NEWS RELEASE ▪︎ ALEXANDRA BILLINGS SET TO HOST 27th ANNUAL LA STAGE ALLIANCE OVATION AWARDS ▪︎ TUESDAY, JAN. 17 at 7:30pm

ALEXANDRA BILLINGS
SET TO HOST
THE 27th ANNUAL LA STAGE ALLIANCE OVATION AWARDS CEREMONY
AT THE AHMANSON THEATRE
TUESDAY, JANUARY 17 AT 7:30PM
PRESENTERS ALSO ANNOUNCED

Alexandra Billings has been set to host the 27th Annual LA STAGE Alliance Ovation Awards Ceremony on Tuesday, January 17 at the Ahmanson Theatre at The Music Center. Red carpet arrivals begin at 6pm and the ceremony begins at 7:30pm.

Actress, singer, author, teacher, and activist Alexandra Billings stars as Davina on Amazon’s multi-award-winning series Transparent. She played Donna in the ABC film Romy and Michelle: A New Beginning, one of the first times a transgender actress played a transgender character on television. Other TV credits include guest starring appearances on How to Get Away with Murder, Grey’s Anatomy, ER, and Nurses (with Lynn Redgrave). She stars in the upcoming feature film Valley of Bones. Billings has been acting since 1968 and has performed in hundreds of plays and musicals across the United States. Her autobiographical solo show Before I Disappear toured from Chicago to Boston to Los Angeles and then off-Broadway where it received rave reviews and ran for over 10 years. She recently performed her newest solo piece, S/He and Me at Cal State Long Beach. Billings’ activism stretches across the continent. In 2016 she moderated a panel during Transgender Awareness Month at the White House. She has won the TPA Award and the Rainbow Spirit Award and was inducted into the Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame in Chicago. Living with AIDS since the mid-80s, Billings chronicles her life’s journey in her blog Stilettos and Sneakers, and she is a regular contributor to The Huffington Post. From Schoolboy to Showgirl: The Alexandra Billings Story, aired on PBS and received an Emmy Award nomination for Best Documentary.

“The great gift of what we do as artists is to celebrate the human condition,” said Billings. “I am so excited to be in the room with so many humans who believe that what we do is attempt, in the best way we can, to replicate the history of where we’ve been so that where we’re headed can be brighter, more beautiful, and more glorious than we ever dreamed. And then to hand that story to as many other humans as we can. And I’m thrilled to do this with as much hope and as many sequins as possible.”

Los Angeles theatre notables scheduled to be presenters are (in alphabetical order) Luis Alfaro, Michael Arden, Randall Arney, Jon Robin Baitz, EB Brooks, Sara Ryung Clement, Paul Crewes, Dale Dickey, Sheldon Epps, Marilyn Fox, Beth Grant, Elizabeth Harper, Rajiv Joseph, Richard Montoya, Oanh Nguyen, Mitch O’Farrell, Bill Pullman, Diane Rodriguez, Ric Salinas, Del Shores, Herbert Siguenza, Jimmi Simpson, Ali Stroker, and Kitty Swink. All appearances are subject to change. Musical numbers will be presented by DOMA Theatre Company.

Sponsors for this year’s Ovation Awards ceremony are Wells Fargo, Walt Disney Imagineering Creative Entertainment, F&D Scene Changes Ltd., UCLA School of Theater, Film & Television, Goldstar, USC School of Dramatic Arts, Ken Werther Publicity, Bakers Man Productions, Time Out Los Angeles, TheaterMania | OvationTix, Performances Magazine, Variety, and Peter Konerko Photography. The Ovation Awards are presented in partnership with the New York Drama Desk Awards.

For more information and details on how to attend the Ovation Awards ceremony on January 17, visit www.OvationAwards.com. #OvationAwards

# # #

01-05-17

Announcing: Jane Kaczmarek and Herbert Siguenza Set To Host 2012 LA Stage Alliance Ovation Awards

JANE KACZMAREK AND HERBERT SIGUENZA
SET TO HOST LA STAGE ALLIANCE
2012 OVATION AWARDS CEREMONY
AT HISTORIC LOS ANGELES THEATRE IN DOWNTOWN LA
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 12, AT 7:30PM

Television and stage star Jane Kaczmarek and Culture Clash co-founder/actor/writer Herbert Siguenza will host the 2012 LA STAGE Alliance Ovation Awards Ceremony on Monday, November 12, at the historic Los Angeles Theatre in downtown LA. The curtain will rise at 7:30pm.

