NEWS RELEASE — 2015 LA STAGE ALLIANCE OVATION AWARD WINNERS

2015 LA STAGE ALLIANCE OVATION AWARDS
PRESENTED MONDAY, NOVEMBER 9
AT THE AHMANSON THEATRE

The 2015 LA STAGE Alliance Ovation Awards, celebrating theatrical excellence and achievement during the past 12 months, were presented on Monday, November 9 at the Ahmanson Theatre at The Music Center.

Thirty-five awards were bestowed upon 18 different Southern California theatre companies. The most honored companies of the year were The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts/Deaf West Theatre/Cody Lassen (Spring Awakening); Center Theatre Group (Chavez Ravine: An L.A. Revival, The Price, Luna Gale); Circle X Theatre Company (Trevor); Ebony Repertory Company (The Gospel at Colonus); Sacred Fools Theater Company (The Behavior of Broadus, a co-production with Burglars of Hamm and Center Theatre Group); Four Larks (The Temptation of St Antony); and Loft Ensemble (She Kills Monsters).

Other companies honored were 3-D Theatricals, Actors Co-op, Cabrillo Music Theatre, Coeurage Theatre Company, Los Angeles Performance Practice, The Pasadena Playhouse, Rogue Machine, Unbound Productions, and VS. Theatre Company. The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts received the Best Season Award (Enter Laughing, Love, Noël: The Letters and Songs of Noël Coward, Spring Awakening).

For a complete list of winners, go to @ This Stage Magazine (ThisStage.LA).

LA STAGE Alliance Board Chair Brian Kite said, “What a night! It is always a thrill to gather the Los Angeles theatre community together to honor excellence. The work on our stages this year was invigorating, riveting, thought provoking, and daring. Congratulations to all the artists that keep LA theatre among the best in the world. Bravo!”

Sarah Lyding, Senior Program Officer for The Sheri and Les Biller Family Foundation, presented the BEST Awards, including checks totaling $105,000 to the following LA theatre companies: Casa 0101 (also won in 2012), Center Theatre Group, East West Players (also won in 2013 and 2014), The Pasadena Playhouse, and Watts Village Theater Company.

Additionally, Center Theatre Group presented the 2015 Sherwood Award for innovative and adventurous artists to Miwa Matreyek. This award is endowed by the Sherwood family and is accompanied by $10,000 to further Matreyek’s artistic work.

The ceremony was hosted by French and Vanessa Claire Stewart, and this year’s presenters included LA theatre luminaries (in alphabetical order) Keith Allan, Bekah Brunsetter, Lap Chi Chu, Guillermo Cienfuegos, Tim Dang, Abigail Deser, Robert Egan, Christina Elmore, Ann Closs Farley, Shirley Jo Finney, Brighid Fleming, David and Kiki Gindler, Harry Groener, Sofia Klatzker, Michael Kricfalusi, Deborah Lawler, Alan Mandell, Terence McFarland, Stephen Sachs, Oz Scott, Madhuri Shekar, Trent Steelman, Seema Sueko, Jose Luis Valenzuela, and Kirsten Vangsness.

Founded in 1989, the LA STAGE Alliance Ovation Awards are the only peer-judged theatre awards in Los Angeles. Voters are Los Angeles theatre professionals who are chosen each year, through an application process, by the Ovation Rules Committee. The list of nominees is determined by a tabulation of scores conducted by Green Hasson Janks. This year’s Ovation Award eligibility period ran from September 1, 2014 through August 31, 2015.

Since 1975, LA STAGE Alliance has dedicated to building awareness, appreciation, and support for the performing arts in Greater Los Angeles. All of its initiatives aim to serve and strengthen the sector — both at an individual and community level — providing resources that facilitate audience engagement, collaborative marketing, community building, and professional development.

Sponsors for this year’s Ovation Awards ceremony were The Sheri & Les Biller Family Foundation, TheaterMania, Goldstar, Walt Disney Imagineering Creative Entertainment, USC School of Dramatic Arts, UCLA School of Theater, Film & Television, Green Hasson Janks, Bakers Man Productions, Performances Magazine, City Tavern, Peter Konerko Photography, and Ken Werther Publicity. Variety was the media sponsor.

For more information, visit lastagealliance.com.

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11-09-15

CLICK HERE FOR A COMPLETE LIST OF WINNERS

The Price Opens! (LAArtsOnline.com)

The Price runs at The Mark Taper Forum February 11- March 22

The Price Opens!

