(Coming soon...a Michael Davis slide show!)
Simply New copped 10 of the 14 community theater awards; percentage-wise, that beats the 11 prizes for James Cameron’s Titanic at the 1998 Academy Awards.
Then again, many of the people winning have been around a while and appear with many companies. At least three awards went to actors playing against type, notably Gennaro Parlato as the haughty, corrupt cardinal in Simply New’s A Man for All Seasons and frequent comic father Michael O’Neill as the martyr for principal in Seasons. Director Quinn saw what others did not when he allowed Binaifer Dabu, self-described as “a 4-foot-11, Indian-looking woman,” show a naughtier side in Things You Can’t Say After Midnight. On the same route, his partner Nara understood that dancing sweetheart Shannon Tompkins could create a Nazi bureaucrat we had never seen before in A Picasso. Stars Dani Gottuso and Dana Sovocool in the cult musical Chess made a powerhouse impression that lasted 12 months until voting.
A comparable coup on a smaller scale was pulled off by Ithaca’s Hangar Theatre, mostly shorted of nominations in previous years. Its production of Doubt swept all the summer season honors, including for Best Production, Wendy Barrie Wilson as Best Actress and Drew Battles for Best Actor.
SALT founder Art Zimmer had instructed all presenters and nominees to keep speeches to two minutes, a ruling that brought some good-natured chafing from state Assemblywoman Joan Christensen. The politician also pulled off one of the better ad-libs when she opened her envelope and read with astonishment, “Hillary Clinton!” The majority of presenters and winners hewed to the time clock, with a terse David Minikheim setting the record for the briefest, followed by new County Executive Joanie Mahoney, who blushed and offered, “I’m a lawyer and a politician and not at all funny.” The evening ran from 7 to 9:29 p.m., or two minutes shorter than 2007, by Zimmer’s reckoning.
Zimmer wore a relatively modest long red scarf and played a lesser role in the proceedings than in other years. The formally clad husband-wife team of Dan Stevens and Nora O’Dea handled the trophies and envelopes smoothly, interrupted only when Stevens gave O’Dea a passionate buss at the announcement of her nomination.
New faces among the presenters meant that reliable jokesters of previous years, such as Frank Fiumano, Bill Molesky and Maureen Harrington, were not heard from. Kerby Thompson of Cortland Repertory Theatre started the evening well with a gag non-appearance, saying his car was delayed by an overturned 18-wheeler on Route 81, followed by his feet-first entrance from a trap door (the set for The Fantasticks was still in place at the Archbold). Thompson also delivered one of the better-quoted jokes of the evening, albeit attributed to Al Gore: “I feel like Elizabeth Taylor’s ninth husband: I know what I’m supposed to do but I don’t know how to make it interesting.”
Bob Greene of the Acme Mystery Dinner Theater gave the best presentation speech, and he did it the old-fashioned by rehearsing his gags and measuring his timing. He also came up with the best quoted joke from a well-known source, William Claude Dukenfield, a.k.a. W.C. Fields: “Show me a great actor, and I show you a bad husband. Show me a great actress {two-beat pause}, and I show you the devil.”
The best acceptance speeches fell into a tie, with Bonnie Nye, winning a Lifetime Achievement Award, performing an original song to the music of South Pacific and Mame. O’Neill was both eloquent and waspish. After modestly admitting that he would suffer eternal damnation if he neglected to thank all the people who had made the award possible, he allowed that in dressing-room gossip he and two friends had trashed every person sitting in the theater.
A steady stream of one-liners kept the level of banter above that heard at either the Oscars or Tonys. The New Times’ Len Fonte boasted that he had been in community theater so long he remembered when Chris Lightcap was a soprano—and not a member of HBO’s favorite crime family. In winning Best Original New Production for Armory Square Playhouse’s Lowdown Lies, Jeff Kramer thanked his former urologist in California who taught him about vasectomies. In winning for Best Supporting Actress, Musical, bosomy Jodie Baum (Rarely Done’s Musical of Musicals: The Musical) pulled a note from her bra and muttered, “Yes, I can fit more in here.” Gottuso, winning Best Actress, Musical, for Chess, brought down peals of laughter with her need for sticky cups and tape to fill out a strapless gown.
The most touching short acceptance came from Mel Rivkin, ticket-taker, photographer and good-guy gofer, who won the Sandra C. Haase Memorial Award. He looked really moved by the recognition, and as he is no actor, everyone knew he meant it.
