2011 Index of Winners

Veteran improvisers and big-name comedians alike perform at the five-year-old Relapse Theatre. But the 14th Street venue also serves as a proving ground for aspiring funny people. Richard Kickers applies the open-mic concept to improv comedy. Relapse also offers a wide variety of shows, from straightforward stand-up to "Whose Line is it Anyway?"-style games. A former church, Relapse baptizes would-be comics in the spirit of laughter. 380 14th St. 404-343-0347. relapsecomedy.com. less...

Despite the risk of burning out some of Atlanta's best actors through prolonged exposure to scorching family drama, the Alliance Theatre should make an annual tradition of its production of Tracy Letts' August: Osage County. Director Susan V. Booth cultivated a sense of family connection by filling the cast with mainstays of the Atlanta theater scene, including Georgia Shakespeare Artistic Director Richard Garner, 7 Stages Artistic Director Del Hamilton and grande dame Brenda Bynum, who left retirement to play a vicious, drug-addicted matriarch of a squabbling Oklahoma family. August: Osage County presented the Weston clan as a dysfunctional social microcosm, with blood-sport banter that made the three-hour running time pass like a rocket. Alliance Theatre, Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree St. 404-733-4650. alliancetheatre.org. less...

Atlanta novelist/playwright Pearl Cleage has never suffered for lack of recognition. Her 1998 novel What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day nabbed an Oprah Book Club selection and local theaters continue to produce her older plays (Theatre in the Square will stage Flyin' West in 2012). But Cleage outdid herself with her latest play, The Nacirema Society Requests the Honor of Your Presence at a Celebration of Their First One Hundred Years, a comedy that tweaks the hypocrisy of Montgomery's snobbish African-American families in 1964. The pitch-perfect screwball script, performed at the Alliance Theatre last fall, drags family secrets out into the open in a masterful combination of historical insight and comic timing. pearlcleage.net. less...

What do Horace Burgess, the Biltmore House, Southern women and a $10 bill have in common? Beats the hell out of us. But if you can answer that question, you'll be a lot closer to solving the "10 Stories High" mystery than we are. In April, a series of numbered envelopes declaring "Follow Your Narrative Urge!" and holding a variety of enigmatic, seemingly random clues began popping up around Atlanta. They were found dangling from trees, nestled between volumes in local bookstores and in the mail piles of local reporters. The public and local media instantly became captivated with the peculiar art project and committed en masse to solving the mystery. One ambitious code-cracker even created a wiki-style page to catalogue all of the clues. Two of us here at CL set out to solve the case, and ended up on a wild goose chase that took us all over the city. Which got us thinking, was the "10 Stories High" project about the proverbial journey and not the destination? When we wondered as much aloud in a blog post, the man/woman behind the curtain spoke up, commenting that, yes, such a notion was "at the heart of" the project. But, 'My story needs an ending," the mysterious wordsmith conceded. "10 Stories High" is spreading westward across the nation, with a new wave of envelopes recently arriving in Chicago, Minneapolis and Denver, among other cities. So, how does this frustrating, thrilling, engrossing, obsession-inducing story end? Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. less...

Dashboard Co-Op seems blissfully unaware of the word "boundaries." And "rules." And "limits." And "functional indoor plumbing." Launched in early 2010, the local arts organization and online gallery has made some bold moves to help bridge the creative corners of the city. Founders Courtney Hammond and Beth Malone excel in reimagining and repurposing raw, vacant spaces as multipurpose art/music/food wonderlands. Dash's collaboration with pop-up restaurant Dinner Party in an unoccupied Westside storefront married two normally independent communities and challenged the ideas of what a gallery or a restaurant is. The sound and video installation Ants and Grasshoppers illuminated an empty Castleberry Hill warehouse and created an interesting juxtaposition between the bare-bones space and the tech-heavy artwork. The artist co-op and its founders instill in us a sense of civic pride, a feeling that just about anything is possible if we simply get off our tushes and make it happen. dashboardco-op.org. less...

Stage artists Grant McGowen and Bree Dawn Shannon co-founded Pinch 'N' Ouch Theatre in New York in 2008 but brought the troupe's name with them when they relocated to Atlanta in 2010. Since last year's inaugural production of Neil LaBute's reasons to be pretty, Pinch 'N' Ouch has set a high standard in delivering impassioned productions of sharp, trendy scripts such as Kenneth Lonergan's Lobby Hero and Stephen Belber's Tape. Named after a term coined by famed acting coach Sanford Meisner, Pinch 'N' Ouch nudges the Atlanta theater scene with its youthful enthusiasm. pnotheatre.org. less...

In a summer of Hollywood superheroes, the 2011 documentary Disabled But Able to Rock presents the most compelling story of an ordinary person with an extraordinary alter ego. Local director Blake Myers profiles Atlanta's Betsy Goodrich, aka Danger Woman, a high-functioning autistic woman who likes to dress as a superhero and fight the forces of "homophobia, race-ophobia and disable-phobia," largely through her ear-splitting karaoke performances. Disabled But Able to Rock presents the complexities of living with a mental disability as well as the joyous embrace of life that has given Goodrich a cult following. dangerwomanmovie.com. less...

Finding venues, getting exposure and connecting to potential audiences have long been major challenges for Atlanta's independent dancers and choreographers. But recently, an exciting new energy has been buzzing through the local dance scene. Like Atlanta's increasingly robust emerging visual art scene, ATL dance has also caught the collaboration bug, forming alliances among artists, between companies and across disciplines. Dance Truck's July 2011 production, PLOT, at the Goat Farm used an army of visual artists, videographers, designers, tech crew and volunteers to get a gorgeous production off the ground for a series of sold-out shows. Independent dancers banded together to produce the strong mixed program Magnetc Drift at the neglected Magnetic Theater in Reynoldstown in May. Choreographer Nicole Livieratos got up close and personal with poet Patricia Henritze for the intimate ongoing series Proximity. To top it all off, the meetings, blog, and events calendar of the new dance service org DanceATL have become an important focal point for Atlanta's independent dancers and choreographers as they gather and plan for their long overdue takeover of the city. danceatl.org. less...

An outpouring of support accompanied Actor's Express' S.O.S. fundraising drive this year, which indicates the fierce loyalty of the edgy playhouse's fans and the value of its mission. The theater has changed locations and leadership over its two and a half decades, but sustained its identity as Atlanta's most exciting playhouse. With impeccable recent productions including the insightful comedy Becky Shaw and the twisty musical See What I Wanna See, Actor's Express brings such intelligence and passion to its work that even its most challenging scripts become accessible. The company began its 24th season this fall with the hip rock show Spring Awakening. Here's hoping the youthful onstage energies will be matched by a resurgence of financial security. 887 W. Marietta St. 404-875-1606. actors-express.com. less...

In recent years, live theater has tried to tap the excitement over digital technology, social networking and other trends with the potential to change the world. In the spring, the always-innovative Out of Hand Theatre, collaborating with Dutch theatrical ensemble the Lunatics, presented the "mass MP3 experiment" Group Intelligence. Held on Emory's campus and at Centennial Park, the events used MP3 recordings to give the audience/participants instructions to do crazy stunts, contemplate their place in the universe and come together for complex tasks. Like a flash mob with a message of environmental sustainability, Group Intelligence pushed the boundaries of traditional theater. outofhandtheater.com. less...