CARBONELL AWARDS Names CHRISTINE DOLEN as Winner of Prestigious George Abbott Award 2023

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - July 13, 2023 - PRLog -- (South Florida – July 12, 2023) Gary Schweikhart, president of the Carbonell Awards, South Florida's Theater & Arts Honors, today announced the recipient of this year's prestigious George Abbott Award which will be presented at the Carbonell Awards Ceremony on Monday, November 13, at 7:30 p.m. at the Lauderhill Performing Arts Center at 3800 NW 11^th Place, Lauderhill, FL 33311. Tickets are only $37 each (including facility fee) and will soon be available for public purchase.

The George Abbott Award

for Outstanding Achievement in the Arts

Christine Dolen

For only the second time since 1978, the prestigious George Abbott Award has a repeat recipient—Carbonell Awards co-founder Jack Zink received the award in 1989 and again, posthumously, in 2007. In 2023, the Abbott Award goes to longtime South Florida theatre critic and Carbonell judge Christine Dolen, who originally received the honor 22 years ago.

The theatre critic for the Miami Herald from 1979 to 2015, Dolen is a still a vibrant freelance reviewer and arts writer, primarily for ArtburstMiami.com. Her stories and reviews continue to appear in the Miami Herald, Sun-Sentinel, New Times, Inspicio, FloridaTheaterOnStage.com, and in other print and online publications, including American Theatre magazine. She was also an editorial board member of the Best Plays Theater Yearbook.

Dolen holds bachelor's and master's degrees in journalism from Ohio State University, was a John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University in 1984-85, and a senior fellow at Columbia University's National Arts Journalism program in 1999. Two years earlier, she was a member of the Pulitzer Prize drama jury.

Her previous honors include the Green Eyeshade in criticism from the Atlanta Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and first place in arts writing in the Missouri Lifestyle Journalism Awards. She has also received a Silver Palm Award, the South Florida Theatre League's Remy Award, and the Carbonells' Howard Kleinberg Award. In November 2011, American Theatre Magazine named her as one of a dozen of the country's most influential theater critics.

"It has been the great honor of my professional life to chronicle the evolution of South Florida theater for nearly 50 years. The thousands of hours I've spent watching and evaluating the work of dedicated artists throughout the region have meant so much to me that I'm still spending time in lots of darkened theaters, now for ArtburstMiami.com," says Dolen.

Attached Image:

Christine Dolen

(Photo courtesy of ArtburstMiami.com)

Available for Interview:

Gary Schweikhart

Carbonell Board President

561.756.4298  /  gary@pr-bs.net

Media Contact:

Gino Campodónico

Adrienne Arsht Center

786.468.2228 / GCampodonico@arshtcenter.org