Some good things about this year’s Ovation Awards:
1. The awards ceremony took place on Martin Luther King Day. If the proportion of African Americans who won awards had been tiny, this could have been embarrassing. But as it turned out, black-themed shows won both of the production awards for intimate theaters – The Women of Brewster Place in the small musicals category and The Ballad of Emmett Till in the small plays category.
Shirley Jo Finney, who is African American, won a directing award for Emmett Till, and her all-black ensemble won the ensemble acting award. L.Trey Wilson, an African American writer, won the original playwriting award for the all-black Something Happened. Two black actors won individual acting awards: Daniel Beaty as one of three winners in the competition for lead actor in a play, and David St. Louis as outstanding featured actor in a musical.
Michael Shepperd of the Celebration Theatre accepts a production award for THE WOMEN OF BREWSTER PLACE.
Note that none of these winning accomplishments from African American talent occurred under the auspices of black-specific theater companies. And only one of the productions mentioned above, The Women of Brewster Place, was from a company (Celebration Theatre) with a black artistic director (Michael Shepperd). Of course the LA area’s most prominent black artistic director, Sheldon Epps at Pasadena Playhouse, wasn’t able to produce at full speed last year because of the playhouse’s financial troubles.
Do the achievements of black artists at theaters that aren’t black-specific argue for a theatrical version of the integration that Dr. King espoused – as opposed to the more separatist approach that the late great August Wilson advocated? Wilson argued eloquently on behalf of black-specific theaters, although the fact is that most of his plays emerged through a network of white-run institutions. Is there still an important role to be played by black-specific theater companies, with black artistic directors and mostly black boards?
Does the comparative lack of Latino Americans and Asian Americans among this year’s winners say anything about a comparatively greater need for Latino-specific and Asian-specific theater companies?
And what about women? LA Stage Alliance (LASA) executive director Terence McFarland, in remarks at the awards ceremony that focused on the meaning of holding the event on the King holiday, observed that no women were nominated in the playwriting category. Could this mean that women’s voices are so insufficiently represented that more women-specific theater companies should be encouraged?
Rather than pontificate on the answers to all these questions, I’d rather read other people’s answers in the form of comments to this post or entirely new posts from readers, especially those who are from the demographic groups mentioned above.
2. On an entirely lighter note, holding the ceremony on MLK Day also insured that the westbound traffic to the ceremony at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza was lighter than it is during most Monday rush hours. (However, the severe pedestrian congestion in front of the ticket distribution tables on the Plaza’s courtyard seemed to consume more time than a traffic jam on the 101. I was grateful that no one shouted “Fire!” outside this particular theater.)
3. Sally Struthers. The “host” or emcee is often the source of much of the levity at awards shows. Although this year’s Ovations ceremony had no official host/wisecracker, Struthers came close to filling the vacuum, getting more laughs than anyone else on stage. It helped that she appeared twice.
Sally Struthers provides levity at the Ovation Awards ceremony.
First she accepted an Ovation for her performance in Cabrillo Music Theatre’s Cinderella – which she had performed in the same Kavli Theatre where the ceremony was taking place. Among other quips, she dryly noted that one of her reasons for taking the role was that “I only live 33 miles down the road” – a reflection on LA’s far-flung theater landscape that seemed to resonate among the many in the crowd who had driven at least that far to get to Thousand Oaks.
Later, Struthers presented an award, and her first comment was a tart little critique of the ceremony’s set, which focused on the same circular patterns that can also be seen on the LA Stage Alliance web site. She quipped that during her previous appearance, she had been “remiss. I wanted to thank Dunkin’ Donuts for the set design.”
4. Ah yes, the winners. Let’s consider only the winners of the five major awards. Four of these are awards for single productions – and this year, one of these was a tie, with two winners. All five scripts from these winning productions were either brand-new or new to the area: The Women of Brewster Place, The Ballad of Emmett Till, Four Places, Oedipus the King, Mama! and Equivocation. I liked all of them, but not unconditionally, and none of the winners were on my lists of the highlights of 2009 or 2010. This is good, in a way, because it means more shows are being honored in at least some manner. In most of these categories, I liked some of the Ovations runners-up as much I liked the winners.
The cast of THE BALLAD OF EMMETT TILL accepts an acting ensemble Ovation Award.
