Culver City Observer -

Three finalists have been selected for Center Theatre Group’s 2014 Richard E. Sherwood Award. All three finalists will receive a cash prize, with $10,000 going to the top honoree.

The Center Theatre Group includes the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City.

Created in memory of Richard E. Sherwood, the award provides financial support for innovative and adventurous emerging theatre artists living and working in Los Angeles. Each year, Center Theatre Group learns about the recipient’s artistic vision and introduces him or her to other artists and theatre leaders close to the company.

Sean Cawelti, Yuval Sharon and Miranda Wright were selected from a competitive group of applicants in recognition of their exceptional contributions to the Los Angeles theatre landscape.

This year’s applicant pool was the largest and most impressive in the history of the award.

Sean Cawelti is the founding artistic director of Rogue Artist Ensemble, a Los Angeles-based theatre company that creates hyper-theatre through the innovative use of puppetry, masks and multi-media. Cawelti recently directed a public staged reading of Rogue Artist Ensemble’s current work-in-progress, “Pinocchio,” a delightfully macabre, modern day twist on the classic Italian tale.

Yuval Sharon is the founding artistic director of The Industry, a Los Angeles-based experimental opera company. Sharon is currently directing the world premiere of “Invisible Cities,” a site-specific invisible opera that utilizes wireless headphones at Union Station in downtown Los Angeles.

Miranda Wright is the founding executive director of Los Angeles Performance Practice, a producing organization and artists’ network dedicated to supporting Los Angeles’ unique contemporary performance community, and director and co-founder of the Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts. Miranda recently produced “You Should Have Stayed Home, Morons” as part of Radar L.A. 2013 and the Live Arts Exchange (LAX) festival at the Bootleg Theatre.

Since 1996 the Sherwood Award has met a vital need in the theatre landscape. “If we are to have a dynamic theatre expressing the world of the 21st century, we must recognize and nourish the explorative artist, particularly in the struggle of the early years of a career,” said Dorothy Sherwood, wife of Richard E. Sherwood.

Richard E. Sherwood was a patron of the arts with a special appreciation for emerging artists who are in the vanguard of theatre. He was president and then chairman of the CTG Board of Directors from 1980 until his passing in 1993.

The award is established as an endowed fund at CTG by his family, friends, colleagues and fellow board members, to honor Sherwood’s passionate commitment to theatre.