LAWees are on again – the 33rd Annual LA Weekly Theatre Awards for 2011

Start ripping up a bed sheet – to honor the classical origins of theatre, this year’s ‘LaWees’ has a toga party theme. Hence, the dress code is toga attire (laurel wreaths optional).

That fun-filled celebration of theater, 33^rd Annual LA Weekly Theatre Awards, (affectionately known as the ‘LaWees’), is being held this year on Monday April 2, 2012 at The Avalon Hollywood, 1735 Vine St, LA.

The ‘LaWees’ will honor the best work on our city’s small stages from 2011.

The show starts at 7:30pm (doors open at 6:30pm)

Tickets are $25.00 (cheap!) and can be purchased here.

As declaimed by our fearless leader and ‘Critic-at-large,’ Basileus Emperor Steven Leigh Morris: “The event will be a replication of the first-ever theater awards ceremony, circa 450 B.C., honoring Dionysus, god of fertility and wine.”

Lauren Ludwig will direct the music/sketch comedy troupe Lost Moon Radio, who are the zany hosts of the Greek bash at the Avalon in Hollywood.

Yours truly is a member of the theater critics voting committee.

Hope to see you there!

 

Here is a list of the nominees:

PRODUCTION OF THE YEAR

Blackbird, Rogue Machine at Theatre/Theater

Day Drinkers, Gary Guidinger, Linda Toliver and the Odyssey Theatre

Small Engine Repair, Rogue Machine at Theatre/Theater

The War Cycle: Gospel According to the First Squad, Los Angeles Theatre Ensemble at Powerhouse Theatre

Way to Heaven, Odyssey Theatre

REVIVAL PRODUCTION OF THE YEAR (of a 20th- or 21st-century work)

All My Sons, Matrix Theatre Company

4.48 Psychosis, City Garage at Bergamot Station, Track 16 Gallery

Camino Real, Theatre @ Boston Court/CalArts School of Theater

The Crucible, Theatre Banshee

A House Not Meant to Stand, Fountain Theatre

Peace in Our Time, Antaeus Company

Room Service, Open Fist Theatre Company

MUSICAL OF THE YEAR

Bash’d, Celebration Theatre

Cyclops: A Rock Opera, Psittacus Productions at Son of Semele/Pasadena Playhouse

Gypsy, West Coast Ensemble at Theatre of Arts

Hey, Morgan!, Black Dahlia Theatre

Re-Animator The Musical, Red Hen Productions and Schramm Group LLC at the Steve Allen Theater

DIRECTION

Lindsay Allbaugh, 100 Saints You Should Know, Elephant Theater Company

Bernardo Bernardo, The Romance of Magno Rubio, PAE Live at [Inside] the Ford

Andrew Block, Small Engine Repair

Robin Larsen, Blackbird

Paul Plunkett, Endgame, Sacred Fools Theater Company

Ron Sossi, Way to Heaven

DIRECTION OF A MUSICAL

Louis Butelli, Cyclops: A Rock Opera

Stuart Gordon, Re-Animator The Musical

Richard Israel, Gypsy

Ameenah Kaplan, Bash’d

Matt Shackman, Hey, Morgan!

Rick Sparks, I Love Lucy Live on Stage, Greenway Court Theatre

COMEDY DIRECTION

Bart DeLorenzo, Day Drinkers

Bart DeLorenzo, Margo Veil, Odyssey Theatre/Evidence Room

Denise Devin, Turbo Tartuffe, Zombie Joe’s Underground

Bjorn Johnson and Ron Orbach, Room Service

Rob Mersola, Love Sucks, Springtime 4 and East 4th Street Productions at Coast Playhouse

Tim Byron Owen, The Walworth Farce, Theatre Banshee

MUSICAL DIRECTION

Peter Adams, Re-Animator The Musical

DJ Jedi, Bash’d

Richard Levinson, Peace in Our Time

Wayne Moore, I Love Lucy Live on Stage

David O, The Cradle Will Rock, Blank Theatre Company at Stella Adler Theatre

ENSEMBLE

The Crucible

Hermetically Sealed, Katselas Theatre Company at Skylight Theatre

9 Circles, Bootleg Theater

Small Engine Repair

The Romance of Magno Rubio

What’s Wrong With Angry?, Celebration Theatre

The War Cycle: Gospel According to the First Squad

MUSICAL ENSEMBLE

Bash’d

The Cradle Will Rock

Having It All, NoHo Arts Center

I Love Lucy Live on Stage

Re-Animator The Musical

COMEDY ENSEMBLE

D Is for Dog, Rogue Artists Ensemble at Studio/Stage

Day Drinkers

Margo Veil

Pulp Shakespeare, Theatre Asylum

Room Service

Turbo Tartuffe

The Walworth Farce

LEADING FEMALE PERFORMANCE

Michelle Clunie, The Mercy Seat, Vs. Theatre Company at [Inside] the Ford

Maria Gobetti, Sex and Education, Victory Theatre Center

Sandy Martin, A House Not Meant to Stand

Amanda Weir, Room Service

Jacqueline Wright, House of Gold, Ensemble Studio Theatre/L.A. at the Atwater Village Theatre