The single most prestigious award is for Best Season, and here the Fountain Theatre triumphed for its combination of The Ballad of Emmett Till, Opus and Shining City. This mix of shows was perfectly perched between rivals whose seasons seemed perhaps too safe (Cabrillo, Reprise, The Production Company) and the more ambitious offerings of the most-nominated company, Boston Court, whose season of all-new plays included two (God Save Gertrude and The Good Book of Pedantry and Wonder) that were notably weaker than the other two (Oedipus el Rey and The Twentieth-Century Way). Also in the running were LATC, which revived two of its own originals and threw in a Donald Freed play that never quite took off, plus Troubadour Theater, which won the Best Season award last year and therefore probably didn’t have much of a chance this season.
Are revivals getting a fair shot at the Ovations? Perhaps one or two additional production awards for revivals should be added. Such companies as Reprise, A Noise Within, Antaeus and the Production Company probably suffer from the natural tendency to want to reward new voices and new ventures.
And now a few complaints about the 2009-10 Ovations, most of which I also wrote about last year, apparently to no avail:
To be eligible for the Ovations, a registered show must be seen and scored by at least 12 voters. I continue to believe this number is too low. Ditto for the numbers of shows that each voter is required to see – 25 for most voters (with at least 20 in sub-100-seat theaters), and a mere 10 for company artistic directors who double as voters. To put this into perspective, nearly 400 productions were in the running for Ovation Awards in 2009-10. So most voters needed to see only one out of 16 eligible shows, and some were allowed to see only one out of every 40.
This year LASA provided me with a chart of how many shows were seen by each of 250 voters, with no names attached. The busiest theatergoer among the Ovation voting ranks in 2009-10 saw 278 shows, including 191 in sub-100-seat theaters. The second busiest saw a total of 225 productions. These were the only voters who saw at least half the eligible shows.
Twelve additional voters saw at least 100 productions. Forty-seven voters saw between 50 and 99 shows. If it were up to me, I’d set 50 as the minimum number of shows voters must see – that’s about one per week. Although only 61 of the 250 voters in 2009-10 would have qualified under my proposed rule, that would still be a much larger voting body than those of any of the other theater awards programs in LA.
I would like to publicly salute those two voters who saw more than 200 productions, but LASA declines to reveal their identities. Apparently there has been some concern that people who have seen that many shows in previous years might not have been genuine peers. Working theater professionals wouldn’t have that much time to see other people’s shows – or so goes the theory. Even if that’s true, however, the mere act of seeing that many shows surely gives those voters the kind of well-informed perspective that many of the other voters lack – especially if they can demonstrate enough professional experience in their pasts.
Finally, I’d like to repeat my vain hope that some audience members at the Ovations ceremony (you know who you are) would stop screaming at the top of their lungs at every mention of their friends or their other favorites. The screams were so frequent that if an uninformed stranger happened to pass through one of the Kavli corridors, he or she might have imagined that a horror movie was being screened inside the theater. I can’t believe that actors, in particular, would want to abuse their voices in this fashion – and looking around the audience during some of the screaming attacks, I could see that many people were applauding but not screaming, most of the time. The screamers were in the minority, but they tried to sound as if they’re in the majority. Perhaps a gentle admonition from the management at the beginning of future ceremonies might help?
CIRCUSES CIRCUSES CIRCUSES: Life’s not a cabaret, old chum – it’s a circus. Or so it appears judging from the sudden confluence of three very different circuses in LA.
Circus INcognitus at the Kirk Douglas Theatre is an ideal way to introduce kids to the theater (it’s recommended for ages 6-12), while keeping the adults entertained, too. It’s a solo circus, except for one brief bit with a stagehand, but clown/juggler/acrobat Jamie Adkins keeps everyone on the edge of the seat. He encounters formidable obstacles in performing the simplest tasks – but he works through the difficulties in order to accomplish amazing feats. It’s hard not to see this as a pretty good lesson for an audience member of any age.
The other two circuses target audiences about 20 years older than that of Circus INcognitus, but in very different ways.
Jumping through hoops in TRACES. Photo by Michael Meseke.
