L.A. 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
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