LA Weekly

Photos by Ted Soqui

Jack Black lit up some young lives by going into the dressing rooms at Los Angeles Theater Center Monday night and introducing himself to each member of the Hollywood High School Marching Band, which had been tapped to parade through the lobby before the 25th annual L.A. Weekly Theater Awards, and then assemble on the stage and lead off the ceremony with the national anthem — a first for the Lawees. (We may be accused of many things, but a lack of patriotism is no longer among them.) Black, the band Train Wreck, and the Buffalo Nights and Troubadour theater companies rocked and trampolined through a mock-’70s opening number. Jane Lynch portrayed her hilariously dry, litigious and furious victim of a shopping-cart accident at Wal-Mart. Sandra Tsing Loh presented a generously written-for-the-occasion ode to the big people in small theater (the last remaining place in the nonprofit universe where you don’t have to watch your language). In a delicious parody, Victoria Delaney impersonated her contemptuously arrogant and hypocritical Acting Teacher to the Stars. Athol Fugard addressed the significance of theater in politically shaky times while presenting Gordon Davidson the Queen of the Angels Award. Director Brian Kite staged the sleek event, keeping the capacity crowd in the hall for the two-hour show, aided by a pre-show cook-off in the lobby organized by Powerhouse Theater Company and Play 7. The Burglars of Hamm returned to rig and operate their wondrous “Buckets of Glory,” which hoisted certificates and plaques via pulley from the stage to nominees seated in the upper balcony. Much like the evening itself, the Buckets floated along without a hitch. Ron Garcia served as DJ, and Jacaranda provided post-show dance music.

—Steven Leigh Morris

PRODUCTION OF THE YEAR

The Cosmonaut’s Last Message to the Woman He Once Loved in the Former Soviet Union, Open Fist Theater

REVIVAL PRODUCTION OF THE YEAR (of a 20th-century work)

The Skin of Our Teeth, Evidence Room

The Troubadour’s Janet Jackson moment

 

MUSICAL OF THE YEAR

The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World, Powerhouse Theater at [Inside] the Ford

 

DIRECTION (TIE)

Stefan Novinski, The Cosmonaut’s Last Message to the Woman He Once Loved in the Former Soviet Union, Open Fist Theater 

Steve Pickering, Among the Thugs, Odyssey Theater Ensemble

 

COMEDY DIRECTION (TIE)

Andy Fickman, Sneaux!, Wood Chipper Productions at the Matrix Theater

Joe Jordan, Don Juan in Chicago, Sacred Fools Theater

 

MUSICAL DIRECTION

David O, The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World, Powerhouse Theater at [Inside] the Ford

Jane Lynch makes a point.

ENSEMBLE (TIE)

Among the Thugs, Odyssey Theater Ensemble

The Island, Camelot Artists in association with Blackbelt Productions at the Beverly Hills Playhouse

COMEDY ENSEMBLE (TIE)

Tartuffe, Circus Theatricals and the Odyssey Theater

The Trials and Tribulations of a Trailer Trash Housewife, Delane Entertainment at the Zephyr Theater

LEADING FEMALE PERFORMANCE

V.C. Smith, Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange, Ark Theater Company at the Whitefire Theater

LEADING MALE PERFORMANCE

Saul Williams, Tibi’s Law, Stages Theater Center

SUPPORTING MALE PERFORMANCE

David Steen, The Trials and Tribulations of a Trailer Trash Housewife, Delane Entertainment at the Zephyr Theater

SUPPORTING FEMALE PERFORMANCE

Rachel Kann, Yellow Flesh/Alabaster Rose, Theater of NOTE 

Buffalo Nights groovin’

SOLO PERFORMANCE

Brian d’Arcy James, The Good Thief, Court Theater

PLAYWRITING

Del Shores, The Trials and Tribulations of a Trailer Trash Housewife, Delane Entertainment at the Zephyr Theater

ONE-ACT PLAYWRITING

Nick Starr, Songs of Forgettance, Working Stage Theater

CAREER ACHIEVEMENT

Marilyn Fox

QUEEN OF THE ANGELS

Gordon Davidson

PRODUCTION DESIGN

The Cosmonaut’s Last Message to the Woman He Once Loved in the Former Soviet Union,

Open Fist Theater

ORIGINAL MUSIC

Gunnar Madsen, The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World, Powerhouse Theater at [Inside] the Ford

The band in a pause

LIGHTING DESIGN

Leigh Allen, Johnny Got His Gun, Stages Theater Center

COSTUME DESIGN

Ann Closs-Farley, When Tigers Smoked Long Pipes, Lodestone Theater Ensemble and the Orphans Theater Company in association with the Victory Theater

SET DESIGN

Brian Sidney Bembridge, The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World, Powerhouse Theater at [Inside] the Ford

SOUND DESIGN (TIE)

Michael Mortilla, Johnny Got His Gun, Stages Theater Center

Meg Taylor, Eighteen, Meadows Basement Theater at the Complex

CHOREOGRAPHY

Kelly Devine, Sneaux!, Wood Chipper Productions at the Matrix Theater

FIGHT CHOREOGRAPHY

Andrew Villaverde and David Kessler, Romeo and Juliet: Antebellum New Orleans, 1836, Theater@Boston Court

ADAPTATION

Tom Szentgyorgyi, Among the Thugs, Odyssey Theater Ensemble