Traces, at the Ricardo Montalbán Theatre, is a French-Canadian enterprise from the 7 Fingers troupe that counter-programs against its more famous frère, Cirque du Soleil, by presenting its performers not as human beings transformed into fantasy creatures but rather as the twentysomething habitués of the latest indie coffee joint or Hollywood hipster bar or downtown loft. They’re dressed in street clothes, and they occasionally speak about themselves on a mobile microphone that dangles from the top of the stage, adopting tones and attitudes that you might see at a poetry jam or read on Facebook , Twitter or YouTube. They also sing and play instruments. But then they go into their very impressive acts, and you can see they’ve probably spent a lot more time dangling from bars than hanging out in bars. There’s a lopsided sexual tension in the air, in part because only one of the seven performers is a woman, and at times the six men appear to preen for her benefit. Traces is right at home in the heart of the newly revived Hollywood nightlife district, and it’s great to see this venue again used for something besides selling shoes.
Cirque Berzerk, at Club Nokia in downtown LA, follows closer in the Cirque du Soleil footsteps. A young woman, alienated by corporate conformity, accepts an invitation to die and enters an underworld of circus acts. Cirque Berzerk is a home-grown group; I first wrote about it here. But I was a little disappointed that its 2011 show is too much like Berzerk’s 2009 show Beneath, which followed the same narrative, though individual acts differ. I also preferred the more genuine circus atmosphere of a big top in a park in 2009 to Club Nokia’s giant-sized nightclub ambience. I’m sure that this kind of commercial success might help Berzerk get on the map and provide more comfortable wages. Las Vegas is probably in the Berzerkers’ future. If they’re going that route, they should at least be careful to vary the content of their shows, as Cirque du Soleil has done.
Cirque du Soleil itself will open a permanent show at the Kodak in Hollywood later this year, so it’s probably just as well that these three smaller ventures had their inadvertent circus festival now, before the big frère returns.
Circus INcognitus, Kirk Douglas Theatre, 9820 Washington Blvd., Culver City. Saturday at 11 am and 3 pm, Sunday at 3 pm. Closes Sunday. 213-628-2772. www.CenterTheatreGroup.org.
Traces, Ricardo Montalbán Theatre, 1615 Vine St., Hollywood. Tues-Fri, 8 pm; Sat, 2 and 8 pm; Sun 1 and 6:30 pm. Closes Feb. 20. 800-982-2787. www.tracesusa.com. www.BroadwayLA.org.
Cirque Berzerk, Club Nokia, 800 W. Olympic Blvd., LA. Wed. Jan. 19, 8 pm; Thurs, 8 pm; Fri-Sat, 8 and 11 pm; Sun, 8 pm. Closes Jan. 30. 800-745-3000. www.cirqueberzerk.com, www.ticketmaster.com.
Ovation ceremony photos by Ryan Miller/Capture Imaging.
Thank you, Terence, for pointing out that there were no female playwrights nominated this year. Thank you, Don, for mentioning it as well. In a city as large and artistically vital as Los Angeles, with hundreds of female playwrights, it is disappointing that in the second decade of the 21st century, none of these playwrights were honored this year at the Ovations. We hope next year more women playwrights will be included. – Los Angeles Female Playwrights Initiative
Regarding the lack of women playwrights represented in LA (and elsewhere!), I think the first step is just calling attention to the fact that women ARE underrepresented. Thanks, Terrence (and Don!), for joining members of the theatrical community across the country who are helping to do just that. Next step is getting the work of women onstage, however, by whomever. But I’m not sure this can happen until audiences (and artists!) realize something’s missing.
“Is there still an important role to be played by black-specific theater companies, with black artistic directors and mostly black boards?” I don’t understand this question! Are you saying that there is no need for black-specific theater companies because the white ones can supply our needs, culturally, and tell our stories more eloquently? This sounds like the days of slavery, racism at its highest when it was believed that the black man should not be taught to read because he was incapable and lacked the intellectual capacity to learn. Why are you questioning our existence? Have you ever seen a play produced by a predominately African American company and written about it in your column? When was the last time the Ovation committee announced nominations for such prestigious companies like Towne Street Theatre, LA’s Premiere African American Theatre, and The Robey Theatre whose reputations are built on quality performance?
We serve the community as well as any other non-profit arts organization,i.e. TST Kids, a summer musical theatre camp for kids.
In this movie town where theatre is not as vibrantly in abundance like NYC, why deny us a our rightful place in the arts by questioning our existence?
