Elizabeth Aspenlieder wins the Elliot Norton Award

Shakespeare & Company actress Elizabeth Aspenlieder has won the Elliot Norton Award for “Outstanding Solo Performance” for her performance in Theresa Rebeck’s Bad Dates (directed by Adrianne Krstansky) at Shakespeare & Company and Merrimack Repertory Theatre this winter. The Elliot Norton Awards are the highest honor bestowed for theatre work in the Greater Boston area. (This year’s nominees and winners.)

“I wake up every day surprised and happy to be doing what I love doing, which is acting—but in close second is living here in the Berkshires and working with Shakespeare & Company—so I also feel incredibly lucky about where I’m doing what I love.” Aspenlieder says.

Elizabeth will be appearing as the Marquise de Merteuil in Christopher Hampton’s Les Liaisons Dangereuses this winter, directed by Tina Packer in the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre.

“To be recognized amongst such a distinguished and ‘out of the ball park’ talented group of artists and fellow nominees is not only a great honor, but deeply humbling,” continues Aspenlieder. “The offer to play Haley in Theresa Rebeck’s irreverent, funny, dark, poignant and oh so human, Bad Dates was such a gift—and to be directed by Adrianne Krstansky was the topping on an already delicious feast. My beacon, my audience, my critic, my cheer-leading squad, my best girlfriend and touchstone, Adrianne was the singular influence on my work in this production, in which she brought such integrity and heart. I again want to thank the Boston Critics Association and the Elliot Norton Award committee for this great honor and also to acknowledge the support, guidance, inspiration and friendship of Tina Packer, Dennis Krausnick, Kevin Coleman, Tony Simotes, Nicholas J. Puma Jr., Annette Miller, Molly Hennighausen (my fearless stage manager), Charles Towers and Merrimack Repertory Theatre, and the endless list of talented designers who worked on the show, and the artists and friends I have worked with here at Shakespeare & Company. I feel like maybe this time I might’ve made it into the ball park.”

Previous Shakespeare & Company artists to receive this distinction include Tina Packer, who was awarded the Elliot Norton Medal in 2001, and Annette Miller, who won for “Outstanding Solo Performance” in 2003 for the world-premiere of Golda’s Balcony at Shakespeare & Company.