The Tom Killen Award is the highest honor the Connecticut Critics Circle bestows. It is for a lifetime of dedication to the theater and to theater in Connecticut. It is named after Tom Killen, a talented young critic who died at the age of 33 in August 1989 and who helped found the Connecticut Critics Circle.
Kevin Connors Named Winner of 2022 Tom Killen Award
Kevin Connors is the Executive Artistic Director & Co-Founder of the Music Theatre of Connecticut, located in Norwalk, CT. He has directed over 100 MTC Equity MainStage productions including Next to Normal, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, Cabaret, Little Shop of Horrors, Evita, Doubt, Master Class, Gypsy, (all Connecticut Critics’ Circle Award Nominations/Winners), and It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, (Moss Hart Award Winner). He is a BroadwayWorld Award Winner as Best Director for MTC’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Connecticut Critics’ Circle Best Director winner for MTC’s Ragtime. As a composer he has penned the score for numerous musicals including It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play and A Christmas Carol: A Live Radio Play.
YEARLY AWARD RECIPIENTS
2022 Kevin Connors
2019 Michael Yeargan
2018 Michael O’Flaherty
2017 Paulette Haupt
2016 Anne Keefe
2015 Carmen de Lavallade
2014 Athol Fugard
2013 Aetna New Voices at Hartford Stage
2012 Jacqueline Hubbard
2011 Music Theatre of Connecticut
2010 The O’Neill Center
2009 Rob Ruggiero
2008 Gordon Edelstein
2007 James Bundy
2006 Ct. Commission on Arts & Tourism
2005 Michael Wilson
2004 Bert Bernardi
2003 Gov. John Rowland
2002 Steve Campo
2001 George C. White
2000 Cory and Bob Donnalley
1999 Semina DeLaurentis
1998 Michael Price
1997 Steve Karp
1996 Mark Lamos
1995 Lucille Lortel
1994 Susan and Richard Hallinan
1993 James B. McKenzie
1992 Arvin Brown
1991 Lloyd Richards
