News: Winning Big

The Alliance Theatre’s production of Jelly’s Last Jam dominated the Suzi Bass Awards, presented Oct. 15 at the 14th Street Playhouse. The musical won seven honors, for Outstanding Production, Musical, Director (Kent Gash), Lead Actress (Karole Foreman), Lead Actor (J.D. Goldblatt), Featured Actress (LaVon Fisher) and awards for musical direction and choreography.

Founded in 2003 by Atlanta actor and director Gene-Gabriel Moore, the professional theater awards for the 2005-2006 season tapped Georgia Shakespeare’s Metamorphoses as Outstanding Production, Play, and also gave it awards for Outstanding Ensemble, Scenic Design, Lighting and Sound Design (sharing the latter award with Theatrical Outfit’s Cotton Patch Gospel). Georgia Ensemble plans to re-mount the lavish production, complete with its 24-foot swimming pool, from May 23-June 3.

Perhaps the ceremony’s biggest surprise was that Théâtre du Réve, Atlanta’s French-language company, won Outstanding Ensemble, Musical, for Vive La Fontaine! The first Gene-Gabriel Moore Playwriting Award went to Come On In My Kitchen writer Robert Earl Price, while the Spirit of Suzi Bass Award went to Kim Patrick Bitz, executive director of the Atlanta Coalition of the Performing Arts.

Chris Kayser won Lead Actor for Georgia Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, and Marianne Fraulo won Lead Actress in Horizon Theatre’s The Perfect Prayer (although their honors raise a question, as their characters were unmistakably supporting roles in their respective plays).

COMPLETE LIST OF WINNERS

IMAGE Maker

IMAGE Film & Video has named Dan Krovich the new festival director for the Atlanta Film Festival and Out on Film. Krovich served as the programming administrator for the Maryland Film Festival for six years, and has worked as a reader for the Maryland Filmmaker’s Fellowship and on the programming committee for the MicroCineFest underground film festival. He served as a production assistant on the films Syriana and Swimmers.

Because Krovich worked with IMAGE’s recently named president/CEO Gabriel Wardell at the Maryland Film Festival, I suggest they be collectively known as “The Maryland Mafia” from this moment on.

2006 Suzi Bass Awards

The complete list of winners:

Production — Play

Metamorphoses (Georgia Shakespeare)

Production — Musical

Jelly’s Last Jam (Alliance Theatre)

Director — Play

Kate Warner, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Dad’s Garage)

Director — Musical

Kent Gash, Jelly’s Last Jam (Alliance Theatre)

Lead Actress — Play

Marianne Fraulo, The Perfect Prayer (Horizon Theatre Company)

Lead Actress — Musical

Karole Foreman, Jelly’s Last Jam (Alliance Theatre)

Featured Actress — Play

Suehyla El-Attar, Bluish (Alliance Theatre)

Featured Actress — Musical

LaVon Fisher, Jelly’s Last Jam (Alliance Theatre)

Lead Actor — Play

Chris Kayser, Twelfth Night (Georgia Shakespeare)

Lead Actor — Musical

J.D. Goldblatt, Jelly’s Last Jam (Alliance Theatre)

Featured Actor — Play

Ariel Shafir, The Underpants (Alliance Theatre)

Featured Actor — Musical

Geoff Uterhardt; Love, Jerry (Actor’s Express)

Ensemble — Play

Metamorphoses (Georgia Shakespeare)

Ensemble — Musical

Vive La Fontaine! (Théâtre du Réve)

Musical Direction

Darryl G. Ivey, Jelly’s Last Jam (Alliance Theatre Company)

Choreography

Kent Gash and Byron Easley, Jelly’s Last Jam (Alliance Theatre)

Costume Design

Mariann Verheyen, Intimate Apparel (Alliance Theatre)

Scenic Design

Tim Conley, Metamorphoses (Georgia Shakespeare)

Lighting Design

Liz Lee and Mike Post, Metamorphoses (Georgia Shakespeare)

Sound Design (TIE)

Clay Benning and Kendall Simpson, Metamorphoses (Georgia Shakespeare)

Paul Fallatt, Cotton Patch Gospel (Theatrical Outfit)