie Award-winning Off-Broadway premiere of CIRCLE JERK and CHILD’s 1-800-3592113592, called the Best of 2024 by Helen Shaw. A fellow of WP’s 2022-24 Producers Lab, Emma has also had wide-ranging institutional producing and fundraising experience, at Williamstown Theatre Festival, Theater Mitu, New York Theatre Workshop, The New York Times, Hypokrit Productions, Media Art Exploration, Northern Stage, and more. BA: Dartmouth College. Upcoming: Reconstructing (The TEAM) and Friday Night Rat Catchers at Under The Radar.
2025: Ben Grinberg
Ben Grinberg (he/they) is a Philadelphia-based performing artist, director, educator, and festival producer. For over ten years, they have created community-based platforms for artistic presentation and exchange both in Philadelphia and abroad. He is a company member, co-founder, and director of Almanac Dance Circus Theatre, an award-winning and internationally touring physical performance ensemble, and from 2017-2021 was a founding core faculty member and head of Performance and Artistic Craft at Circadium, the nation’s first certificate granting program in contemporary circus performance, where he developed and curated the Test Flights series. He co-founded Cannonball Festival, a hub for new performance in Philadelphia, and is on faculty at the (formerly UArts) Pig Iron MFA program in devised performance. Through Almanac, Ben initiated and co-produced the biannual Fit Fest in Penn Treaty Park in 2019, 2021, and 2023. With Almanac, they won a 2020 Rocky Award, a 2017 Suraya Award, and a 2019 Barrymore Award for Outstanding Movement/Choreography. Grinberg’s work has been presented by Queer Zagreb, Jacob's Pillow, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Morris Museum Presents, Touchstone Theatre, FringeArts, New York Live Arts, La Casa de Artes y Circo, Assembly Festival, Circus Now, & more. Learn more at www.cannonballfestival.org & www.thealmanac.us.
2024: Claudia Norman
Claudia Norman (she/her/ella) is an award winner multi-lingual creative producer, cultural consultant and arts manager based in New York City with 25 years of experience developing, producing, and executing international projects in the performing arts. Served as project director for the DCLA’s City Artist Corp initiative. Producer of Yo-Yo Ma’s The Bach Project/Days of Action in Mexico City. Curator and co-producer of the “La Casita” series with Lincoln Center Summer of the City Festival, among other festivals in the United States and Latin America. Co-producer and curator of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Rebel Spirit Series. Under her own company, Claudia Norman Management, produced the Farewell Concert at Carnegie Hall for Chavela Vargas.
Since 2019, she has been producing, managing and touring the work of Odissi dancer/choreographer/educator Bijayini Satpathy, is Executive Creative Producer and founder of the annual Celebrate Mexico Now Festival in venues across NYC. Founder of Claudia Norman Management LLC, a full- service arts and entertainment company. Specialties in Non- profit Organizations, Curation, Performing Arts, Spoken Word, Visual Arts, Film, International Festival Production, Event Management, and Online Content Production. Raised and educated in Mexico City with a B.A. in Latin American Studies from Universidad Autónoma de México and a certificate in Arts Administration from New York University. She is a Faculty member at the New School.
2023: Torya Beard
Torya Beard(she/her) is the recipient of APAP's Inaugural CIPA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Creative Producing. Torya is Artistic Director at Excellence Community Schools, Co-Founder of the social enterprise tall poPpy with Darren Biggart & Jeanine Tesori and sits on the boards of Earl Mosley's Diversity of Dance, percussive dance company Sole Defined and Raja Feather Kelly's dance-theatre-media company, the feath3r theory (TF3T).
Torya's creative partnership with Ayodele Casel has been a significant collaboration. The pair has developed numerous projects. Among them, While I Have The Floor, Rooted for ALL ARTS' Past, Present, Future Film Festival, Bessie Award-winning dance film, and subsequent stage production, Ayodele Casel: Chasing Magic, Freedom... In Progress for Max Roach 100, Ayodele Casel + Arturo O'Farrill. New York City Center commissions include the digital series Diary of a Tap Dancer V.6: Us, Where We Dwell, the inaugural five-borough tour of On TheMove, and most recently, Ayodele Casel | Artists At The Center. Beard and Casel are Resident Directors of Dance Lab New York's Tap Project and were co-curators of the Little Island Dance Festival.
Highlighted Credits | Broadway: Funny Girl (Assistant Director), Waitress (Assistant Director), The Lion King (Swing, Dance Captain). Regional: Diary Of A Tap Dancer (Director, American Repertory Theater) Educational: Sophisticated Ladies, University of Michigan (Co-Director/Choreographer), Pippin, Syracuse University (Director). Other Credits: Jesus Christ Superstar: Highlights from the All-Female Studio Cast Recording (Executive Producer), 2023 Bessie Awards (Creative Producer).