The one downer of the evening came from Christine Lightcap’s announcement in the middle of the program that veteran player Barbara Stone Gibbons had just died. Lightcap and Gibbons had been pals and sparring partners on and off the stage, memorably in James Kirkwood’s Legends (1991), where they fought on the floor and knocked off each other’s wigs. Lightcap’s tears for Gibbons were real, and everybody knew that, too.
SALT Awards Winners for 2007
PROFESSIONAL THEATER
Play of the Year: Frozen (Redhouse). Other nominees: Death of a Salesman, Gem of the Ocean, Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Syracuse Stage).
Director of the Year: Robert Moss. Other nominees: Timothy Douglas, Gerard Moses, Tim Ocel, Anthony Salatino
TOURING ROAD SHOWS
Production of the Year: Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy (Famous Artists). Other nominees: Annie, Phantom of the Opera (Famous Artists), Menopause: The Musical (Syracuse Stage).
PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD
Production of the Year: Debbie Does Dallas: The Musical (Rarely Done Productions). Other nominees: Always. . . Patsy ClineA Man for All Seasons (Simply New Theatre), Grease (Theatre ’90), 1776 (Appleseed Productions). (Opening Night Productions),
Actress of the Year: Becky Bottrill. Other nominees: Patricia Catchouny, Kristie Grant, Nora O’Dea, Kimberly Panek, Melissa Pearsall.
Actor of the Year: Gerrit Vander Werff Jr. Other nominees: Tom Ciancaglini, Paul Gundersen, Chris Kimpel, Gennaro Parlato, Andrew Pollock, Michael O’Neill.
SANDRA C. HAAS MEMORIAL AWARD
Mel Rivkin. Other nominees: Heather Buck, Patricia Elise Catchouny, Earl Colvin, Binaifer Dabu, Debbie Ritchey.
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
(Currently Active)
Bonnie Nye. Other nominees: David Feldman, Len Fonte, Kate Huddleston, Bill Morris, Robert Steingraber.
HALL OF FAME AWARD
(No Longer Active)
Monsignor Charles Borgognoni. Other nominees: Derek Coleman, Dan Dossert, Arthur Storch.
SALT SCHOLARSHIP AWARD
Katherine Davis (Camden High School); Elizabeth Gleason (Jordan-Elbridge High School), Ana Thornton (Christian Brothers Academy), Mark Weatherup (Bishop Ludden High School). Other finalists: Erica Diederich, Bianca Lupi, Leonardo “Dino” Petrera, Christopher Wiacek (Cicero-North Syracuse High School), Emily Dunuwila (Fayetteville-Manlius High School), Thomas Green (Henninger High School), Bridget Greene (East Syracuse-Minoa High School), MiKayla Hawkinson (Liverpool High School), Samantha Rey, Kara Tripoli, Jordan Westfall (Westhill High School), Lauren Sageer (West Genesee High School).
SUMMER SEASON
Production of the Season: Doubt (Hangar Theatre). Other nominees: Fiddler on the Roof, The Great American Trailer Park Musical (Cortland Repertory Theatre), Hair (Hangar), Miss Saigon, Thoroughly Modern Millie (Merry-Go-Round Playhouse).
Actress of the Season: Wendy Barrie Nelson, Doubt (Hangar). Other nominees: Kimberly Burns, Thoroughly Modern MillieHair (Hangar); Amy Griffin, Peter Pan (Merry-Go-Round); Amy Haldin, The Great American Trailer Park Musical (Cortland Rep); Vonetta Mixson, Ain’t Misbehavin’ (Merry-Go-Round). (Merry-Go-Round); Piper Goodeve,
Actor of the Season: Drew Battles, Doubt (Hangar). Other nominees: Claus Evans, Fiddler on the Roof (Cortland Rep); James Van Treuren, Peter Pan (Merry-Go-Round).
COMMUNITY THEATER
Play of the Year: Kiss of the Spider Woman (Simply New). Other nominees: A Man for All Seasons, A Picasso (Simply New); Sin: A Cardinal Deposed (Rarely Done).
Director of the Year/Play: John Nara. Other nominees: Len Fonte, Thomas Quinn, Dan Tursi, Jon Wilson.
