Heartfelt.
It’d apply to the video acceptance speech by Patrick Wilson, first recipient of TTB’s new Inspiration Award for local theater folks who’ve gone on to wider fame. Though he wasn’t able to attend in person (accepting for him was his father, veteran TV news guy John Wilson, who told us that Patrick was wrapping up a movie in London with Liam Neeson), he came off as genuinely moved by the honor and committed to the importance of live theater, saying it gave him “not only an outlet but a focus and a drive.”
It’d apply to the charming anecdote from area newcomer and Outstanding Featured Actor winner Britt Michael Gordon, for whom the award wasn’t the only bonus of being in The Pitmen Painters at American Stage: He also fell in love with one of his co-stars, Ally Farzetta.
And it’d apply to the equally adorable tribute from Michael Raabe, who won both Outstanding Musical Director and a special judges’ award for his ’80s-inflected arrangements for freeFall’s Star Wars-inspired adaptation of Pirates of Penzance — a show, he told the audience, that he thought of as “a love letter to my partner, who loves ’80s music, Pirates and sci-fi.”
But most of all, it’d apply to the kids. In an inspired move, TTB turned over awards-show music chores to 40 talented youngsters (ranging from elementary to high-school age) from Bay Area Performing and Casting (BAPAC), who performed “When I Grow Up” from Matilda the Musical; a medley of songs from TTB-nominated musicals; and most moving of all, the closing number: Sondheim’s “Children Will Listen” (which Hillary might as well add as a soundtrack to that TV ad in which kids are watching Trump on TV). The tap dancers in “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life,” the soulful take on “Poor Wandering One” (from Pirates), the hilarious be-wigged mermaid cameo by local theater stalwart Larry Alexander in the Peter and the Starcatcher number (“These are my mer-kids,” he explained) — all of it was triumphantly entertaining. But it was also a touching reminder to the audience, most of whom were once theater kids themselves, that the beat goes on.
And it goes on in all kinds of communities. Another highlight: the special judges’ award to Theatre eXceptional, which casts young actors with disabilities in ambitious productions like this fall’s Wizard of Oz. It’s no wonder that TTB prez Scott Swenson choked up in introducing this award: The cast members’ delight at being recognized and the passionate speech by Michelle Wilder Larson (co-founder with her daughter Brianna) echoed Patrick Wilson’s observation about the transformative power of theater.
So maybe it’s clear by now, but this year’s TTBs turned out to be a surprisingly good time. I may be showing some bias — I’m one of the nine judges who saw all of the eligible professional productions in 2015-16 and voted (by secret ballot) on our favorites. But I’ve been to a few of these galas, and there was a spirit about this one that set it apart.
Not that everything had changed. Again, too many of the winners did not attend, so that company representatives, particularly Stephanie Gularte (artistic director of American Stage, which won 10 awards) and Matthew McGee (communications guy for freeFall, which won 12), got a major aerobics workout running up and down to the stage to act as proxy accepters. Swenson cracked that McGee, a past co-host of the gala (and a fabulous one at that), got more stage time during this show than in the ones he’d hosted. And when Gularte came up to accept for Jitney’s J. Peter Callender in the Outstanding Director category — a category in which she had been nominated herself for Intimate Apparel — she remarked, “Is it weird that I’m nominated and didn’t win, yet I’m standing up here?”
TTB’s tiered awards system also remained unchanged, in which theaters compete in either Tier 2 (companies with a budget of under $500,000) or Tier 1 (those with a budget above $500,000), and the Tier 1 leaders continued to be American Stage and freeFall. Absent from consideration once more was Jobsite, which objects to the TTB system for a variety of reasons (though the company does allow judges to weigh in on whether Jobsite shows should get the “Recommended” label, which theaters use to promote shows to ticket-buyers). That means the results are not a full measure of the season that was, but a great deal of excellent work did get recognized.
Judges are not privy to the results any sooner than anyone else, so it was a surprise to us as well as to just about everyone in the Palladium that the contest for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Play, Tier 2, ended in a tie. But what a tie! Two of the area’s best character actors, Richard Coppinger and Michael Mahoney, won for their work in, respectively, Inherit the Wind (a joint Stageworks/Tampa Rep production) and Tampa Rep’s The Iceman Cometh. Both were eminently deserving: Coppinger stole the show as the crafty attorney Henry Drummond in the former, and Mahoney was quietly mesmerizing as Iceman’s Larry Slade.
