LOS ANGELES -- Locally produced original plays played second fiddle to imported or time-honored material at this year's Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle ceremony Mar. 16.
Only two plays with local world premieres won awards of any kind -- Three Days of Rain, by Richard Greenberg, and The Quick-Change Room, by Nagle Jackson.
Greenberg won the Ted Schmitt Award, funded by A.S.K. Theater Projects, for an outstanding new play produced in Los Angeles or Orange County.
Three Days of Rain was produced by South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, CA.
The Quick- Change Room was cited twice in the acting categories. A Lead Performance prize went to Gar Campbell and a Featured Performance prize went to Lisa Barnes. Both are members of the Pacific Resident Theatre, which produced the play. In almost every other category, the winners were plays that had been produced elsewhere before making it to the L.A. area. These included Arcadia and The Winter's Tale, which shared the Best Production Prize. Ragtime, which won five awards, tying it with the A Noise Within company, is a Los Angeles production, but it opened here after its world premiere in Toronto. The only major prize Ragtime copped, incidentally, was one for Best Musical Score (for composer Stephen Flaherty and lyricist Lynn Ahrens).
The Drama Critics Circle presented a special award to the Bilingual Foundation of the Arts and its founders -- Carmen Zapata, Margarita Galban and Estela Scarletta -- "for 25 years of theatre that speaks to Los Angeles' diversity, reaching viewers of all ages in Spanish and in English." The Bilingual Foundation occasionally produces new plays by local Latino writers.
The Drama Critics Circle installed a new slate of officers at the awards dinner at the Hotel Roosevelt, naming Debbi K. Swanson (The Daily Breeze and Drama-Logue) as president.
The full list of recipients follows:
Outstanding Production:
Arcadia, Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum
The Winter's Tale, A Noise Within
Outstanding Direction:
Seth Barish, Old Wicked Songs, Geffen Playhouse
Dan Kern, Juno and the Paycock, Interact Theater Company
Art Manke, The Winter's Tale, A Noise Within
Outstanding Writing:
Tom Stoppard, Arcadia
Outstanding Musical Score
Stephen Flaherty (music) & Lynn Ahrens (lyrics), Ragtime
Outstanding Lead Performance:
Nancy Boykin, Juno and the Paycock
Gar Campbell, The Quick-Change Room, Pacific Resident Theatre
Michael David Edwards, He Who Gets Slapped, singular productions
Marilyn Fox, The Quick-Change Room, Pacific Resident Theatre
Dan Kern, The Winter's Tale, A Noise Within
Brian Stokes Mitchell, Ragtime
Hal Robinson, Old Wicked Songs, Geffen Playhouse
Michael Rothaar, Ardele, Pacific Resident Theatre
John Slattery, Three Days of Rain, South Coast Repertory
Outstanding Featured Performance:
Lisa Barnes, The Quick-Change Room, Pacific Resident Theatre
Jenna Cole, The Winter's Tale, A Noise Within
Gail Godown, He Who Gets Slapped, singular productions
Outstanding Scenic Design
Tim Farmer and Mark Henderson, Fighting Over Beverley, The Fountain Theater
Bradley Kaye, Juno and the Paycock, Interact Theater Company
Scott Storey, Steaming, singular productions
Outstanding Lighting Design
Jules Fisher & Peggy Eisenhauer, Ragtime
Ray Thompson, Steaming, singular productions
Outstanding Costume Design
Marianna Elliott, Arcadia
Kevin King, The Winter's Tale
Santo Loquasto, Ragtime
Outstanding Sound Design
Red Ramona, Old Wicked Songs
Outstanding Musical Direction:
David Holcenberg, Ragtime
Outstanding Choreography
Matthew Bourne, Swan Lake
Special Awards:
Lifetime Achievement: John Raitt
The Margaret Harford Award for sustained achievement in theater: Ron Link, director
The Ted Schmitt Award: Three Days Of Rain by Richard Greenberg, South Coast Repertory
The Angstrom Award for stage lighting: Tom Ruzika
The Natalie Schafer Award for emerging actress: Jodi Carlisle
The Bob Z Award for set design: Cliff Faulkner
The LADCC also gave a special award to the Bilingual Foundation of the Arts and founders Carmen Zapata, Margarita Galban and Estela Scarleta for 25 years of theatre that speaks to Los Angeles' diversity, reaching viewers of all ages in Spanish and in English.
-- By Willard Manus
Southern California Correspondent
and Robert Viagas
