The South Florida Carbonell Awards will introduce a new honor this year: the Christine Dolen Award for Outstanding Debut. Director Ali Tallman has been named the inaugural recipient, according to the announcement.The award recognizes an exceptional first-time achievement by a performer, playwright, producer, director or designer eligible for Carbonell consideration. It's named after Christine Dolen, the longtime Miami Herald theater critic and dean of the Carbonell judges.
What are the South Florida Carbonell Awards?
The Carbonell Awards are one of the nation’s oldest regional theater honors, recognizing excellence in South Florida’s professional theater community. More than 30 companies in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties participate each year.Along with New York’s Drama Desk
and Chicago’s Joseph Jefferson Awards, the Carbonells are among the country’s longest-running arts awards and predate others like Washington, D.C.’s Helen Hayes Awards.
The awards are named after sculptor Manuel Carbonell, who designed the signature bronze-and-marble trophy. Over nearly 50 years, the Carbonell family has donated more than $250,000 in awards.
The 49th annual Carbonell Awards are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Nov. 16 at Florida Atlantic University’s University Theatre in Boca Raton. The event will honor winners in 20 competitive categories, culled from about 100 shows presented between September 2025 and August 2026.Tickets for the ceremony and after-party are expected to go on sale in mid-October for $45.
Who is Ali Tallman?
Tallman is the resident dramaturg at GableStage and a company member with New City Players. She directed her first major professional production, “The 39 Steps,” for New City Players.Stuart Meltzer, founding artistic director of Zoetic Stage, praised Tallman’s “creative, bold storytelling and full realization of artistic concepts (that) demanded attention,” calling Tallman “a director to watch and a future leader in American Theatre,” according to the announcement. Tim Davis, producing artistic director at New City Players, called her work “an inventive, exhilarating, and hilarious production… No doubt Ali is only at the beginning of a long and profound directing career in our community.”Since “The 39 Steps,” Tallman has directed projects with Orchestra Miami, the Coconut Grove Theatre Festival and City Theatre’s City Reads series. She has also provided dramaturgy for GableStage’s season, the South Florida Theatre League, Miami-Dade County’s Playwrights Development Program and FIU’s Greenhouse Program.This summer, Tallman is attending the La MaMa Umbria International Symposium for Directors/Theatre-Makers in Italy and will later direct Amy Herzog’s adaptation of Ibsen’s “An Enemy of the People” for New City Players. She’s a founding member of the review board of the Florida Intimacy Professionals Collective, a Carbonell judge, and a board member and dance instructor for Swing Out, South Florida.
2026 Carbonell Special Awards
In addition to the Christine Dolen Award, the Carbonells will present several other special honors:
- Bill von Maurer Award for Total Programming Excellence (expected Sept. 8).
- George Abbott Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Arts: Stuart Meltzer, founding artistic director of Zoetic Stage.
- Jan McArt Award for Outstanding Achievement by a Small Theatre (expected July 28).
- Vinnette Carroll Award for Advancing Diversity, Equality & Inclusion in South Florida Theatre (expected Aug. 4).
- Charlie Cinnamon Award for Outstanding Support of the Arts & the Carbonell Awards (expected Aug. 11).
- Ruth Foreman Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Development of South Florida Theatre (expected Aug. 18).
- Bill Hindman Award for Outstanding Career Achievement (expected Aug. 25).
- Howard Kleinberg Award for Significant Contributions to the Health & Development of the Arts in South Florida (expected Sept. 1).
This story was created by web producer Emmy Bailey (ebailey@usatodayco.com) with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Journalists were involved in every step of the information gathering, review, editing and publishing process.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Carbonell Awards debuts new theatre honor. Here's the winner
