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2008 Suzi Bass Awards handed out
Updated with photo gallery. Clink "Suzi" below.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Alliance Theatre dominated the Suzi Bass Awards on Monday night — picking up 13 of the 20 artistic prizes.
Alliance artistic director Susan V. Booth’s haunting production of “Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris” — named the best production of 2007 by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution — led the pack with five of the silver-star medallions, followed by playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney’s “In the Red and Brown Water” with four and Sarah Ruhl’s “Eurydice” with two. (“Eurydice” was a co-production with Georgia Shakespeare.)
All three productions were produced on the Alliance’s downstairs Hertz Stage, making it the year’s most acclaimed and essential drama destination.
The Suzi Bass Awards, named after a beloved Atlanta actress who died of melanoma a few years ago, were presented at a classy and formal affair in the Fox Theatre’s Egyptian Ballroom. Over the past four years, the Suzis have become Atlanta’s answer to the Tony Awards.
The top acting awards for a play went to LaLa Cochran for “The Little Dog Laughed” at Theatre in the Square and Joe Knezevich for his lead performance in Georgia Shakespeare’s “Richard III.” Natasha Drena won for best lead actress in a musical for Aurora Theatre’s “Annie Get Your Gun,” while Craig A. Meyer won the best lead actor in a musical for “Jacques Brel.”
Atlanta playwright Pearl Cleage showed up to claim the Gene-Gabriel Moore Playwriting Award for “A Song for Coretta,” and her first comments were a celebration of “being alive in the new America” of President-elect Barack Obama.
“Her characters are so much like our new president,” said 7 Stages artistic director Del Hamilton as he introduced Cleage. “Overwhelmingly positive and optimistic.”
“A Song for Coretta” is about a group of women waiting in the rain outside Ebenezer Baptist Church to view the body of Coretta Scott King. “This is the first play I have written in 10 years,” Cleage said, “and it’s a heck of a way to come back.” Cleage is also a highly regarded novelist.
The evening’s tribute to Suzi Awards founder Gene-Gabriel Moore and Spirit of Suzi Bass Award winner Carol Mitchell-Leon were bittersweet. Moore, who died in July after triumphing over a series of catastrophic health problems and forming a theater for the disabled, was remembered in a slide presentation, accompanied by Louis Armstrong’s rendition of “What A Wonderful World.”
It would have been hard for anyone to find words to describe the irrepressible and irascible Moore, but the pictures were profiles in courage. Moore, a former print journalist and TV inteviewer, was shown looking handsome and vital in pictures from his middle years. In images shot after a series of strokes and other ailments, he remained witty and spirited.
Leon, who has been suffering from an undisclosed illness for nearly a year, was saluted by former student Dorothy Bell and close friend Jen Harper. “She was the fiercest actor I have ever known,” Harper said of Mitchell-Leon, who taught at Clark Atlanta University and has been one of the city’s most visible actresses for years.
Harper said when she told Mitchell-Leon about the award, “She frowned up a little bit, and then the biggest smile came across her face, and she said, ‘Tell them thank you.’ “
“She is so deserving and the battle she has fought and won, I have never heard a complaint,” said Bell, who teared up as she recounted anecdotes about her mentor.
Here’s a full list of winners:
Featured actress, play. Bethany Anne Lind, “The Last Schwartz,” Jewish Theatre of the South.
Featured actor, play. Andrew Benator, “Eurydice,” Alliance Theatre/Georgia Shakespeare co-production.
Lead actress, play. LaLa Cochran, “The Little Dog Laughed,” Theatre in the Square.
Lead actor, play. Joe Knezevich, “Richard III,” Georgia Shakespeare.
Lead actress, musical. Natasha Drena, “Annie Get Your Gun,” Aurora Theatre.
Lead actor, musical. Craig A. Meyer, “Jacques Brel,” Alliance.
Director, play. Tina Landau, “In the Red and Brown Water,” Alliance.
Director, musical. Susan V. Booth, “Jacques Brel,” Alliance.
Production, play. “In the Red and Brown Water,” Alliance.
Production, musical. “Jacques Brel,” Alliance.
Scenic design. Kat Conley, “Eurydice,” Alliance/Georgia Shakespeare.
Lighting design. Scott Zielinski, “In the Red and Brown Water,” Alliance.
Sound design. Chris Bartelski, “In Darfur,” Horizon Theatre.
Costume design. Christine Turbitt, “The Merchant of Venice,” Georgia Shakespeare.
Featured actress, musical. Marva Hicks, “The Women of Brewster Place,” Alliance.
Featured actor, musical. Eric Moore, “Godspell,” Theatrical Outfit.
Ensemble, play. “In the Red and Brown Water,” Alliance.
Ensemble, musical. “Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris,” Alliance.
Choreography. Byron Easley and Kent Gash, “Sophisticated Ladies,” Alliance.
Musical direction. Michael Fauss, “Jacques Brel,” Alliance.
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Comments
By Raye Varney
November 11, 2008 8:00 AM | Link to this
It was a wonderful night! Congratulations to all the nominees and to the organizing committee for making it happen.
By yujlko
November 12, 2008 8:59 AM | Link to this
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By Sharron Hannon
November 13, 2008 4:15 PM | Link to this
It’s wonderful that the Atlanta theater community has these awards. Just wish there was a category recognizing community theater efforts outside the Atlanta Metro area…sort of like the recognition the Tonys extend to regional theater outside New York.
By Anthony Luke "Aldo" Davis
January 10, 2009 7:46 PM | Link to this
I absolutely and most definetly agree with Rayne Varney and Sharron Hannon. What a blast, I’ll tell you. It’s like watching the Tony Awards in your very own home on TV, but up close and personal that’s actually live on stage by being so way much more intimate and exciting. Just think about all of that, because it’s great. Barack Obama sucks a lot.