Talking it out

The morning after the awards, I got on a plane at 7am and headed west, mostly for work and also for a little bit of fun. After a week away, I'm just making it through the mound of stuff both home- and work-related that built up while I was gone.

One of the things I've been catching up on is the multiple conversations that have been going on at the TheatreLAB's experiment discussion board. Have you been there? If not, you should check it out. The kinds of topics that are being posted and discussed are just the kinds of things I've always hoped would be talked about here. I can't wait to see what kinds of things are brought up, argued about, and maybe even decided upon.

And the Artsie goes to...

Here is a list of last night's recipients of the 2012 Richmond Theatre Critics Circle awards:

Best Musical
Spring Awakening produced by Virginia Repertory Theatre

Best Direction of a Musical
Chase Kniffen for Spring Awakening

Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Musical
Terence Sullivan for The Rocky Horror Show

Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Musical
Stacey Cabaj for My Fair Lady

Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Musical
Nick Aliff for The Rocky Horror Show

Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Musical
Christie Jackson for Spring Awakening

Best Musical Direction
Ben Houghton for My Fair Lady

Best Choreography
Maggie Marlin for The Rocky Horror Show

Best Play
August: Osage County produced by Cadence Theatre & Virginia Repertory Theatre

Best Direction of a Play
Jan Powell for The Tragedy of Macbeth

Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Play
Ryan Bechard for The Tragedy of Macbeth

Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Play
Melissa Johnston Price for August: Osage County

The Ernie McClintock Best Ensemble Award
God of Carnage produced by Virginia Repertory Theatre

Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Play
Matthew Mitchell for Kimberly Akimbo

Best Actress in a Supporting Role - Play
Katie McCall for August: Osage County

Outstanding Achievement in Lighting Design
Joe Doran for The 39 Steps

Outstanding Achievement in Costume Design
Holly Sullivan for The Rocky Horror Show

Outstanding Achievement in Set Design
Phil Hayes for August: Osage County

Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design
Paul Deiss for It's a Wonderful Life

Outstanding Achievement in Fight Choreography
Kevin Inouye for The Tragedy of Macbeth

Outstanding Achievement in Stage Magic
Tom Width for Numerous productions

Best Locally-Developed New Show
Brew: Locally Grown Stories from Richmond's Coffee Community produced by Stage B Theatre Company

People's Choice Award
Dessa Rose

Just a Song Before I Go

It’s only 4 days to go before the RTCC awards and dang, things are just popping! Several productions are nearing the ends of their runs, “King John,” “Regrets Only” and “A Bright New Boise” closing down this weekend. At the same time, the second round of Fall productions is gearing up, “The Pillowman” from Cadence and “The Fox on the Fairway” from CAT bowing next weekend. It’s hard to keep up.

Amidst the clamor, a couple of things to accentuate:

If you want to go to the RTCCs, buy your tickets soon! Last time I checked, there were only 6 seats in the orchestra and almost 40 seats had sold in the Grand Tier. You can order online here. Also, I’ve updated the website with listings of what songs are scheduled to be performed and what presenters are scheduled to show up (what actually happens on the night itself is always a little up for grabs!)

If you haven’t yet, try to fit a viewing of “King John” into your schedule. There are so many great productions happening in town right now that I’m afraid this one is getting overlooked (the cast outnumbered the house at the Thursday show I attended). I raved about this show in my review in Style this week as did John Porter and Julinda Lewis in theirs.

Why should you see this show? Three quick and easy reasons:

1) David Janosik gives an incredible performance -- a truly larger than life performance -- and his is only the best of a long list of greats in this production (Ryan Bechard, Jennifer Frank, Thomas Cunningham, etc. etc.);

2) Technical elements that really pop, specifically, a less-is-more set design that seems simple but does everything it needs to do plus a remarkable sound design that has made me think more deeply about the benefits of a good sound design than I have in years;

3) Fighting! I cannot deny that the show occasionally seems long and the plot had me a bit confused at times. But just as your mind might wander, Ryan Bechard fight choreography brings you right back into the action.

Director Jan Powell has done a great bit of work here and even if you have a hard time with Shakespeare, I’d recommend you check it out.

Finally, I will be hitting the road the morning after the awards and my access to the Internet, as well as my free time to access it, may be a little spotty. That means I may be a little out of touch next week, meaning I may not participate as much in the post-RTCC grousing and/or celebrating as I have in previous years. Y’all are welcome to talk about things on this space all you want. Cries of outrage, exclamations of gratitude, and everything in between are welcome. I’ll try to chime in as I can.

RTCC Quick Hits

I’m having trouble believing it’s less than 10 days before the 5th Annual RTCC awards. There is SO much theater going on in town right now and my ability to see much of it is being throttled by RTCC-related time crunches. I have seen 3 shows over 3 weeks so feeling good about that but that’s half the shows I’d like to see. So it goes.

Some tidbits to know about the awards:

 There is a pre-awards reception being held at Popkin Tavern, across the street from the November. It starts at 5pm. Come over early and help us get the party started!

 Buy your tickets if you haven’t. I think the orchestra is just about full. We’re losing the front row because of the “Night Blooms” set so there are fewer seats available down there than usual.

 There is going to be a special something unveiled at the awards – a “product” many folks will be interested in. There has been a bunch of people associated with creating it so word may have leaked out, but still: you’ll want to bring a little extra dough to snap one of these up.

 The awards event is getting some regional coverage. The editors at ShowBizRadio.com are expanding their coverage to Richmond and are sending some folks down to catch the show. Y’all behave!

 I finally did some updating to the RTCC website. Nothing there that you don’t know if you read this space but still, it’s a nice reference to have if you need it!

I’m sure there’s more I should say about the awards but gotta get back to work! See you all next Sunday!