Serenbe's 'Saigon' wins big at 2016 Suzi awards

NINE METRO THEATERS took home Suzi Bass awards Monday night, with the Alliance Theatre, Aurora Theatre and Serenbe Playhouse coming out on top but no one company dominating as in past seasons.

In all, 15 professional companies and 44 productions were nominated for Suzis, honors that are more or less akin to Broadway’s Tonys.

Serenbe Playhouse’s Miss Saigon, which was done outdoors and included an authentic Army helicopter, was perhaps the biggest winner. The 1991 show, which moves the Madame Butterfly story to the Vietnam War, earned six Suzis — for best musical, director Brian Clowdus, musical director Chris Brent Davis, leading lady Niki Badua, featured actor Chase Peacock and sound designer Adam Howarth.

Interestingly, Serenbe’s telling of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel won nothing. It, too, was performed outdoors as all Serenbe shows are, and was set among a real-life carnival of rides and games in which theatergoers could partake before performances and at intermission.

The Alliance Theatre, the largest regional theater in the Southeast, took home eight Suzis, split among six productions. Three went to grown-up fare (A Steady Rain, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Ethel) and three to shows for family audiences (Pancakes, Pancakes!; The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; and A Bucket of Blessings).

Lawrenceville’s Aurora Theatre took home seven Suzis — for director David de Vries, leading actor Kenny Raskin, and set designers Isabel A. Curley-Clay and Moriah Curley-Clay for I’m Not Rappaport; leading lady Mary Lynn Owen for Wit; and choreographer Ricardo Aponte, lighting designer Maria Cristina Fusté and set designer Shannon Robert for In the Heights.

Theatrical Outfit, which co-produced In the Heights, shares in those awards.

Six companies were shut out: True Colors Theatre (7 nominations), the Center for Puppetry Arts (4), Legacy Theatre (3), and Catalyst Arts Atlanta, Gypsy Theatre Company and Synchronicity Theatre (all with 1).

A few observations/surprises:

• 

  Actor’s Express, which programmed one of the best seasons ever seen at a metro theater, won just a single Suzi, a well-earned honor for Kevin Harry, who killed (sorry) with his vocals and barely contained rage as the title character in Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd. Just as good was Carolyn Cook as a grown daughter dealing with life and her mother’s dementia in Blackberry Winter. The Express, which earned 21 nominations and six awards in 2015, was not even nominated for The Thrush & the Woodpecker, the Chekhov riff Stupid F**king Bird, Significant Other (seen here before opening on Broadway) and the Atlanta Child Murders-themed Serial Blackface. It’s a shame.

• 

  

  Between them, playwrights Lauren Gunderson (I and You at Aurora, The Revolutionists at 7 Stages) and Steve Yockey (The Thrush and the Woodpecker and Blackberry Winter) — both former Atlantans with national reputations — received three nominations but no Suzis. I and You , which has been produced all over the country, won the 2014 American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award and was a finalist for the 2014 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Both Yockey works were world premieres; Blackberry Winter is, arguably, his best work to date.

• Despite Serenbe’s wins for Miss Saigon, a few trophies for the Latin-themed In the Heights and Harry’s Sweeney Todd victory, the awards predominantly went to Caucasian performers and technicians. Shows with mixed or largely African-American casts — Fetch Clay, Make Man and Smart People at True Colors, and Disgraced, Ethel and Born for This: The BeBe Winans Story at the Alliance, received but one Suzi among them. Raskin (best actor in a play for Aurora’s I’m Not Rappaport) was, no doubt, deserving. He was also the only non-black nominee in his category.

Several special Suzis were handed out Monday night. Playwrights Lane Carlock and Brian Kurlander won the Gene-Gabriel Moore Playwriting Award for their drama Moxie (Theatrical Outfit) about a book made by hand by a Marine in Afghanistan to connect with his son. As the book travels the world, it picks up more stories and a mystical force. Moxie is the first play nurtured in the Alliance Theatre’s Reiser Atlanta Artists Lab to receive a fully staged production and earn Suzi attention.

