DETROIT, MI, - Internationally-recognized Broadway producer, Emanuel "Manny" Azenberg, will receive the 3rd annual Apple Award at a black tie gala event on Wednesday, January 28, 2004, at the Fisher Theatre. The evening will include a premiere performance of the national tour of Movin' Out, Azenberg's latest production.

Azenberg's work spans four decades of some of Broadway's most entertaining theatre. His stage productions have earned a total of 134 Tony Award nominations and have won 40 Tony Awards. Azenberg's Broadway career began with James Goldman's The Lion in Winter in 1966 and continues today with Movin'Out, which will receive its national tour premiere at the Fisher Theatre in January. In addition, Azenberg has produced all of Neil Simon's plays since 1972, including The Good Doctor, Brighton Beach Memoirs and Lost in Younkers. Azenberg also produced the films Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Sunday in the Park with George, Master Harold... and the Boys and Broadway Bound. An educator, Azenberg has taught at Duke University for the past 18 years.

"Manny Azenberg is an example of the type of professional for whom this award was created," said Linda Moore, Dean of Wayne State University's College of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts. "Not only has Mr. Azenberg made a tremendous impact on the theatre world, he also believes very strongly in the education of our next generation of theatre professionals, our rising stars."

The Apple Award is part of a visiting artist fund, the Sarah Applebaum Nederlander Award for Excellence in Theatre, established at Wayne State University by the Nederlander family. Named in honor of Sarah Applebaum Nederlander, the matriarch of the Nederlander family who was also known affectionately as "Apple," the Apple Award is presented each year to a nationally renowned theatre professional who demonstrates excellence in their field. Recipients conduct master classes for WSU's Department of Theatre, which consist of a question-and-answer session with students, and are honored at a gala benefit at the Fisher Theatre.

Tickets to the Apple Award are $250 and can be purchased by calling WSU's College of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts at (313) 577-5336. All proceeds benefit WSU's Department of Theatre.