It was a pleasure to see so much love for Tampa Rep’s enchanting Silent Sky; for Stageworks’ goofy 5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche (whose seven awards meant that we got lots of opportunity to hear droll asides from Stageworks AD and Lesbians ensemble member Karla Hartley); for freeFall’s lovely Light in the Piazza (particularly lead actor and actress winners Nick Lerew and Melissa Minyard); for costume designer Amy Cianci, who returned to designing after a long hiatus this year and won a CL Best of the Bay and a TTB award (for her work on freeFall's Importance of Being Earnest with Zombies) all in the same week; and for Jitney at American Stage, another in the company’s exemplary productions in August Wilson’s Century Cycle. Gularte thanked her predecessor, Todd Olson, for committing the theater to this ambitious cycle, a project that has paid off in a big way for both the company and for Tampa Bay. One more left to go in the Cycle, Gularte promised.
We look forward to seeing that show, Joe Turner's Come and Gone — and to another year of great theater.
Here's a full list of this year's awards:
Outstanding Featured Actor, Play <$500K – Greg Thompson, Broadway Bound, Stageworks Theatre
Outstanding Featured Actor, Play >$500K – Britt Michael Gordon, The Pitmen Painters, American Stage
Outstanding Featured Actor, Musical – Stephen Jones, The Light in the Piazza, freeFall Theatre
Outstanding Featured Actress, Play <$500K – Karissa Barber, Silent Sky, Tampa Rep
Outstanding Featured Actress, Play >$500K – Jennifer Christa Palmer, The Importance of Being Earnest with Zombies, freeFall Theatre
Outstanding Featured Actress, Musical – Jennifer Byrne, A Light in the Piazza, freeFall Theatre
Outstanding Sound Design <$500K – Karla Hartley, 5 Lesbians Eating A Quiche, Stageworks Theatre
Outstanding Sound Design >$500K – Eric Davis, The Importance of Being Earnest with Zombies, freeFall Theatre
Outstanding Costume Design <$500K – Frank Chavez, 5 Lesbians Eating A Quiche, Stageworks Theatre
Outstanding Costume Design >$500K – Amy Cianci, The Importance of Being Earnest with Zombies, freeFall Theatre
Outstanding Lighting Design <$500K – Jo Averill-Snell, Silent Sky, Tampa Rep
Outstanding Lighting Design >$500K – Phillip Frank/Jerid Fox, The Pitmen Painters, American Stage
Outstanding Set Design <$500K – Amanda Bearrs, Silent Sky, Tampa Rep
Outstanding Set Design >$500K – Scott Cooper, Jitney, American Stage
Outstanding Choreography/Fight Direction – Shain Stroff, Spamalot, American Stage
Outstanding Lead Actor, Play <$500K TIE
• Richard Coppinger, Inherit the Wind, Stageworks Theatre/Tampa Rep
• Michael Mahoney, The Iceman Cometh, Tampa Rep
Outstanding Lead Actor, Play >$500K – ranney, Jitney, American Stage
Outstanding Lead Actor, Musical – Nick Lerew, The Light in the Piazza, freeFall Theatre
Outstanding Lead Actress, Play <$500K – Emilia Sargent, Silent Sky, Tampa Rep
Outstanding Lead Actress, Play >$500K – Janis Stevens, 4000 Miles, American Stage
Outstanding Lead Actress, Musical – Melissa Minyard, The Light in the Piazza, freeFall Theatre
Outstanding Musical Director – Michael Raabe, The Pirates of Penzance, freeFall Theatre
Outstanding Director, Musical – Eric Davis, Peter and the Starcatcher, freeFall Theatre
Outstanding Director, Play <$500K – John Pickard, 5 Lesbians Eating A Quiche, Stageworks Theatre
Outstanding Director, Play >$500K – L. Peter Callender, Jitney, American Stage
Outstanding Ensemble, Musical – The Light in the Piazza, freeFall Theatre
Outstanding Ensemble, Play <$500K – 5 Lesbians Eating A Quiche, Stageworks Theatre
Outstanding Ensemble, Play >$500K – The Pitmen Painters, American Stage
Outstanding Production, Musical – The Light in the Piazza, freeFall Theatre
Outstanding Production, Play <$500K – 5 Lesbians Eating A Quiche, Stageworks Theatre
Outstanding Production, Play >$500K – Jitney, American Stage
Judges’ Discretionary Awards:
Outstanding New Vocal Arrangements and Orchestrations – Michael Raabe, Pirates of Penzance, freeFall Theatre
Outstanding Dialects – Patricia Deloray, The Pitmen Painters, American Stage
Outstanding Special Effects, Best Splat Ever – Chris Holcom, 5 Lesbians Eating A Quiche
Best Performance from a Returning Artists- Melody Craven, Last List of My Mad Mother, Powerstories Theatre
Special TTB Board of Directors Award for Outstanding Transformative Impact: Theatre eXceptional
TTB Board of Directors Inaugural Inspiration Award: Patrick Wilson
This article appears in Sep 29 – Oct 7, 2016.