Leading Actor in a Play: Michael O’Neill, A Man for All Seasons (Simply New). Other nominees: Tom Minion, Sin: A Cardinal Deposed (Rarely Done); Bill Molesky, A Picasso (Simply New); Tom Quinn, Kiss of the Spider Woman (Simply New).
Leading Actress in a Play: Shannon Tompkins, A Picasso (Simply New). Other nominees: Maureen Harrington, Lowdown Lies (Armory Square Playhouse); Angela Newman, Baby with the Bathwater (Rarely Done); Nora O’Dea, Steel Magnolias (Theatre ’90); Karis Wiggins, Frozen (Redhouse).
Supporting Actor in a Play: Gennaro Parlato, A Man for All Seasons (Simply New). Other nominees: Brendan Cole, Lowdown Lies (Armory Square); Bob Fullenbaum, Sin: A Cardinal Deposed (Rarely Done); Bill Molesky, A Man for All Seasons (Simply New).
Supporting Actress in a Play: Binaifer Dabu, Things You Shouldn’t Say Past Midnight (Simply New). Other nominees: Binaifer Dabu, A Man for All Seasons (Simply New); Anne Fitzgerald, Baby with the Bathwater (Rarely Done); Jennifer Flynn, Lowdown Lies (Armory Square); Judy Schmid, Sin: A Cardinal Deposed (Rarely Done).
Musical of the Year: Chess (Simply New). Other nominees: 1776 (Appleseed); Musical of Musicals: The Musical (Rarely Done); The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Wit’s End Players).
Director of the Year/Musical: John Nara. Other nominees: Dustin Czarny, Dan Tursi, David Witanowski.
Leading Actor in a Musical: Dana Sovocool, Chess (Simply New). Other nominees: Mark Bell Jr., Footloose (Talent Company); Bob Brown, The Will Rogers Follies (Wit’s End); Chris Kimpel, Grease (Theatre ’90).
Leading Actress in a Musical: Dani Gottuso, Chess (Simply New). Other nominees: Katherine Clare Bilofsky, Footloose (Talent Company); Aubry Ludington-Panek, Musical of Musicals: The Musical (Rarely Done); Sarah Naughton, The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Wit’s End), Melissa Pearsall, Debbie Does Dallas: The Musical (Rarely Done).
Supporting Actor in a Musical: Paul Gundersen, 1776 (Appleseed). Other nominees: David Baker, Footloose (Talent Company); Shawn Forster, Footloose (Talent Company); Richard Harris, The Fantasticks (Wit’s End); Casey Ryan, Chess (Simply New).
Supporting Actress in a Musical: Jodie Baum, Musical of Musicals: The Musical (Rarely Done). Other nominees: Jodie Baum, The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Wit’s End); Christine Lightcap, Lucky Stiff (Talent Company); Tamaralee Shutt, Footloose (Talent Company); Katja Zarolinski, Chess (Simply New).
Musical Director of the Year: Fred Willard. Other nominees: Jon Balcourt, Jennifer K. Bellor, Michael Copps, Colette Hebert.
Best Choreography: Bob Durkin, Footloose (Talent Company). Other nominees: Katherine Clare Bilofsky, Cruizin’ Thru the 50’s, 60’s & 70’s (Wallace and Zimmer Productions); Jodi Bova, Debbie Does Dallas: The Musical (Rarely Done); Andrea Colabufo, The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Wit’s End); Katlyn Morahan and Pamela Petroff, Disney’s High School Musical (Talent Company); Shannon Tompkins, The Will Rogers Follies (Wit’s End).
Best Costuming: David R. Witanowski, The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Wit’s End). Other nominees: Paul Hernandez, Chess (Simply New); John Poorman, The Octette Bridge Club (Appleseed); Niki Raymond, A Man for All Seasons (Simply New); Jeannette Reyner, Lucky Stiff (Talent Company); Debbie Ritchey and Eugene Taddeo, The Facts of Life: The Lost Episode (Rarely Done).
Best Original New Production: Lowdown Lies (Armory Square Playhouse). Other nominees: Cruizin’ Thru the 50’s, 60’s & 70’s (Wallace and Zimmer Productions); Guilt by Association (Simply New); Idol: The Musical (Syracuse Civic Theatre); Michael and Elizabeth, Vivian and Pete (Salt City Center for the Performing Arts).
Non-Performing Person of the Year: Karel Blakeley. Other nominees: Navroz Dabu, Debra Ritchey, Cindy Shippers.