By Ken Werther

When discussing legendary American playwright Arthur Miller, the first words that come up are Death of a Salesman, the watershed, historic winner of the 1949 Tony Award for Best Play and Pulitzer Prize for Drama that introduced the American everyman Willy Loman to the world. Almost 20 years later, The Price opened on Broadway and New York Times critic Clive Barnes called it “…one of the most engrossing plays that Miller has ever written.” The Price has been revived on Broadway three times since its Broadway debut and it was adapted for television in 1971 and nominated for four Emmy Awards (winning two).

The Mark Taper Forum is reviving The Price, a play that has been described as a poignant story about the cost of choices made over a lifetime. Even with its impressive production and award history, this beautiful play is one of Arthur Miller’s lesser known. I’ve read but have never seen it and I am truly thrilled that I can be there on opening night to finally take it in. Directed by Tony Award-winner Garry Hynes, the Taper cast will feature actors with combined accolades and awards too numerous to count; you really can’t do much better than Kate Burton, John Bedford Lloyd, Alan Mandell and Sam Robards.

I’ve been going to the theatre since I was a very little boy and sometimes I still get amazed by how many classic American plays have escaped me. Thanks Mark Taper Forum and here I come!

The Price plays at Mark Taper Forum, located at 135 N. Grand Ave, from February 11 to March 22.

Announcing: 2010 LA Stage Alliance Ovation Awards Ceremony

2010 LA STAGE ALLIANCE OVATION AWARDS CEREMONY
SET FOR MONDAY, JANUARY 17, 2011
AT THOUSAND OAKS CIVIC ARTS PLAZA

SCHEDULED PRESENTERS INCLUDE
SHIRLEY JONES, PATRICK CASSIDY, SALLY STRUTHERS,
DORIS ROBERTS, T.R. KNIGHT, HARRY GROENER,
MIKE O’MALLEY (GLEE), ALAN MANDELL,
TESSA THOMPSON (FOR COLORED GIRLS … ),
MONICA ROSENTHAL (EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND), AND
ERICH BERGEN & MICHAEL INGERSOLL (JERSEY BOYS)

The LA Stage Alliance Ovation Awards Ceremony for the 2010 theatre season will take place Monday, January 17, 2011 at 7:30pm at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, home of the Cabrillo Music Theatre.

Along with those listed above, other presenters scheduled to participate include Carole W. Nussbaum (President and Chief Executive Officer, Cabrillo Music Theatre), Jacqui V. Irwin (City of Thousand Oaks Council Member and Mayor Pro Tem), Wren T. Brown (Executive Director, Ebony Repertory Theatre), Mary Lou Westerfield (Western Regional Director, Actors Equity Association), and Oz Scott (West Coast Board Member, Stage Directors & Choreographers Society).

David O (a 2010 nominee for Songs and Dances of Imaginary Lands) will serve as Music Director, and he will be joined by the vocal group Sonos (http://www.sonosings.com). Awards will be given in 29 competitive categories, and the recipients of the 2010 Sherwood Award and four 2010 Ovation Honors will be acknowledged.

LA Stage Alliance is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to building awareness, appreciation and support for the performing arts in greater Los Angeles through community building, collaborative marketing, audience development, professional development to strengthen operations for members, and advocacy. LASA serves over 325 organizational members (professional, educational, and community-based producing and presenting performing arts organizations) annually in the counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara and Ventura, and individual members comprised of local, regional, national, and international performing arts patrons.

The Ovation Awards are made possible by LA Stage Alliance and Cabrillo Music Theatre sponsors: Actors Equity Association, Goldstar, the Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los Angeles, Gelson’s The Super Market, Footlights, Production Resource Group, Ken Werther Publicity, Capture Imaging, Schwabel Studio, Bakers Man Productions, KUSC Classical 91.5 FM, the Los Angeles Times, Patron Technology, Target Resource Group, Valley Bakery, Marriott, the City of Thousand Oaks and the City of Thousand Oaks Board of Governors.

The Ovation Awards are tabulated by Green Hasson Janks LLC.

The Ovation Awards Ceremony is open to the public, and tickets may be purchased at www.lastagealliance.com, or by calling (213) 614-0556, ext. 15. Prices range from $40 to $160. The Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza is located at 2100 E. Thousand Oaks Boulevard in Thousand Oaks. Results will be available after the ceremony at www.LAStageAlliance.com and www.LAStageTimes.com.

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01/12/11