Holly Hughes Wins 2026 Ruth Maleczech Award
Stamps Professor Holly Hughes has been recognized with the 2026 Ruth Maleczech Award. This no-strings-attached cash award known as “The Ruthie” is granted annually by the legendary Mabou Mines Theatre Company, together with Ruth’s family, Clove Galilee and Lute Breuer, in Ruth’s memory. Maleczech, who co-founded the company 50 years ago with composer Phillip Glass, was a writer, maker, performer, and educator who served as an inspiration, a mentor, and a role model for countless artists.
The Ruthie is a prestigious national honor that’s given as a lifetime achievement award in celebration of a career that the committee believes embodies “Ruth’s daring and raw, naked, fearlessness in every performance.” As is customary, the award is given to two artists: in 2026, Hughes shares this recognition with choreographer Neil Greenberg.
Huges notes, “Ruth Maleczech was a queen, the queen of experimental theatre and also the queen of the East Village. To be sure, there was a lot of royalty making their home in this neighborhood back in the day, but Ruth had a passport to all the realms she moved with grace, compassion and fierce commitment. I first met her at Recherchez, the studio and salon where emerging artists got an opportunity to develop new work with her guidance. I consider myself lucky to have seen her perform many times, each time she exploded what I thought it meant to perform, when her name came up, as it so often did, it was said with a tone of awe and respect that was rare in a world fueled by irony. She was one of a kind, and receiving the award is the honor of a lifetime.”