Gary Schweikhart, board president of the Carbonell Awards, South Florida’s Theater & Arts Honors, today announced the recipient of the second of seven prestigious Special Awards that will be presented at the Carbonell Awards Ceremony on Monday, November 17, 2025  at 7:30 pm at FAU’s University Theatre in Boca Raton.

“While we will be honoring in 20 competitive categories specific theatre performances, production elements, and shows presented between September 2024 and August 2025, the Carbonell board of directors has unanimously voted to also bestow the following Special Award,” said Schweikhart.

The Vinnette Carroll Award

For significant achievement in advancing the cause of diversity, equality, and inclusion in South Florida theater.

Michel Hausmann

Michel Hausmann is Co-founder and Artistic Director of Miami New Drama, the largest bilingual theater company in the country and resident and operator of the historic Colony Theatre on Miami Beach. Under his leadership, the award-winning venue has premiered over 20 original plays and musicals, establishing itself as a leading force in the development of new work for the American stage. Notable productions include A Wonderful World (Broadway transfer, Tony Award Nomination), Seven Deadly Sins (Director / Drama League Award Winner), Birthright, Bad Dog (also Director), Lincoln Road Hustle (also Director), Las Aventuras de Juan Planchard (a co-production with Tectonic Theater Project), Confessions of a Cocaine Cowboy (also Director), ¡Viva La Parranda!, Papa Cuatro, The Cubans, The Museum Plays (also Director), Fake, When Monica Met Hillary, Gente Ociosa (also Director), Queen of Basel (also Director), and a landmark multilingual production of Our Town (also Director). Accolades for the Venezuelan-born theater director, producer, and writer include the Thornton Wilder Prize, a New York Theatre Workshop 2050 Fellowship, three Knight Arts Challenge Awards, an IRNE nomination, multiple Silver Palm Awards, and a Richard Rodgers Award finalist distinction.

In the nomination submitted for this award, Hausmann was praised for “diligently and passionately (giving) voice to BIPOC artists and artisans” and for successfully “presenting multi-language productions and multicultural programming (that offer) voice and vision for not only South Florida but for the country.”

The Vinnette Carroll Award is named after the legendary playwright, actress, and theater director who was the first African American woman to direct on Broadway and the first to receive a Tony Award nomination for directing, before moving to South Florida in the 1980s where she founded the Vinnette Carroll Repertory Company.

Previous Winners of The Vinnette Carroll Award:

Director, actor, and college educator John Pryor (2024); Christie Alexander & Katie Christie for leading the South Florida Theatre League’s AntiRacism Theatre Strategies Cohorts (2023); and Marshall L. Davis (2022), managing director of the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center (AHCAC) in Miami’s Liberty City, a venue that has since been renamed in his honor.