Stage manager Cindy Kearns, nominated by the Shakespeare Tavern Playhouse, won the Callboard Award, recognizing work by such backstage professionals as stage managers, technicians, prop masters, dramaturgs, and front of house and patron staff.

The Lifetime Achievement Award went to the family of Pete Shinn. The longtime Alliance electrics manager, lighting designer and mentor to many died of cancer in July at age 65. The Alliance was the only theater for which he was a full-time staff member, but he also designed for every size theater in Atlanta and beyond, including Actor’s Express, Horizon Theatre, Theatre in the Square, Georgia Ensemble Theatre, the George Street Playhouse (N.J.) and Delaware Repertory Theatre. 

Theatrical Outfit repeated as winner of the Audience Choice Award for outstanding season, a $1-per-vote fundraiser with proceeds split by the winning company and the Suzis. The Outfit’s five-show 2015-16 season featured the musicals Memphis (an Aurora co-production) and The Light in the Piazza; plus Moxie; R. Buckminster Fuller, the History and Mystery of the Universe; and A Little Princess.

Atlanta’s theater awards are named for longtime actor Suzi Bass, a force of nature who died of cancer in 2002 at age 56. She performed regularly, and to acclaim, with such companies as the Alliance, Theatre in the Square, ART Station and Theatrical Outfit, along with North Carolina’s Flat Rock Playhouse and Blowing Rock Stage.

THE WINNERS (in bold type):

Play

• The City of Conversation at Horizon Theatre
• Ethel at the Alliance Theatre
• Of Mice and Men at Serenbe Playhouse
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest at the Alliance Theatre
• Wit at Aurora Theatre

 Direction / play

• Justin Anderson for The City of Conversation at Horizon Theatre
• Susan V. Booth for Disgraced at the Alliance Theatre
• Susan V. Booth for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest at the Alliance Theatre
• David de Vries for I’m Not Rappaport at Aurora Theatre
• Jenny Lord for Of Mice and Men at Serenbe Playhouse

 Lead actress  / play

• Terry Burrell for Ethel at the Alliance Theatre
• Carolyn Cook for Blackberry Winter at Actor’s Express
• Devon Hales for I And You at Aurora Theatre
• Tess Malis Kincaid for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest at the Alliance Theatre
• Mary Lynn Owen for Wit at Aurora Theatre

 Lead actor / play

• Rob Cleveland for I’m Not Rappaport at Aurora Theatre
• Rob Demery for Fetch Clay, Make Man at True Colors Theatre
• Neal Ghant for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest at the Alliance Theatre
• Kenny Raskin for I’m Not Rappaport at Aurora Theatre
• Brad Raymond for Fetch Clay, Make Man at True Colors Theatre

 Featured actress / play

• Julee Cerda for Smart People at Kenny Leon’s True Colors Theatre
• Carolyn Cook for The City of Conversation at Horizon Theatre
• Danielle Deadwyler for Smart People at True Colors Theatre
• Danielle Deadwyler for Fetch Clay, Make Man at True Colors Theatre
• Rachel Frawley for The Crucible at Shakespeare Tavern Playhouse

Featured actor / play

• Andrew Benator for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest at the Alliance Theatre
• Louis Gregory for Sotto Voce at Aurora Theatre
• Joe Knezevich for Smart People at True Colors Theatre
• Eric Mendenhall for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest at the Alliance Theatre
• Ali Sohaili for Disgraced at the Alliance Theatre

Outstanding ensemble cast / play

• Equivocation at the Shakespeare Tavern Playhouse (Jeff Watkins, Elizabeth Diane Wells, Clark Taylor, Robin Bloodworth, Matt Felton, Nicholas Faircloth)

• Let Nothing You Dismay at Stage Door Players (Bryan Brendle, Amanda Cucher, Mark Grey, Shelly McCook, Doyle Reynolds, Gina Rickicki, Emily Sams, Ben Silver)