“Is there still an important role to be played by black-specific theater companies, with black artistic directors and mostly black boards?” Uh… yeah! For one thing, no explanations or justifications or apologies are needed. They automatically “get it.” Number two, one never has to think “Did they not want to do my project because it or I am black?” They probably just didn’t want to do it because it sucked. When it’s a black company, actors also don’t have to worry about there being no roles for them to try out for. When I attended a predominantly white CHRISTIAN college, I wasn’t even allowed to try out for any of the roles in The Wizard of Oz because the director just couldn’t imagine a black person as anything but a flying monkey (and of course she wasn’t brave enough to cast me as one of those). And lastly, why not? Just because neighborhoods, clubs, contests, jobs, grants, etc. aren’t preceded by “White______” doesn’t meant they aren’t specifically designed for that group. Ninety-nine percent of the time, non-black reviewers don’t even come out to review black plays until the last performance thereby ensuring that no one will hear about the work and come out to see it. And just look at the plays mentioned. Emmett Till? The Women of Brewster Place? Although I didn’t see them and am sure they were wonderful, they are about the same old subjects that whites accept from blacks. What about a non-race related piece that just happened to be written, directed, and acted by black people? Would that be as palatable? Do we still need black-specific theaters (and churches, clubs, schools)? If we want to be able to be chosen on merit, probably so. Remember segregation didn’t really do anything for black people. It actually did more for whites because it meant blacks could now spend EVERY dime we made in stores owned by white people. Did whites return the favor and shop in our stores? Why, no. Therefore, our stores closed because our merchants could not compete with the low costs offered by the majority. The day when we don’t need our own EVERYthing has not come yet. I doubt if it ever will.
And I meant “integration”, not “segregation.”
two things –
First, I agree that there will always be a place for Black-centric (or Deaf-centric or Latino-centric or Asian-centric etc etc) theater, just as there is a place for completely color/age/ability/gender blind casting, because they each make specific statements that are vital in today’s society. (And I think Don raised the question as a challenge to everyone to rethink how shows are chosen and cast and designed.)
And, while I agree that seeing more plays is better than seeing less, I tend to agree that anyone seeing 150+ plays per season is probably not a working professional, which is reflected in honoring many of the same folks. I may be jumping to conclusions, but in random casual conversation with a range of theater people of varying ages, niches and work histories, it seems that those working tend to be less interested in “comfort food” and more in riskier, different or more challenging projects, in discovering fresh talent (not just recent NY transplants) and investing in new ideas and broader ranging work. In spite of a busy work year, I saw several brilliant shows that didn’t get enough voters to qualify, then saw awards go to shows that were fine but nothing out of the ordinary (w a few exceptions – “Emmett Till” among them). I don’t know how to solve this, but it is something we need to challenge and solve.
Despite the African-American Ovation wins, I feel there would be a serious dearth of works by artists of color if there were no black-specific theatres. As an African-American female playwright, I have received several productions from the Towne Street Theatre Company, of which I am a member.
Having once been a member of a few playwright groups at the Taper and currently being a member of both Towne Street and Theatre West I have seen how a few theater companies function.
At the Taper the Black specific groups (and sometimes artist) were there to be pimped as a source for money and used for public funding, private grants, etc. It was purely and simply that. Having spoken to other people of color at such theaters from across the country, this was the general norm for how we were treated. Even the Blacks who headed (and still head) such theaters had to work within very limited boundaries. Some are more successful than others in balancing the work done but all were always looking over their shoulders.
Black theater companies both reach out to the Black community in ways that only they can and at the same time give Black artist an opportunity to do work from the heart without the fear of having to look over our shoulders, but also eliminates the fear of that “tab” on the shoulder that one has gone “too far”. Maybe you as Whites can not understand the fear of that “tab” but people of color live with the fear every day.
I completely agree with Don Shirley about the screaming mobs at the Ovations. While Don mentions it as merely an annoyance, to me it’s worse than that because it makes any theatre or actor or show mentioned seem unpopular if they don’t elicit a roar from the crowd. So it has become such that it is actually embarrassing if you DON’T get a huge scream! Rewind right back to high school. Yikes. Next time any of my shows get nominated I’m actually going to HIRE a mob of extras just to come scream for me so that I don’t feel like an unpopular freshman.
Thank you…I Really enjoyed the very informative article regarding the voting, the numbers of shows that get seen by voters, and yet so many that still don’t. I had NO idea..Could there actually be TOO MUCH Theatre in L.A. and NOT ENOUGH Ovation Voters to get to see it all?