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.

# # #

11-09-15

CLICK HERE FOR A COMPLETE LIST OF WINNERS

Announcing: LA Stage Alliance Announces LA Stage Talks for 2013

LA STAGE ALLIANCE ANNOUNCES
LA STAGE TALKS
MARCH 19 – AUGUST 6, 2013
FIVE PANELS EXPLORING THE CREATION OF
PERFORMING ARTS IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA REGION
LA STAGE CEO TERENCE McFARLAND WILL MODERATE
WITH SPECIAL GUESTS

LA STAGE Alliance has announced this year’s LA Stage Talks, a series of panel discussions moderated by LA STAGE Alliance CEO Terence McFarland, exploring various aspects of the creation of performing arts in the Southern California region. The premiere event, co-hosted by Southern California Public Radio KPCC, will take place on Tuesday, March 19 from 7:00—8:30pm, at the Crawford Family Forum in Pasadena. All events are free, but space is limited. RSVP is required at www.LASTAGEAlliance.com/talks.

The first subject to be explored is What Does Professionalism Mean in the American Theatre? This is the question asked by a new national research study conducted by Yale University. Michael Bateman of Yale University will present the findings of this new study and talk with leaders of the Los Angeles theatre community about its relevance to the L.A. landscape. Audience members will be encouraged to lend their thoughts to the discussion of what it means to be a professional, and how the concept of professionalism is evolving in the arts.

Speakers at the March 19 panel include Yale University researcher Michael Bateman along with a slate of L.A. theatre leaders, including Charles Dillingham (Past Managing Director, Center Theatre Group), Elizabeth Doran (Executive Director, Pasadena Playhouse; past Managing Director, Actor’s Gang), Jose Luis Valenzuela (Artistic Director, Latino Theatre Company), Debbie Devine (24th Street Theatre), and Jenny Byrd (Brimmer Street Theatre Company). The Crawford Family Forum is located at 474 S. Raymond Avenue in Pasadena.

The schedule of 2013 LA Stage Talks continues as follows: Artistic Philanthropy in Los Angeles: What Motivates Philanthropists to Support the Theatre? (Monday, April 22 at 7pm, co-hosted by Native Voices at the Autry, at the Autry Museum); Religion and the Arts: What Brings Them Together and Pulls Them Apart? (Monday, June 24 at 7pm), What Am I Hearing? The Aural Life of the Theatre (Monday, July 1 at 7pm, co-hosted by the Geffen Playhouse, at the Geffen); and Choreographic Transformation: Dancing Across Multiple Mediums (Tuesday, August 6 at 7pm, presented in partnership with the Dance Resource Center, and co-hosted by the L.A. County Arts Commission/Ford Theatres at [Inside] the Ford). Terence McFarland will moderate all discussions.

All LA Stage Talks will be livestreamed, and panelists will take questions from online viewers during the events. Information on how to view and how to ask questions will be posted on each event date at www.LASTAGEAlliance.com, where further information on the LA Stage Talks program is available now.

LA STAGE Alliance, a non-profit organization empowering artists and engaging audiences since 1975, is dedicated to building awareness, appreciation, and support for the performing arts in Greater Los Angeles by strengthening the sector through community building, collaborative marketing, audience engagement, professional development, and advocacy.

LA STAGE Alliance programs are sponsored, in part, by Actors Equity Association, The Angell Foundation, Bakers Man Productions, California Arts Council, California Community Foundation, City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, DatabaseWorks, DEW Foundation, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Entertainment Lighting Services (ELS), Goldstar, the James Irvine Foundation, Los Angeles County Supervisors through the LA County Arts Commission, National Endowment for the Arts, Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, The Sheri and Les Biller Family Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, and Sony Pictures Entertainment.

# # #

03-14-13