Jane Kaczmarek is well known for her work on stage, and on television. She starred for seven seasons on Fox TV’s Malcolm in the Middle, earning seven consecutive Emmy Award nominations along the way. Other television work includes Raising the Bar, The Middle, Whitney, Wilfred, Felicity, Equal Justice, Paper Chase: The Second Year, Party of Five, Frasier, The Practice, St. Elsewhere, and Hill Street Blues. On stage, Kaczmarek most recently starred in David Lindsay-Abaire’s Good People at The Geffen Playhouse, for which she is an Ovation Award nominee this year. She starred in Dinner With Friends and Raised in Captivity at South Coast Rep, and won an Ovation Award for her performance in Kindertransport at the Tiffany Theater in West Hollywood. Kaczmarek has appeared on Broadway, as well as in plays at the Manhattan Theatre Club, The Public Theater, Second Stage, Long Wharf, and the Berkshire and Williamstown Theatre Festivals, among others.

Herbert Siguenza is a founding member of Culture Clash, the most produced Latino Theatre Company in the United States. Founded in San Francisco in 1984 by Richard Montoya, Ric Salinas, and Siguenza, Culture Clash has stormed the stages of America’s top regional theatres, including, the Mark Taper Forum, The Kennedy Center, Arena Stage, Alley Theatre, Berkeley Rep, Yale Rep, and Syracuse Stage, along with countless colleges and universities. Siguenza has co-written and/or performed in American Night, Palestine New Mexico, Peace, Water and Power, Chavez Ravine, Zorro in Hell!, Radio Mambo, A Bowl of Beings, The Mission, and others.

This year’s presenters will include many local performers, city officials, union reps, artistic and executive directors, stage managers and publicists. Scheduled to participate (in alphabetical order) are Patrick J. Adams, LJ Benet, Seamus Dever, Elizabeth Doran, Kristy Edmunds, Robert Foxworth, Davis Gaines, Glenne Headly, Nikki Hyde, Leslie Ito, Young Ji, Christine Lakin, Dawnn Lewis, Sarah Lyding, Lesli Margherita, Gates McFadden, Laura Penn, Assembly Speaker John Perez, Bill Rauch, Allison Rawlings, Mark Roberts, Kirsten Vangsness, Ken Werther, and Charlayne Woodard.

Producers Kappy Kilburn and Malcolm Darrell will lead this year’s production team, with technical direction by Joe Hamlin. The production design is by Rachel Myers, lighting design is by Jared Sayeg, and sound design is by Cricket S. Myers. Musical direction will once again be by the Ovation Award-winning David O, and the voices of the Ovations are Bernadette Sullivan and Robert Yacko. Adeena Bell serves as production stage manager, and the Ovation statues will be presented by students from the MFA and BFA graduating programs at Cal State University, Long Beach.

Voters are Los Angeles theatre professionals who are chosen each season, through an application process, by the Ovation Awards Review Committee. The list of nominees is determined by a tabulation of scores conducted by the entertainment accounting firm Green Hasson Janks. This year’s Ovation Award eligibility period ran from September 1, 2011 through August 28, 2012.

LA STAGE Alliance programs are sponsored, in part, by Actors Equity, The Angell Foundation, Arts Council for Long Beach, The Biller Family Foundation, California ArtsCouncil, California Community Foundation, City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs,City of Pasadena Cultural Affairs Division, City of Santa Monica Cultural Affairs Division, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, ELS, Goldstar, James Irvine Foundation, Andrew Mellon Foundation, Los Angeles County Supervisors through the LA County Arts Commission, MusiCares/Grammy Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, Sky Events & Productions, and Sony Pictures Entertainment.

The 2012 Ovation Awards ceremony will take place on Monday, November 12, at the historic Los Angeles Theatre, 615 South Broadway, in downtown Los Angeles. The curtain goes up at 7:30pm. For information, to become a volunteer or a sponsor, and to purchase tickets, visit www.LASTAGEOvations.com.

#  #  #

10-31-12