Office of the Arts Awards Performers

Five of Harvard's most talented performance artists were recognized with cash awards Friday as the Office for the Arts handed out its 1999 Arts Prize Winners.

Jessica K. Jackson '99 was selected to receive the Doris Cohen Levi Prize of $750; Lucia Brawley '99 is the recipient of the $250 Jonathan Levy Prize for the most promising actor at the University; Mai'a K. Davis '99 will be awarded the $ 1000 Louis Sudler Prize in the Arts; and Colleen A. McGuinness '99 and D. Samuel C. Speedie '99 are recipients of the Louise Donovan Award.

The Levi prize is awarded to a Radcliffe College student "who combines talent and energy with outstanding enthusiasm for musical theater."

Jackson, who is headed to San Francisco after graduation, said she was especially excited because, "I knew women who got this award before, and I really admired them."

Brawley, who will study at the Yale School of Drama this fall, has appeared in campus productions of "Richard III," "As You Like It," "Salome" and "King Lear."

Davis, a principal dancer with the Harvard Radcliffe Ballet Company, has studied ballet in Hong Kong, Boston, San Francisco and Hawaii, and is receiving the Sudler prize for "the sum of [her] artistic achievement over a four-year period..."

"When I first got here, I wanted to do as much ballet as possible," Davis said. "I've gotten to do all the lead roles I've wanted to do... It's been very rewarding."

She is considering a professional dance position with the American Ballet Theater Studio Company in New York City.

McGuinness and Speedie are recognized with the Donovan award for their work "behind the scenes in the arts...contributing most to the success of a production and the opportunity for others to shine."

This fall, McGuinness directed "Guys and Dolls," the first co-ed undergraduate production held at the Hasty Pudding Theatre in over a decade.

She said that her experience in a Radcliffe externship shadowing L.A. film director Claudia We'll gave her the courage to direct her first show, "A Doll's House."

A founding member of the Hyperion Shakespeare Company, Speedie has produced "Much Ado About Nothing," "Measure for Measure," "Macbeth," "The Tempest," "Hamlet" and he is currently directing the film "Twelve Nights."