The L.A. Weekly goes pre-adolescent for the 32nd annual L.A. Weekly Theater Awards, celebrating what our idiosyncratic and contentious awards committee regards as the best of L.A. theater's small stages in the calendar year 2010. The awards bash takes place Monday, April 4, at El Rey Theatre in the Miracle Mile. It's being staged as a junior high sleepover featuring spin-the-bottle and Ouija in the lobby and, onstage, a live goose named Gertrude Stein. Come in your pajamas, and bring a permission letter from your parents.
Tickets are $20, with one comp for each nominee. The online box office opens March 3 at laweekly.com. RSVPs for nominees are now being accepted at (310) 574-7208. Limit of 10 comps per production.
You are a nominee if your name appears below, or if your name was in the program in any of the “Ensembles” categories named below, or if your name was in the program in any of the “Production” categories (except production design) as a producer, playwright, performer, director, designer or stage manager. Nominees for “Production Design” include producers, directors and designers.
We did notice a groundswell of fine new plays last year, but the eight nominees include not one woman, when women are running so many of our best companies: Theatre@ Boston Court, Open Fist Theatre Company, City Garage and Ensemble Studio Theatre–L.A., not to mention the Colony Theatre (too large to qualify for Weekly awards). So what's up with that?
And the nominees are:
PRODUCTION OF THE YEAR
Hyperbole: Origins, Rogue Artists
Ensemble at [Inside] the Ford
Influence, Katselas Theatre Company
at the Skylight Theatre
Oedipus El Rey, Theatre@Boston Court
La Razón Blindada (Armored Reason),
24th Street Theatre
REVIVAL PRODUCTION OF THE YEAR
(of a 20th- or 21st-century work)
The Autumn Garden, Antaeus Company
A Prayer for My Daughter, Crown City Theatre
Take Me Out, Celebration Theatre
Wit, Actors Co-op
MUSICAL OF THE YEAR
Hoboken to Hollywood, Reasoner Productions
at the Edgemar Center for the Arts
See What I Wanna See, Blank
Theatre Company
DIRECTION
Benjamin Burdick, A Wolf Inside the Fence,
Open Fist Theatre Company
Guillermo Cienfuegos, Julia,
Pacific Resident Theatre
Nick DeGruccio, Caught, Buttermilk
Productions and Drumfish Productions
at the Zephyr Theatre
Peter Haskell, Kataki, Prince Livingston
Players at the Lex Theatre
Simon Levy, Opus, Fountain Theatre
Travis Preston, Brewsie and Willie,
Poor Dog Group and the Center for New
Performance at CalArts
at the 7th Floor Penthouse
Diane Rodriguez, Sick, Playwrights'
Arena and Latino Theatre Company
at the Los Angeles Theatre Center
Stephen Sachs, The Train Driver,
Fountain Theatre
DIRECTION OF A MUSICAL
Jeremy Aldridge, Hoboken to Hollywood
Daniel Henning, See What I Wanna See
L. Flint Esquerra, Head: The Musical,
Met Theatre
Amanda Marquardt, Schmutzigen Deutsche
Kabarett, Zombie Joe's Underground
COMEDY DIRECTION
Larry Biederman, Wirehead, Echo Theater
Company at Stage 52 Theatre
Daniel Henning, Why Torture Is Wrong, and
the People Who Love Them, Blank Theatre
Company at the Stella Adler Theatre
Jaime Robledo, Watson,
Sacred Fools Theater Company
Ron Sossi, The Arsonists, Odyssey
Theatre Ensemble
Barbara Schofield, Stage Door,
Open Fist Theatre Company
Richard Tatum, The Girl Who Would Be
King, Absolute Theatre/Full Circle
Theatrics at El Centro Theatre
MUSICAL DIRECTION
Robert Shaw, Head: The Musical
Paul Litteral, Hoboken to Hollywood
Gregory Nabours, The Women of Brewster
Place, Celebration Theatre
David O, See What I Wanna See
ENSEMBLE
Anton's Uncles, Theater Movement Bazaar
at 24th Street Theatre/Bootleg Theater
Caught
Holy Ghost, Theatre of NOTE
Influence
Oedipus El Rey
A Prayer for My Daughter
Supernova, Elephant Theatre Company
A Wolf Inside the Fence
MUSICAL ENSEMBLE
Head: The Musical
Schmutzigen Deutsche Kabarett
The Women of Brewster Place
COMEDY ENSEMBLE
Dirty Pooh, Zombie Joe's Underground
The Girl Who Would Be King
Looking for Trouble, White Buffalo Theatre
Company at the Lost Studio
Paradise Park, City Garage
Stage Door
Why Torture Is Wrong, and the People
Who Love Them
Yellow, Coast Playhouse
LEADING FEMALE PERFORMANCE
Nike Doukas/Alicia Wollerton, Cousin Bette,
Antaeus Company at Deaf West Theatre
Allegra Fulton/Kirsten Potter, King Lear,
Antaeus Company
Taylor Gilbert, Madagascar, Road Theatre
Company at the Lankershim Arts Center
Nan McNamara, Wit
Roses Prichard, Julia
LEADING MALE PERFORMANCE
Sam Anderson, Madagascar
Kevin Brief, A Prayer for My Daughter
