Best Female Actor

Holding a theater full of kids in rapt attention isn’t easy. But it’s one of the reasons we have such mad respect for Atlanta actress Danielle Deadwyler and her performances this year as Charlotte in Charlotte’s Web and as August March in The Real Tweenagers of Atlanta: Final Assembly, both at the Alliance Theatre. Her energy, humor, and charisma radiated off the stage. When Deadwyler, as Charlotte, explained to Wilbur that she kills flies “because it’s in her nature,” the line became a plainspoken bit of broad philosophical wisdom. Deadwyler sprained her ribs in a school matinee performance during preview week of Charlotte’s Web, and the central planned stunt, Charlotte on aerial silks, had to be removed on opening night. Still, the actress brought out Charlotte’s determination, honesty, and self-sacrificing kindness despite her bruised ribs, proving that Deadwyler is a special effect in and of herself. less...

In recent years, Atlantans have been short-changed the charms of PushPush Theater co-founder SHELBY HOFER, primarily due to her having a child. Hofer renewed her credentials as one of Atlanta’s best comic actresses with PushPush’s one-woman show 101 Humiliating Stories by Lisa Kron. A tour-de-force of shameful admissions and self-conscious behavior, Stories provided a showcase of Hofer’s spot-on timing, from mortifying anecdotes to asides to the audience to such awkward episodes as falling asleep on stage. PushPush extended Stories several times, but really, could continue to show it every week without it getting old. www.pushpushtheater.com less...

LINDA STEPHENS’ acting is overdue for local recognition, but that’s partly due to her habit of gallivanting off to New York for such prestigious shows as the Broadway revival of The Man Who Came to Dinner. When she settled in for the role of beloved Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Celestine Sibley in TURNED FUNNY at Theatre in the Square last fall, audiences enjoyed her company so much that the play inspired a summer remount and an upcoming holiday follow-up, Christmas at Sweet Apple. Stephens captured Sibley’s folksy spirit without sentiment or simple imitation, and conveyed the span of her life without seeming like a stunt. The past year saw exceptional performances by actresses (including Shelly McCook at Theatre in the Square’s Miss Witherspoon and Carolyn Cook at Horizon Theatre’s Nine Parts of Desire, but none made quite as strong a connection to audiences as Stephens playing Sibley. less...

LINDA STEPHENS’ acting is overdue for local recognition, but that’s partly due to her habit of gallivanting off to New York for such prestigious shows as the Broadway revival of The Man Who Came to Dinner. When she settled in for the role of beloved Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Celestine Sibley in TURNED FUNNY at Theatre in the Square last fall, audiences enjoyed her company so much that the play inspired a summer remount and an upcoming holiday follow-up, Christmas at Sweet Apple. Stephens captured Sibley’s folksy spirit without sentiment or simple imitation, and conveyed the span of her life without seeming like a stunt. The past year saw exceptional performances by actresses (including Shelly McCook at Theatre in the Square’s Miss Witherspoon and Carolyn Cook at Horizon Theatre’s Nine Parts of Desire, but none made quite as strong a connection to audiences as Stephens playing Sibley. less...

No single actress delivered a performance so wrenching, surprising and even humorous as the NINE-PERFORMER ENSEMBLE OF WOMEN + WAR, from Synchronicity Performance Group. The original script featured a nearly impossibly ambitious premise, spanning the female perspective of armed conflicts, from historical warriors to protester-moms to victimized refugee. The cast brought Women + War down to earth and featured such local theater leaders as Synchronicity co-founder Hope Mirlis, playwright Suehyla El-Attar and Savage Tree Arts Center co-founder Kristi Casey. Like a highly trained platoon, the excellent ensemble proved so tightly knit that it’s impossible to single out any one performer. less...