• Moxie at Theatrical Outfit (Joy Bhowmick, Chiara Bulkin, Carolyn Cook, Danielle Deadwyler, David de Vries, Rial Ellsworth, Laura Fong, Bobby Labartino, Tony Larkin, Royce Mann, Jaden Robinson, Maria Rodriguez-Sager)

• Of Mice and Men at Serenbe Playhouse (Erik Poger Abrahamsen, Bryan Brendle, Brad Brinkley, Blake Burgess, Jonathan Horne, Daniel Parvis, Michael Rudko, Daviorr Snipes)

• Stupid F**king Bird at Actor’s Express (Lane Carlock, Evan Cleaver, Matt Felton, Stephanie Friedman, Theo Harness, Robert Lee Hindsman, Rhyn Saver)

Costume design / play

• Jim Alford for Let Nothing You Dismay at Stage Door Players
• Jordan Jaked Carrier for The City of Conversation at Horizon Theatre
• DeeDee Chmielewski for The Revolutionists at 7 Stages
• Suzanne Holtkamp for Moonlight and Magnolias at the Gypsy Theatre
• Linda Roethke for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest at the Alliance Theatre

 Lighting design / play

• Kevin Frazier for Wit at Aurora Theatre
• Joe Futral for Smart People at True Colors Theatre
• Michael Gend for A Steady Rain at the Alliance Theatre
• Joseph P. Monaghan III for Of Mice and Men at Serenbe Playhouse
• Ken Yunker for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest at the Alliance Theatre

 Scenic design / play

• Joel Coady & Barrett Doyle for The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek at Catalyst Arts Atlanta
• Isabel Curley-Clay & Moriah Curley-Clay for I’m Not Rappaport at Aurora Theatre
• Lee Maples for I and You at Aurora Theatre
• Todd Rosenthal for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest at the Alliance Theatre
• Gary Varner for Freud’s Last Session at the Legacy Theatre 

Sound design / play

• Rial Ellsworth for Let Nothing You Dismay at Stage Door Players
• Elisheba Ittoop for Ethel at the Alliance Theatre
• Haddon Kime for The Thrush & the Woodpecker at Actor’s Express
• Haddon Kime for Blackberry Winter at Actor’s Express
• John Zalewski for A Steady Rain at the Alliance Theatre

Production / musical

• Born for This: The BeBe Winans Story at the Alliance Theatre
• In the Heights at Aurora Theatre & Theatrical Outfit
• The Light in the Piazza at Theatrical Outfit
• Miss Saigon at Serenbe Playhouse
• The Toxic Avenger at Horizon Theatre

Direction / musical

• Justin Anderson for In the Heights, an Aurora Theatre-Theatrical Outfit co-production
• Justin Anderson for Into the Woods at Aurora Theatre
• Brian Clowdus for Miss Saigon at Serenbe Playhouse
• Richard Garner for The Light in the Piazza at Theatrical Outfit
• Heidi Cline McKerley for The Toxic Avenger at Horizon Theatre

 Musical direction

• S. Renee Clark for The Toxic Avenger at Horizon Theatre
• Chris Brent Davis for Miss Saigon at Serenbe Playhouse
• Steven Jamail for Born for This: The BeBe Winans Story at Alliance Theatre
• Ann-Carol Pence for In the Heights at Aurora Theatre & Theatrical Outfit
• Ann-Carol Pence for Into the Woods at Aurora Theatre

Choreography

• Ricardo Aponte for In the Heights at Aurora Theatre & Theatrical Outfit
• Bubba Carr for Carousel at Serenbe Playhouse
• Bubba Carr for Miss Saigon at Serenbe Playhouse
• Bethany Smith for Mary Poppins at the Legacy Theatre

Lead actress / musical

• Niki Badua for Miss Saigon at Serenbe Playhouse
• Deborah Bowman for Sweeney Todd at Actor’s Express
• Diany Rodriguez for In the Heights at Aurora Theatre & Theatrical Outfit
• Julissa Sabino for In the Heights at Aurora Theatre & Theatrical Outfit
• Savannah Sprinkle for Mary Poppins at the Legacy Theatre