LEADING MALE PERFORMANCE

Jon Jon Briones, The Romance of Magno Rubio

Matthew Goodrich/Chris Chiquet, Camino Real

Jim Hanna, Othello, The Production Company/Action! Theatre Company at Lex Theatre

John D. Johnston, Dirt, Rogue Machine and Firefly: Theater & Films at Theatre/Theater

Brian Norris, The Woodpecker, Mutineer Theatre Company at Studio/Stage

Leon Russom, Endgame

Norbert Weisser, Way to Heaven

SUPPORTING FEMALE PERFORMANCE

Kate Huffman, 100 Saints You Should Know

Lynne Odell, Alceste, Theatre of NOTE

Julia Prud’homme, Alceste

Lisa Richards, A House Not Meant to Stand

Pamela Roylance, 100 Saints You Should Know

Tamara Zook, The Woodpecker

SUPPORTING MALE PERFORMANCE

Ramon DeOcampo, The Malcontent, Antaeus Company

David Fraioli, Endgame

Michael McGee, Way to Heaven

Marco Naggar, 100 Saints You Should Know

TWO-PERSON PERFORMANCE

Bakersfield Mist (Jenny O’Hara and Nick Ullett), Fountain Theatre

Blackbird (Sam Anderson and Corryn Cummins)

The Old Lady Shows Her Medals, from Barrie, Back to Back (Penny Safranek and Joe McGovern), Pacific Resident Theater

The Word Begins (Steve Connell and Sekou Andrews), Los Angeles Theatre Center/Rogue Machine

SOLO PERFORMANCE

John Fleck, Mad Women, Skylight Theatre

Helie Lee, Macho Like Me, Coast Playhouse

Antonio Sacre, The Next Best Thing, Theatre Asylum Lab

FEMALE COMEDY PERFORMANCE

Maile Flanagan, Day Drinkers

Danielle Kennedy, Day Drinkers

Jonica Patella, Turbo Tartuffe

Kelly Schumann, What’s Wrong With Angry?

MALE COMEDY PERFORMANCE

Sean Curran, Turbo Tartuffe

Dustin Eastman, Room Service

Daniel Escobar, Room Service

PLAY WRITING

Tom Burmeister, The War Cycle: Gospel According to the First Squad

John Pollono, Small Engine Repair

Stephen Sachs, Bakersfield Mist

Nick Salamone, The Sonneteer, Davidson/Valenti Theatre at the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center

Justin Tanner, Day Drinkers

CAREER ACHIEVEMENT

John Flynn

QUEEN OF THE ANGELS

Ameenah Kaplan

PRODUCTION DESIGN

Have You Seen Alice?, Theatre of NOTE

A House Not Meant to Stand

House of Gold

Peace in Our Time

ADAPTATION

Louis Butelli, Chas LiBretto, Jayson Landon Marcus and Benjamin Sherman, Cyclops, A Rock Opera

Dennis Paoli, Stuart Gordon and William J. Norris, Re-Animator The Musical

Elizabeth Swain, The Malcontent

Ben Tallen, Aaron Greer, Chris Adams, Jordan Monsell and Brian Watson-Jones, Pulp Shakespeare

LIGHTING DESIGN

Chris Covics, Guided Consideration of a Lamentable Deed, Needtheater at Cafe Club Fais Do-Do

Derrick McDaniel, Dirt

Derrick McDaniel, The Mercy Seat

David Sousa, Closet Land, Visceral Company at Noho Stages

COSTUME DESIGN

Jeri Batzdorff, Turbo Tartuffe

Ann Closs-Farley, Have You Seen Alice?

Shon LeBlanc, I Love Lucy Live on Stage

Jessica Olson, Peace in Our Time

Silvanne E.B. Park, Camino Real

Naila Alladin Sanders, The Cradle Will Rock

A. Jeffrey Schoenberg, The Malcontent

SET DESIGN

Tom Buderwitz, Peace in Our Time

Jeff McLaughlin, A House Not Meant to Stand

Dan Mailley, Have You Seen Alice?

David Potts, Dirt

Stephanie Kerley Schwartz, Blackbird

SOUND DESIGN

Peter Bayne, A House Not Meant to Stand

Peter Bayne, The Malcontent

Martin Carrillo, Have You Seen Alice?

Paul Rubenstein, 4.48 Psychosis

CHOREOGRAPHY

Cynthia Carle, Re-Animator The Musical

Peter De Guzman, The Romance of Magno Rubio

Ameenah Kaplan, Bash’d

Ameenah Kaplan, Camino Real

John Todd, Gypsy

PUPPET DESIGN

David Combs and Linda Hoag, Monkey Adored, Rogue Machine at Theatre/Theater

ORIGINAL MUSIC

Mark Nutter, Re-Animator The Musical

FIGHT CHOREOGRAPHY

Eric Anderson, The War Cycle: Gospel According to the First Squad

Jon Jon Briones/Felix Roiles, The Romance of Magnio Rubio

PROJECTION DESIGN

Keith Skretch, A House Not Meant to Stand

William Parks, House of Gold

SPECIAL CITATIONS

Video Design: Alexander Mibecki, House of Gold

Blood Effects: Mike Monroe, Mr. Kolpert, The Fake Gallery; Stuart Gordon, Re-Animator The Musical