Theater alumna Maria Dizzia '98 is up for a 2010 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play for her role in "In the Next Room, or the vibrator play," against such stars as Scarlett Johansson (in "A View From the Bridge") and Rosemary Harris (in "The Royal Family").

The Tony is Broadway's highest honor; winners will be announced June 13.

Dizzia also received rave reviews for her off-Broadway work in "The Drunken City" (2008) and in the title role of "Eurydice" (2007). She appeared in several plays at Cornell, including "The Importance of Being Earnest" and "Tartuffe."

Theater graduate Sam Gold '00 also is making his mark on New York stages. He was recently honored with a 2010 Village Voice Obie Award for Best Director for his work on the Off-Broadway plays "Circle Mirror Transformation" at Playwrights Horizons and "The Aliens" at Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, both by Obie-winning playwright Annie Baker.

Gold was an active performer and director at Cornell, participating in the Department of Theatre, Film and Dance's Advanced Undergraduate Theatre Program his senior year. His other honors include a Princess Grace Award and Theater Hall of Fame and Drama League fellowships.

Other Cornell theater alumni currently or recently performing on Broadway include Jane Lynch, MFA '84, in "Love, Loss and What I Wore" (and of TV's "Glee" fame); Jimmy Smits, MFA '82, in the Tony-winning Best Play "God of Carnage"; and Antoinette LaVecchia '89 in "A View From the Bridge."