Theatre Philadelphia Opens Submissions for the The Sylvia Kauders Award For Outstanding Supporting Actor
We are excited to announce that submissions are open for The Sylvia Kauders Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor! To honor the legacy of Sylvia Kauders, whose illustrious career included a myriad of supporting roles, we will be accepting nominations of actors who exhibit the qualities of a notable supporting character performer. in the Greater Philadelphia theatre community. Two recipients will be announced at the 2024 Barrymore Awards Ceremony on Monday, October 28th, and each will receive a $2,500 cash prize courtesy of the Sylvia W. and Randle M. Kauders Foundation.
Applications will be accepted now until Thursday, September 12th!
Click here for the submission form!
About Sylvia Kauders:
Sylvia Kauders, née Wolinsky, was born in South Philadelphia in 1921. Raised in Upper Darby, Pa., Sylvia’s parents were immigrants from Russia. Her father died when she was very young, and her mother ran a grocery store. Sylvia graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1942 and married Randle Kauders in 1954.
Sylvia had a long and productive career in public relations and served under five Philadelphia mayors from the 1950s to the 1970s. She produced and moderated a television program, Under Billy Penn's Hat, and later accepted a job as special events director with the Office of the City Representative, extending the mayor’s hospitality to many celebrities and dignitaries. Following her years at the City of Philadelphia, Sylvia started a public relations firm and became the first woman inducted into the Philadelphia Public Relations Association Hall of Fame.
Sylvia then embraced her second career as an actress . She got an agent and made New York City her second home, landing roles in the Broadway productions Torch Song Trilogy and Crossing Delancey. Most of her work going forward were parts in major feature films and television shows, including Witness, City Hall, Predator 2, American Splendor, Analyze That, City Hall, two Woody Allen films, The Sopranos, 30 Rock, recurring roles on Spin City and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit - just to name some of her small but memorable roles.
“I was never a beauty, but I was talented and smart. Someone has to play the small roles, and I love the work,” Sylvia once told a news reporter.
After health issues ended her traveling to New York and shortly before she passed away in 2016, Sylvia and a cast of local actors conducted a staged reading of Lost in Yonkers to a packed audience in the common room of the Kennedy House where she resided, fulfilling her longtime wish to play the role of Grandma Kurnitz.
Sylvia’s love of theater and film, arts and culture, and special events that showcased Philadelphia, inspired her legacy, the Sylvia W. and Randle M. Kauders Foundation, established in 2017. The foundation is an endowment that funds programs and projects that educate, enrich, and engage the communities in the Greater Philadelphia Metropolitan region and beyond.