Lead actor / musical

• Nick Arapoglou for The Toxic Avenger at Horizon Theatre
• Eymard Cabling for Miss Saigon at Serenbe Playhouse
• Kevin Harry for Sweeney Todd at Actor’s Express
• Diego Klock-Perez for In the Heights at Aurora Theatre & Theatrical Outfit
• Tim Quartier for The Light in the Piazza at Theatrical Outfit 

Featured actress / musical

• Leslie Belair for The Toxic Avenger at Horizon Theatre
• Courtney Chapelle for Miss Saigon at Serenbe Playhouse
• Jessica De Maria for Kiss Me, Kate at Stage Door Players
• Kiandra Richardson for Born for This: The BeBe Winans Story at the Alliance Theatre
• Diany Rodriguez for Into the Woods at Aurora Theatre
• Kirsten Wyatt for Born for This: The BeBe Winans Story at the Alliance 

 Featured actor / musical

• Chase Peacock for Miss Saigon at Serenbe Playhouse
• Brad Raymond for Born for This: The BeBe Winans Story at the Alliance Theatre
• Chris Sizemore for Miss Saigon at Serenbe Playhouse
• Michael Stiggers for The Toxic Avenger at Horizon Theatre
• Austin Tijerina for The Toxic Avenger at Horizon Theatre 

Costume design / musical

• Isabel Curley-Clay & Moriah Curley-Clay for The Toxic Avenger at Horizon Theatre
• Courtney Flores for In the Heights at Aurora Theatre & Theatrical Outfit
• William Ivey Long for Born for This: The BeBe Winans Story at Alliance Theatre
• Elizabeth Rasmusson for Into the Woods at Aurora Theatre
• Alan Yeong for Miss Saigon at Serenbe Playhouse

 Lighting design / musical

• Maria Cristina Fusté for In the Heights at Aurora Theatre & Theatrical Outfit
• Adam Howarth for Miss Saigon at Serenbe Playhouse
• Mary Parker for The Toxic Avenger at Horizon Theatre
• Mary Parker for Into the Woods at Aurora Theatre
• Dianne Ferry Williams for Born for This: The BeBe Winans Story at Alliance Theatre 

Scenic design / musical

• Isabel Curley-Clay and Moriah Curley-Clay for The Toxic Avenger at Horizon Theatre
• Adam Koch for Carousel at Serenbe Playhouse
• Adam Koch for Miss Saigon at Serenbe Playhouse
• Shannon Robert for In the Heights at Aurora Theatre & Theatrical Outfit
• Jason Sherwood for Into the Woods at Aurora Theatre

Sound design / musical

• Rob Brooksher for The Toxic Avenger at Horizon Theatre
• Adam Howarth for Miss Saigon at Serenbe Playhouse
• Daniel Pope for Into the Woods at Aurora Theatre
• Jesse Stevens for Born for This: The BeBe Winans Story at Alliance Theatre
• Daniel Terry for In the Heights at Aurora Theatre & Theatrical Outfit

World premiere

• Let Nothing You Dismay at Stage Door Players (by Topher Payne)
• Born for This: The BeBe Winans Story at Alliance Theatre
• Blackberry Winter at Actor’s Express (by Steve Yockey)
• Beyond Reasonable Doubt: The Troy Davis Project at Synchronicity Theatre (by Lee Nowell)
• Moxie at Theatrical Outfit (by Lane Carlock and Brian Kurlander)

Original production / Theatre for Young Audiences 

• Beauty and the Beast at the Center for Puppetry Arts
• A Bucket of Blessings at the Alliance Theatre
• Pancakes, Pancakes! at the Alliance Theatre
• Tell Me My Dream at the Alliance Theatre
• The Tortoise, the Hare & Other Aesop’s Fables at the Center for Puppetry Arts

Outstanding production / Theatre for Young Audiences

• The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe at the Alliance Theatre
• Goldilocks & the Three Bears at Aurora Theatre
• The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe at the Alliance Theatre
• Pancakes, Pancakes! at the Alliance Theatre
• Tell Me My Dream at the Alliance Theatre

