Best Local Stage Director

Actor’s Express artistic director FREDDIE ASHLEY benefits from the law of averages in this category: He’s such a prolific director that if you’ve seen a vivid or imaginative production recently, odds are he helmed it. Ashley’s coming off a particularly fulsome season that included the memory-haunted musical Grey Gardens, the intimate musical A Catered Affair, and the showbiz satire-turned-fightfest Slasher. In Ashley’s shows, the actors make graceful transitions between powerful emotional beats without ever letting the snappy pace flag. Here’s hoping Ashley keeps up the pace as well. www.actors-express.com less...

SUSAN V. BOOTH began her relationship with the Alliance Theatre as a freelance director, breezing in from Chicago and blowing audiences away with stunning stagings of such challenging shows as How I Learned to Drive. Since being named the Alliance’s artistic director in 2001, she’s directed smart productions — including Proof and My Fair Lady — while leading Atlanta’s premiere playhouse. She’s always been reliable, but outdid herself when visiting Actor’s Express to direct Thom Pain (Based on Nothing). Booth took a potentially maddening one-man show about an evasive, self-loathing narrator (played to acerbic perfection by Chris Kayser) and made it utterly engrossing. She played no small role in the Alliance earning a Regional Theatre Tony Award this year. It’ll be fascinating to see what she does with John Patrick Shanley’s confrontational Pulitzer Prize-winner Doubt in 2008. less...

SUSAN V. BOOTH began her relationship with the Alliance Theatre as a freelance director, breezing in from Chicago and blowing audiences away with stunning stagings of such challenging shows as How I Learned to Drive. Since being named the Alliance’s artistic director in 2001, she’s directed smart productions - including Proof and My Fair Lady - while leading Atlanta’s premiere playhouse. She’s always been reliable, but outdid herself when visiting Actor’s Express to direct Thom Pain (Based on Nothing). Booth took a potentially maddening one-man show about an evasive, self-loathing narrator (played to acerbic perfection by Chris Kayser) and made it utterly engrossing. She played no small role in the Alliance earning a Regional Theatre Tony Award this year. It’ll be fascinating to see what she does with John Patrick Shanley’s confrontational Pulitzer Prize-winner Doubt in 2008. less...

Never less than a bold, provocative director, KENT GASH — the Alliance Theatre’s associate artistic director — exceeded his already impressive standards with three musicals over the past year. After warming up with Jonathan Larson’s autobiographical tick, tick ... BOOM! on the Alliance Hertz Stage, Gash tackled the most controversial material imaginable with Actor’s Express’ pedophilia-themed musical Love Jerry and brought rawness and intimacy to the year’s most daring show. And with Jelly’s Last Jam, Gash directed the Alliance Theatre’s most satisfying spectacle in years, with every aspect of the production hitting on all cylinders. less...