August 28-September 3, 2003
artsbeat
Last week, representatives of the press and the local theater community gathered at Mum Puppettheatre to hear the nominees for this yearís Barrymore Awards (and, in this writerís case, to eat many Krispy Kreme doughnuts). Organized by the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia (TAGP), the Barrymores honor plays and musicals in a variety of categories. The winners will be announced at a black-tie ceremony on Oct. 27 at the Annenberg Center. The press conference started with a rousing round of applause for new TAGP Executive Director James Haskins. Managing director of InterAct Theatre Company for the past four seasons, Haskins took over the TAGP position from Melissa Shaner in late May, after Shaner left to devote more time to her family. Haskins was on vacation this week, but TAGP Director of Programs and Services Jennifer Hayden says that Haskins has had quite an introduction to TAGP life, starting his tenure with the allianceís annual open auditions, then attending the national Theatre Communications Group conference in Milwaukee.
For the crowd at Mum, though, all of this change was secondary to the matter at hand -- who got nods for what this year. The front-runners are the Prince and the Wilma, with 22 and 21 noms respectively. Productions that scored big include the Arden's Pacific Overtures with eight nominations and Prince's Green Violin with 11. Smaller companies like 1812 Productions and Pig Iron Theatre Co. also fared well -- 1812 received eight nominations, most of them for Bat Boy: The Musical, and Pig Iron's Lucia Joyce Cabaret got four nominations. People's Light and Theatre Co.'s production of Suzan-Lori Parks' In the Blood received six noms.
A new award was introduced this year, The Ted and Stevie Wolf New Approaches to Collaborations Award. It's a mouthful, yes, but it's an interesting category, honoring companies that joined forces with other arts entities in the city to make richer productions. The first nominees for this award are Mum and The Philadelphia Orchestra for Swan Lake, Vagabond Acting Troupe and the UPenn Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology for Three Worlds Intertwined and the Wilma and the Orchestra for their co-production of Tom Stoppard's Every Good Boy Deserves Favor.
The $10,000 F. Otto Haas Award for an Emerging Philadelphia Theatre Artist is one of the Barrymores' most coveted prizes. This year's nominees are Nick Embree, Colleen A. McMillan, Ian Merrill Peakes, James Sugg and Elizabeth Webster. When actor Tom McCarthy was announced as this year's Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, the applause was deafening and lasted for several minutes. McCarthy joked that he wasn't retiring yet.
For a full list of nominees, go to
www.theatrealliance.org.
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