Harry Groener/Dakin Matthews, King Lear
Justin Huen, Oedipus El Rey
Christian Lebano, Opus
Jeremy Maxwell, Wirehead
Gregory Sims, Baal, Sacred Fools Theater
Jack Stehlin, More Lies About Jerzy,
Circus Theatricals at the Hayworth Theatre
SUPPORTING FEMALE PERFORMANCE
Anne Gee Byrd, The Autumn Garden
Ann Gee Byrd, Four Places,
Rogue Machine at Theatre/Theater
Charlotte Chanler,A Wolf Inside the Fence
Diana Cignoni, The Arsonists
Jia Doughman, Opus
Agatha Nowicki, Parasite Drag,
Elephant Theatre Company
Zoe Perry, The Autumn Garden
Jeanne Syquia, Sidhe,
Road Theatre Company
SUPPORTING MALE PERFORMANCE
Tony Amendola/Michael McShane,
Cousin Bette
Tom Costello, Take Me Out
Gregory Itzin/Morlan Higgins, King Lear
Boyd Kestner, Parasite Drag
Garrett Matheson, Take Me Out
Thomas James O'Leary, Take Me Out
Winston J. Rocha, Oedipus El Rey
Cooper Thornton, Opus
Colin Walker, A Wolf Inside the Fence
TWO-PERSON PERFORMANCE
Tony Duran/Arturo Diaz de Sandy
and Jesus Castaños Chima,
La Razón Blindada (Armored Reason)
Morlan Higgins and Adolphus Ward,
The Train Driver
Robert Mammana and Will Bradley,
The Twentieth-Century Way,
Theatre@Boston Court
A.K. Murtadha and M.D. Walton,
Topdog/Underdog, Lillian Theatre
Tucker Smallwood and Ron Bottitta,
The Sunset Limited,
Rogue Machine at Theatre/Theater
SOLO PERFORMANCE
Paul Dillon, The Event,
needtheater at Son of Semele Ensemble
Anna Khaja, Shaheed,
Stephanie Feury Studio Theatre
Michael McGee, St. Nicholas,
Stephanie Feury Studio Theatre
Ann Randolph, Loveland,
Santa Monica Playhouse
FEMALE COMEDY PERFORMANCE
Christine Estabrook, Why Torture
Is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them
Beth Hogan, The Arsonists
Jonica Patella, Schmutzigen Deutsche
Kabarett
Cynthia Mance, The Marriage of Figaro,
City Garage
Amanda Weier, Stage Door
MALE COMEDY PERFORMANCE
John Achorn, The Arsonists
Henry Dittman, Watson
Arthur Hanket, Stage Door
Norbert Weisser, The Arsonists
ONE-ACT PERFORMANCE
Candice Afia, Blood and Thunder,
Moving Arts
Keith Robinson, Looking for Trouble
Tony Williams, Blood and Thunder
PLAYWRITING
Matthew Benjamin and Logan Brown,
Wirehead
Shem Bitterman, Influence
Joseph Fisher, A Wolf Inside the Fence
Timothy McNeil, Supernova
Vince Melocchi, Julia
Tom Jacobson, The Twentieth Century Way
Erik Patterson, Sick
John Steppling, Phantom Luck,
Gunfighter Nation at the Lost Studio
PRODUCTION DESIGN
Brewsie and Willie
Hyperbole: Origins
Oedipus El Rey
Paradise Park
A Tale Told By an Idiot, Psittacus
Productions at Son of Semele Ensemble/
Lounge Theatre
Wirehead
ADAPTATION
Tim Acito, The Women of Brewster Place
Luis Alfaro, Oedipus El Rey
Richard Alger and Tina Kronis,
Anton's Uncles
LIGHTING DESIGN
Efren Delgadillo Jr. and Adam Haas Hunter,
Brewsie and Willie
Jeremy Pivnick, Oedipus El Rey
Dan Weingarten, A Tale Told By an Idiot
Dan Weingarten, Wirehead
COSTUME DESIGN
Shon LeBlanc, Stage Door
Josephine Poinsot, The Marriage of Figaro
Teresa Shea, Project: Wonderland,
Bootleg Theater
Christina Wright, The Good Woman of
Setzuan, Open Fist Theatre Company
SET DESIGN
Potsch Boyd, Kataki
Efren Delgadillo Jr., Wirehead
Jeff McLaughlin, The Train Driver
Birgitte Moos, The Arsonists
James Spencer, Stage Door
SOUND DESIGN
Drew Dalzell, Wirehead
John Nobori, Hyperbole: Origins
Robert Oriol, Oedipus El Rey
Alex Wright, The Good Woman of Setzuan
John Zalewski, King Lear
CHOREOGRAPHY
Ameenah Kaplan, The Women of
Brewster Place
Tina Kronis, Anton's Uncles
Natasha Norman and Ceasar F. Barajas,
Watson
Aristides Vargas, La Razón Blindada
(Armored Reason)
PUPPET DESIGN
Lynn Jeffries, Project: Wonderland
ORIGINAL MUSIC
Andrew Conrad and Andrew Gilbert,
Brewsie and Willie
Ryan Johnson, Watson
Dean Mora, The Good Woman of Setzuan
Robert Oriol, Oedipus El Rey
FIGHT CHOREOGRAPHY
Andrew Amani, Watson
Louis Roth, Kataki
Jennings Turner, Holy Ghost
PROJECTION DESIGN
Jesse Bonnell, John Kern, Jeffrey Elias
Teeter, Brewsie and Willie
Hana Sooyeon Kim, Futura,
Theatre@Boston Court
Steven Calcote, The Limitations of Genetic
Technology, Off-Chance Productions at
Theatre of NOTE
Dave Mickey, Lianne Arnold,
Sean T. Cawelti, Hyperbole: Origins
Charles Otte, The Good Woman of Setzuan
TRANSLATION
Frédérique Michel and Charles Duncombe,
The Marriage of Figaro
CAREER ACHIEVEMENT
Lee Kissman
QUEEN OF THE ANGELS
Jessica Kubzansky and Michael Michetti
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.
Advertising disclosure: We may receive compensation for some of the links in our stories. Thank you for supporting LA Weekly and our advertisers.