Emerson Alum Eric Cornell Wins Tony Award for ‘Oklahoma!’
![Eric Cornell](https://today.emerson.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/cornell-300x225.jpg)
By David Ertischek ’01
It was only last year that Emerson College alum Eric Cornell ’05 founded Cornice Productions with his business partner Jack Sennott, and they’ve already got a Tony Award, after Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! won for Best Revival of a Musical.
“It is an honor to win my first Tony Award as a coproducer of this thrilling production of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! I am proud of the education and training I received from Emerson College,” said Cornell.
Along with Cornice Productions, the following producers and companies were honored with a Tony for Oklahoma!: Eva Price, Level Forward, Abigail Disney, Barbara Manocherian and Carl Moellenberg, James L. Nederlander, David Mirvish, Mickey Liddell & Robert Ahrens, BSL Enterprises & MagicSpace Entertainment, Berlind Productions, John Gore Organization, Cornice Productions, Bard Fisher/R. Gold, LAMF/J. Geller, T. Narang/ZKM Media, R/F/B/V Group, Araca/IPN, St. Ann’s Warehouse, Tamar Climan, and Bard Summerscape.
The production also gained national attention because it featured the first wheelchair user to ever win a Tony, as actress Ali Stroker won best featured actress in a musical for her role as Ado Annie.
And Oklahoma! wasn’t the only production that Cornice Productions worked on recently.
“This season we have also been a producer or investor in Lifespan of a Fact, Waitress in London, To Kill A Mockingbird, What the Constitution Means to Me, and more,” said Cornell. “In addition to producing, Cornice Productions manages the Cornice Productions Fund, a theatrical investment fund focused on spreading the risk of entertainment investing.”
Since graduating Cornell has worked on the producing and management teams of various original Broadway, Off-Broadway, national touring, and Regional shows. Cornell is currently an assistant professor at The Boston Conservatory at Berklee, teaching The Business of Acting, a course he developed. Also, he received a Harvard Business School online CORE certificate and is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Management from Harvard University Extension School.
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