The time has finally come to announce my choices for the best performances and production work of 2009, and it was a tough road indeed. There have been many great productions this year, and choosing a best out of any of them is quite a task, and I'm sure there will be many disagreements, because so many of this year's performances and productions were worthy of accolade. So, here they are, this year's winners of the 2009 Austin Theater Examiner Awards.
Best Featured Actress in a Musical
Lucy Jennings - Olive Ostrovsky - 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Zach Scott Theatre)
Best Featured Actor in a Musical
Aaron Moten - Judge Turpin - Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Summer Stock Austin)
Best Featured Actress in a Comedy
Liz Fisher - Varya - The Cherry Orchard (Breaking String Theatre)
Best Featured Actor in a Comedy
Ian Manners - Harry - The Collection (Hyde Park Theatre)
Best Featured Actress in a Drama
TIE
LaTasha Stevens - The Voice of the People - Orestes (Cambiare Productions)
and
Samantha Brewer - Izzy - Rabbit Hole (City Theatre)
Best Featured Actor in a Drama
McArthur Moore - Gabriel - Fences (City Theatre)
Best Lead Actress in a Musical
Macey Mayfield - Audrey - Little Shop of Horrors (Summer Stock Austin)
Best Lead Actor in a Musical
David Gallagher - Ash - Evil Dead: The Musical (Salvage Vanguard Theatre and Doctuh Mistah Productions)
Best Lead Actress in a Comedy
Melissa Recalde - Dottie Smith - Killer Joe (Capital T Theatre)
Best Lead Actor in a Comedy
Ken Webster - Victor - House (Hyde Park Theatre)
Best Lead Actress in a Drama
Tayler Gill - Chloe - The Bird and the Bee (Capital T Theatre)
Best Lead Actor in a Drama
Robert Pallette - Fences (City Theatre)
Best Ensemble in a Musical
Elizabeth Doss, Mark Stewart, Robert Pierson, Content Love Knowles, Emily Tindall, Hilah Johnson, Florinda Bryant, Ben Schave, Cami Alys, Alex Cogburn, Andy Tindall, Kelli Bland, and Phillip Emanuel - Murder Ballad Murder Mystery (Vortex Repertory and Tutto Theatre)
Best Ensemble in a Comedy
Matt Radford, Babs George, Liz Fischer, Sarah Gay, Ev Lunning, Jr, Nigel O'Hearn, Robert Matney, Bernadette Nason, Noel Gaulin, Dirk Van Allen, David Boss, Cody Chua, and Maarouf Naboulsi - Cherry Orchard (Breaking String Theatre)
Best Ensemble in a Drama
Thomas Graves, Josh Meyer, Katie Van Winkle, Hannah Kenah, Matt Hislope, Jude Hickey, Heather Barfield, Elizabeth Doss, Jodi Jinx, and Aron Taylor - Dionysus in 69 (Rude Mechanicals)
Special Technical Achievement
Adam Hilton - Sound Design - The Bird and the Bee, Orestes, Sick, The Cherry Orchard, Killer Joe
Best New Play Written by an Ausinite
Elizabeth Doss - Murder Ballad Murder Mystery (Vortex Repertory and Tutto Theatre)
Best Direction
Shawn Sides and Madge Darlington - Dionysus in 69 (Rude Mechanicals)
Best Production of a Musical
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Summer Stock Austin)
Best Production of a Comedy
Killer Joe (Capital T Theatre)
Best Production of a Drama
Dionysus in 69 (Rude Mechanicals)
Company of the Year
Capital T Theatre
Austin Theater Examiner Readers' Award for Best Production of the Year
The Collection (Hyde Park Theatre)
Congratulations to all of the winners, and thanks to all of the theater community for making such a fantastic year of productions. I can only hope for one just as good, if not better, this year. Do you agree with the choices? Disagree? Feel free to post your opinions in the comments section, and stay tuned for my January Play Preview coming later this week.
Comments
im sure they were all good thought james jackson leach should of won for allice
I hear ya, lb, loved Alice!, but MBMM's originality and quirk put it slightly over the top. Leach's play was amazing, and anyone who can should go see it while it's playing at Frontera Fest later this month (I'll have the schedule for it during my Frontera Fest coverage).
Great list of awards! Thanks for doing these, although I do agree about Alice! But I'm just a little biased, haha. ;) Great to see my girl Macey May winning. She deserves it!
Everyone forgot City's Hamlet, what up? I thought it was pretty decent. Am I wrong?
umm...House of Several Stories?
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