On Nov. 14, local theater artists will gather at the Southwest Arts Center for the Suzi Bass Awards, a celebration of the best in Atlanta theater, hoping productions they were involved in during the 2021-22 season will take home trophies.
It’s the first time the event, created in 2005 to honor the beloved character actor who died three years earlier, will take place since 2019. And while the organization has taken actions toward accelerating racial equality among area playhouses the last few years, some of its decisions have not sat well with others and left the eligibility status of several theaters up in the air.
The current controversy peaked in 2020. In the spring, COVID-19 caused playhouses to halt productions. That summer, many BIPOC (Black and indigenous people of color) theater artists aired grievances about a lack of representation and unpleasant experiences at local theaters as part of a series of town hall meetings.
In the fall, the Suzi team was preparing to present the nominees for the 2019-2020 season when organizers decided to forgo the ceremony and withheld the list of nominees. Their reasoning: the pandemic and a need for social justice and racial equality in Atlanta’s theater community.
Instead, Suzi organizers presented a video of all the season’s eligible productions, announced a Lifetime Achievement Award for Atlanta playwright Pearl Cleage and gave Spirit of Suzi awards to five local social justice groups. The organization also announced new award qualification standards requiring more diversity on boards and casts.
The new requirements are extremely complex and difficult to decipher, but among the many requires, theater boards should have a minimum of 30% BIPOC members by June 30, 2023, host an EDI discussion at the beginning of each rehearsal process and have conducted EDI and anti-bias training by this June, with a minimum of twice a year after.
Canceling the awards, however, angered some judges who’d spent a year rating shows. Former co-judging coordinator Rich Vitaris, who said he believed the real reason the 2020 awards were stalled was because many categories lacked diversity, disagreed with the cancellation.
“We were blindsided,” admits Vitaris.
Also disappointed were those whose productions were in the running. Clifton Guterman, a former Suzi judge and presenter who hoped the production he directed of “The Laramie Project” at Theatrical Outfit would get multiple nominations, expressed mixed emotions.
“I understand it completely — the time we were in with COVID, the local and racial reckoning, the lack of inclusion based on what our city looks like,” he says. “What was hard for me as someone who made art that season that was judged and scored was that, when (the Suzis) took the pause, I felt like the communication around it was abysmal. The Suzi leadership did a really poor job of communicating the really complex issue.”
The nominees for that season were eventually identified and posted on the Suzi website with little fanfare. Warner stated notifications and certificates would follow. Guterman received neither, though, nor did any of the nominees. “As someone who made a big show, I was very sad about the work so many people had put in that year,” he says.
Suzi board member Brittani Minnieweather, co-founder of Black Leaders Advocating for Cultural Theatre (BLACT), recognizes some artists felt slighted but feels there was a bigger issue.
“That was a year of an entire national reckoning and lots of things were changing and evolving, hopefully for the better,” she says. “I would hope those artists would understand now that we’ve gotten through that time of upheaval. It wasn’t done out of unfairness; the whole nation and the arts community had to take pause, reflect and see who we are.”
Minnieweather notes that at the time Atlanta was dealing with the aftermath of allegations of racism at now-defunct Serenbe Playhouse, as well as the article by New York Times chief theater critic Jesse Green titled “54% of the People. 12% of the Plays. Atlanta, Do We Have a Problem?”
For this year’s Suzi Awards, which recognizes productions from the 2021-22 season, only 10 companies submitted work: Actor’s Express, Alliance Theatre, Atlanta Lyric Theatre, Aurora Theatre, Dominion Entertainment, Georgia Ensemble Theatre, Horizon Theatre, Synchronicity Theatre, Theatrical Outfit and Kenny Leon’s True Colors Theatre.
In previous years, more than two dozen professional theaters have participated. Those not submitting did so for a variety of reasons.
Dad’s Garage has been focused on getting back to full operation after the pandemic, according to artistic director Tim Stoltenberg. “We didn’t have the bandwidth or people power to take on everything,” he says.
In addition to diversity requirements, eligible plays and musicals must run at least 10 performances, and actors and stage managers must earn a minimum of $150 a week. Neither 7 Stages, because of its shorter-run productions, nor the Center for Puppetry Arts, which produced no new original work, had qualifying productions to submit, while Dunwoody’s Stage Door Players didn’t meet eligibility criteria but hope to be involved again in the future, says artistic director Justin Ball.
One notable absence among the nominees is City Springs Theatre Company, a previous Suzi Award winner. Its spring 2022 version of “A Chorus Line,” directed by original cast member Baayork Lee, was one of the season’s highlights.
According to Warner, however, City Springs didn’t submit the musical because it hadn’t met the diversity requirements but hoped to submit “The Color Purple” and “West Side Story” later that season. Neither were put forth for consideration.
One theater that’s no longer part of the Suzis is Out Front Theatre Company. Artistic director Paul Conroy’s primary concern is how the Suzis pit smaller theaters against companies with million-dollar budgets in the same categories.
“The same theater companies tend to get the most nominations and wins year after year,” he says. The Alliance Theatre led the 2021-2022 slate with 62 nominations, with Aurora Theatre and Actor’s Express garnering 15 each.
Jeff Watkins, artistic director of Shakespeare Tavern, isn’t participating this year but said he will again in 2022-2023. He’s been working with younger members of his company to get the theater and shows eligible. For him, the work the Suzis is doing is mandatory.
“I certainly understand it and like any thinking, rational person in the world, you have to look at the injustice, the systematic racism and think, ‘What can I do,’” he says.
However, he’s not in favor of organizational mandates. “Were I the person making decisions, I would have cautioned that art originates with the artist. It’s not in service of a political agenda, be it just or unjust. Art needs to speak for itself on its own terms.”
Minnieweather defends the diversity requirements, noting the track record of the Suzis wasn’t creating an equitable space for local artists. “Looking at the history, we don’t have that many shows with winners of color,” she says.
Any awards show faces scrutiny and criticism, and Warner knows that. No matter how many companies were in the mix for the 2021-2022 season, it’s likely nominees such as the Alliance Theatre’s excellent “Toni Stone” and Cynthia D. Barker in Horizon Theatre’s “The Light” would still be favored to win.
Yet it’s also worth noting that the Alliance Theatre’s critically-drubbed “Trading Places,” complete with a problematic gay character (“A lispy cross-dresser from Puerto Rico — are we insulted yet?” wrote Wendell Brock in his review for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution), leads all nominations, while two of next season’s most acclaimed, high-profile musicals, City Spring’s “In the Heights” and Out Front’s “Kinky Boots,” won’t even be in competition.
Warner wants to get non-participating productions back into the fold and realizes there’s still work to do. Yet when it comes to diversity issues, there’s no bend. It’s simply time.
“Diversity is not an extracurricular activity,” she says. “This is not something we do in addition to everything else. If you want to be considered for an outstanding theater award, you’re going to be able to define how you’re including everyone in what you’re doing.”
EVENT PREVIEW
The Suzi Bass Awards. 7 p.m. Nov. 14. $50. Southwest Arts Center, 915 New Hope Road SW, Atlanta. www.thesuzis.org. www.brownpapertickets.com
