Steven Leigh Morris
Ash Panda rocks the house. Photo by Timothy Norris
An
SRO crowd jammed the El Rey on Monday night for a performance-art
awards ceremony celebrating the best of L.A.'s small theaters that was co-conceived by the Steve Allen Theater's Amit Itelman and Craig Anton and directed by Itelman, who
transformed the venue and the event into a middle-school district drama
awards sleepover. An auxiliary environmental stage within the hall was a
walk-through “haunted house,” with a ghoulish tableaux from the theater
group Zombie Joe's Underground. The majority of attendees came attired
in pajamas or other forms of sleepwear. Headliner band Ash Panda —
consisting of middle school-age musicians — rocked the house with five
pop/punk jams distributed throughout the show, which had people dancing
in the aisles. Some audience members watched the band from on stage,
parked on sleeping bags. Co-hosts Rebekah and Matthew Miller, ages 11
and 14, respectively, appeared strikingly poised handing out awards to
L.A.'s theater professionals. Another (adult) guitarist, John Reynolds,
performed during the awards, providing an early 20th-century-style
sweetness by serenading the recipients onto the stage. Reynolds also
accompanied the dulcet tones of Janet Klein, who sang while playing the
ukelele. Live white geese Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas honked
their way through a scene from David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross,
from within the confines of a goose-sized office set, complete with a
flashing neon sign at goose-eye level — the concept of an unemployed
concept-theater director played by Craig Anton. Jim Turner led a posse
of gyrating male middle school faculty members, who, for an interpretive
dance, stripped down to their skivvies and “free-styled” out into the
audience, prompting the co-hosts to return to the stage covering their
eyes with their scripts. Thirty-five awards were presented in under
two hours, followed by a post-show reception, catered by Shamshiri
Grill.
Press here for a slide-show of photos by Timothy Norris
32nd annual L.A. Weekly Theater Awards Winners
PRODUCTION OF THE YEAR
La Razón Blindada (Armored Reason), 24th Street Theatre
REVIVAL PRODUCTION OF THE YEAR (of a 20th- or 21st-century work)
Wit, Actors Co-op
MUSICAL OF THE YEAR
Hoboken to Hollywood, Reasoner Productions at the Edgemar Center for the Arts
DIRECTION (TIE)
Peter Haskell, Kataki, Prince Livingston Players at the McCadden Place Theatre
Simon Levy, Opus, Fountain Theatre
DIRECTION OF A MUSICAL
Jeremy Aldridge, Hoboken to Hollywood, Reasoner Productions at the Edgemar Center for the Arts
COMEDY DIRECTION
Jaime Robledo, Watson, Sacred Fools Theater Company
MUSICAL DIRECTION
Paul Litteral, Hoboken to Hollywood, Reasoner Productions at the Edgemar Center for the Arts
ENSEMBLE
Oedipus El Rey, Theatre @ Boston Court
MUSICAL ENSEMBLE
The Women of Brewster Place, Celebration Theatre
COMEDY ENSEMBLE
Yellow, Coast Playhouse
LEADING FEMALE PERFORMANCE
Nan McNamara, Wit, Actors Co-op
LEADING MALE PERFORMANCE
Kevin Brief, A Prayer for My Daughter, Crown City Theatre m
SUPPORTING FEMALE PERFORMANCE
Agatha Nowicki, Parasite Drag, Elephant Theatre Company
SUPPORTING MALE PERFORMANCE (TIE)
Tom Costello, Take Me Out, Celebration Theatre
Garrett Matheson, Take Me Out, Celebration Theatre
Thomas James O'Leary, Take Me Out, Celebration Theatre
TWO-PERSON PERFORMANCE
Robert Mammana and Will Bradley, The Twentieth-Century Way, Theatre @ Boston Court
SOLO PERFORMANCE
Ann Randolph, Loveland, Santa Monica Playhouse
FEMALE COMEDY PERFORMANCE
Christine Estabrook, Why Torture is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them, Blank Theatre
MALE COMEDY PERFORMANCE
Henry Dittman, Watson, Sacred Fools Theater Company
ONE-ACT PERFORMANCE
Candice Afia, Blood and Thunder, Moving Arts
PLAY WRITING
John Steppling, Phantom Luck, Gunfighter Nation at the Lost Studio
CAREER ACHIEVEMENT
Lee Kissman
QUEEN OF THE ANGELS
Jessica Kubzansky & Michael Michetti
PRODUCTION DESIGN
Brewsie and Willie, Poor Dog Group and the Center for New Performance at CalArts at the 7th Floor Penthouse
ADAPTATION
Luis Alfaro, Oedipus El Rey, Theatre@ Boston Court
LIGHTING DESIGN (TIE)
Efren Delgadillo Jr. and Adam Haas Hunter, Brewsie and Willie, Poor Dog Group and Center for New Performance at CalArts at the 7th Floor Penthouse
Dan Weingarten, A Tale Told By an Idiot, Psittacus Productions at Son of Semele Theatre/Lounge Theatre
COSTUME DESIGN
Christina Wright, The Good Woman of Setzuan, Open Fist Theatre Company
SET DESIGN
Potsch Boyd, Kataki, Prince Livingston Players at the McCadden Place Theatre
SOUND DESIGN
Robert Oriol, Oedipus El Rey, Theatre @ Boston Court
CHOREOGRAPHY
Tina Kronis, Anton's Uncles, Theatre Movement Bazaar at 24th Street Theatre/Bootleg Theater
PUPPET DESIGN
Lynn Jeffries, Project: Wonderland, Bootleg Theater
ORIGINAL MUSIC
Andrew Conrad and Andrew Gilbert, Brewsie and Willie, Poor Dog Group and the Center for New Performance at CalArts at the 7th Floor Penthouse
FIGHT CHOREOGRAPHY
Louis Roth, Kataki, Prince Livingston Players at the Lex Theatre
PROJECTION DESIGN
Steven Calcote, The Limitations of Genetic Technology, Off-Chance Productions at
Theatre of NOTE
TRANSLATION
Frederique Michel and Charles Duncombe, The Marriage of Figaro, City Garage
SPECIAL CITATION
Los Angeles Theatre Ensemble's trilogy of original plays presented in repertory at the Powerhouse Theatre: Gospel According to the First Squad, Wounded, and Survived, collectively titled The War Cycle. Each concerned the U.S. military presences in Iraq and Afghanistan. The citation is given for breadth of vision and clarity of purpose by an ensemble
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