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*Felicia P. Fields, known to audiences of Broadway’s “The Color Purple” as Miss Sophia, has been honored with a Clarence Derwent Award for the most promising female performer on the New York stage.
The veteran theater star also received a Tony nomination for the role, which was made famous in the 1985 film by the play’s main producer, Oprah Winfrey.
Fields’ resume includes critically-acclaimed performances in such diverse shows as "The Hot Mikado," "Show Boat," "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom," "Dreamgirls" and "Sophisticated Ladies."
As a winner of the award, announced this week by Actors' Equity Foundation, Fields will pocket $2,000 and an engraved crystal trophy.
*Meanwhile, Tony Award-winning actor Laurence Fishburne kicks off his run in “Without Walls” at Los Angeles’ Mark Taper Forum (135 North Grand Ave.) on June 11. Previews began on Thursday (June 1).
Set in 1977, Fishburne plays Morocco, "an idealistic and popular drama teacher at a non-traditional high school in Manhattan," according to show materials, who "has great skill in bringing out the best in his students, and he cares deeply about them, perhaps too deeply as is eventually revealed in this sensitive drama about both the power and the fragility of the student/mentor relationship."
Tickets for “Without Walls,” which runs through July 16, can be purchased by calling (213) 628-2772 or on-line at www.TaperAhmanson.com.