Direction / Theatre for Young Audiences

• Rosemary Newcott for A Bucket of Blessings at Alliance Theatre
• Ryan Oliveti (director), Chris Brent Davis (music director), Bubba Carr (movement) for Charlotte’s Web at Serenbe Playhouse
• Justin Anderson (director), Ann-Carol Pence (music director),  Jen MacQueen (choreographer) for Goldilocks and the Three Bears at Aurora Theatre
• Rosemary Newcott (director), Jen MacQueen (movement choreographer) for The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe at the Alliance Theatre
•  David De Vries for Pancakes, Pancakes! at the Alliance Theatre

 Design / Theatre for Young Audiences

• Jamie Bullins (costumes), Stephanie Polhemus (props) for Charlotte’s Web at Serenbe Playhouse
• Isabel Curley-Clay & Moriah Curley-Clay (set and costumes), Thom Jenkins (sound), Kevin Frazier (lighting), Peter Smeal (props) for Goldilocks and the Three Bears at Aurora Theatre
• Kat Conley (set), Sydney Roberts (costumes), Pete Shinn (lighting), Clay Benning (sound) for The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe at Alliance Theatre
• Jason Hines (puppets & shadow film), Rochelle Barker (set), Gregory Montague and Mimi Epstein (sound), Liz Lee (lights) for The Little Pirate Mermaid at Center for Puppetry Arts
• Kat Conley (set), Jeff Cone (costumes), Ken Yunker (lights), Clay Benning (sound), Mike Tutaj (projections) for Pancakes, Pancakes! at the Alliance Theatre
• Isabel Curley-Clay & Moriah Curley-Clay, Mary Parker (lighting), Thom Jenkins (sound), Ryan Bradburn (props) for Tim Tesla and the Terrific Time Machine at Aurora Theatre

Ensemble performance / Theatre for Young Audiences

• Charlotte’s Web at Serenbe Playhouse, with Erik Poger Abrahamsen, Bretteney Beverly, Nicole Carpenter, Hao Feng, Mister Fitzgerald, Andy Terwilliger
• The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe at the Alliance Theatre, with Jeremy Aggers, Lauren Boyd, Ashley Chasteen, Alexandra Ficken, Jelani Jones, Enoch King, Tess Malis Kincaid, Patrick Wade, Markell Williams
• Pancakes, Pancakes! at the Alliance Theatre, with Matt Alea, Molly Coyne, Rob Lawhon, Adam Washington
• Tell Me My Dream at the Alliance Theatre, with Isake Akanke, Jeremiah Parker Hobbs, Stephen Ruffin, Avery Sharpe, Daviorr Snipes, Vallea E. Woodbury
• The Tortoise, the Hare & Other Aesop’s Fables at the Center for Puppetry Arts, with Jake Krokovsky, Kristin Storla

AWARDS BY THEATER

• Alliance Theatre — 8
• Aurora Theatre — 7
• Serenbe Playhouse — 6
• Horizon Theatre — 3
• Theatrical Outfit — 3
• Stage Door Players — 2
• Actor’s Express — 1
• Shakespeare Tavern Playhouse — 1
• 7 Stages — 1

WINS BY SHOW

• Miss Saigon (Serenbe Playhouse) — 6
• In the Heights (Aurora Theatre / Theatrical Outfit) — 3
• I’m Not Rappaport (Aurora) — 3
• The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Alliance Theatre) — 3
• Let Nothing You Dismay (Stage Door Players) — 2
• The Toxic Avenger (Horizon Theatre) — 2
• A Bucket of Blessings (Alliance) — 1
• A Steady Rain (Alliance) — 1
• Ethel (Alliance) — 1
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Alliance) — 1
• Pancakes, Pancakes! (Alliance) — 1
• Sweeney Todd (Actor’s Express) — 1
• The City of Conversation (Horizon) — 1
• The Crucible (Shakespeare Tavern Playhouse) — 1
• The Revolutionists (7 Stages) — 1
• Wit (Aurora) — 1

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save