Mary Damiano, a long-time arts journalist and critic, will receive the Carbonnell Awards’ Charlie Cinnamon Award honoring an individual who contributes significantly to the support of the arts in South Florida and to the Carbonell Awards program.
Damiano is the managing editor of the Biscayne Times, theater reviewer for The Palm Beach Daily News, and writer for Miami Artburst, REimagine magazine, and The New Pelican newspaper.
She is an award-winning writer, editor, and theater critic who has covered the South Florida arts scene since 2000. She has had more than 3,000 articles published in dozens of publications, including the Miami Times, Miami Herald, Sun-Sentinel, New Times, South Florida Gay News, She Magazine, The Palm Beach Post, Florida Theater On Stage, BroadwayWorld.com and MiamiARTzine.com, of which she is the founding editor, shepherding the online arts magazine through its first 100 issues.
Damiano has been a Carbonell judge since 2004. She served as panel coordinator for the Carbonell Awards from 2008 until 2014 and was managing director of the organization from 2014 until 2020. She has also served as vice president of the South Florida Theatre League and vice president of the Oakland Park Art & Culture Board. Mary believes her greatest accomplishment is getting paid to be entertained.
In nominating Damiano for this award for this award, Zoetic Stage Co-founder Stuart Meltzer proposed that she “is long overdue for some recognition for her contributions as an arts journalist and Carbonell judge. Mary’s commitment to theatrical journalism has kept her in print for as long as I’ve been working professionally in this community. Her sense of humor, her heart, her eagerness to celebrate every theatre company, and her love of what she does is an example of longevity and survival.”
The Charlie Cinnamon Award is named after the legendary press agent who promoted the arts in South Florida for more than six decades. Previous winners include veteran reviewer and founder of FloridaTheaterOnStage.com Bill Hirschman (2023); longtime critic and Carbonell judge Hap Erstein (2022); Jennifer Sierra-Grobbelaar Director of Marketing at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts (2019); Tony Finstrom, playwright and founder of the Silver Palm Awards, (2018); and longtime arts patron and Carbonell judge Jerome J. (Jerry) Cohen (2017).
The presentation will be at the 48th Annual Carbonell Awards at 7:30 p.m. November 17 at 7:30 pm at FAU’s University Theatre in Boca Raton — a change in venue for the program.
The Carbonells plan to release each of its other special awards one at a time and then the nominees in its traditional categories each of the succeeding Tuesdays. The most prestigious George Abbott Award was announced for William Hayes and Sue Ellen Beryl, co-founders of Palm Beach Dramaworks; the new Jan McArt Award to New City Players, and Michel Hausmann, the co-founder and Artistic Director of Miami New Drama, with the Vinnette Carroll Award.
All the 2025 Special Award recipients were nominated by members from South Florida’s theater community with the Carbonell Board of Directors making the final selection.
The 120 Carbonell Award nominee finalists will be based on accumulated scores from the nonprofit organization’s pool of nearly 50 experienced and diverse volunteer judges—with seven judges from various counties assigned to each show. During the 2024-2025 season, Carbonell judges adjudicated over 100 professional productions at more than 30 theaters across Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach Counties.
The November gala will be produced and directed by Andrew Kato, Producing Artistic Director/Chief Executive of the Maltz Jupiter Theatre, with Caryl Fantel as Music Director. Tickets for the ceremony and after party are $45 and will go on public sale in mid-September.
Along with New York’s Drama Desk and Chicago’s Joseph Jefferson Awards, the Carbonell Awards are among the nation’s oldest regional arts awards and predate others, including Washington, D.C.’s Helen Hayes Awards. The Carbonell Awards are named after the internationally renowned sculptor Manuel Carbonell, who designed the signature solid bronze and marble award given annually to Carbonell Award winners. Over nearly half a century, the Carbonell family has donated more than $250,000 in awards.
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