Sunday, December 23, 2018

Cleveland Critics Circle 2018 Theater Awards



The Cleveland Critics Circle each year honors local theaters, performances, writers, performers and technicians of plays staged by Cleveland area professional theaters during the January 1-December 31 year.

Award Committee Voters: Bob Abelman, Roy Berko, Kerry Clawson, Howard Gollop, Mark Horning, Christine Howey, Laura Kennely and Andrea Simakis.  Participation in these awards does not preclude individual critics from preparing their own recognitions.

Those recognized for Superior Achievement are listed alphabetically, not by order of achievement.

Best Musical Production:  Passing Strange, Karamu
Superior Achievement:
            Jane Eyre, Cleveland Music Theatre
            Memphis, Cain Park
            Next to Normal, Porthouse

Best Non-Musical Production: The Royale, Cleveland Play House
Superior Achievement:
            Boogieban, None Too Fragile
            Freak Storm, None Too Fragile
            Grounded, Dobama
            Pride and Prejudice, Great Lakes Theater
            Sunset Baby, Dobama
            Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Beck Center
           
Best Actor Musical:  Douglas F. Bailey, Memphis, Cain Park
Superior Achievement:
            Eric Fancher, Merrily We Roll Along, Lakeland Civic Theatre
            Justin C. Woody, Passing Strange, Karamu
            Matt Bogart, Jane Eyre, Cleveland Music Theatre
            Thom Christopher Warren, Next to Normal, Porthouse
           
Best Actor Non-Musical: (tie) David Peacock and Travis Teffner, Boogieban, None Too Fragile   
Superior Achievement:
            Ananias J Dixon, Sunset Baby, Dobama
            Lynn Robert Berg, Macbeth, Great Lakes Theater
            Michel Mauldin, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Beck Center
            Prophet D. Seay, The Adventures of a Black Girl in Search of God, Karamu
            Ryan Zarecki, Scapin, Ohio Shakespeare Festival       
           
Best Actress Musical:  Amy Fritsche, Next to Normal, Porthouse
Superior Achievement:
            Kelvete Beacham, Caroline or Change, Mercury Theatre Company
            Nicole Sumlin, Memphis, Cain Park
            Trinidad Snider, A Little Night Music, Lakeland Civic Theatre

Best Actress Non-Musical:  Anjanette Hall, Grounded, Dobama
            Superior Achievement:
            Catherine Albers, John, Dobama
            Derdriu Ring, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Beck Center
            Jeanine Gaskin, In The Blood, Convergence Continuum
            Mary Francis Miller, Sunset Baby, Dobama
            Tess Burgler, Shakespeare in Love, Ohio Shakespeare Festival
            Tracee Patterson, Appropriate, Dobama
                       
Rising Stars
            Male
            Justin C. Woody, Passing Strange, Karamu
            Warren Egypt Franklin, Mamma Mia, Great Lakes Theater

            Female
            Brooke Turner, Bloomsday, None Too Fragile
            Christina Perrault, Beehive, Great Lakes Theater
            Emma McLelland, Jane Eyre, Cleveland Music Theatre         
            Kailey Boyle, Mamma Mia!, Great Lakes Theater

Best Director Musical: Jim Weaver, Next to Normal, Porthouse
Superior Achievement:
            Miles Sternfeld, Jane Eyre, Cleveland Music Theatre
            Nathan A. Lilly, Passing Strange, Karamu
            Patrick Ciamacco, Avenue Q, Blank Canvas Theatre
            Patrick Ciamacco, We Will Rock You, Blank Canvas Theatre

Best Director Non-Musical: Robert Barry Fleming, The Royale, Cleveland Play           House
Superior Achievement:
            Alice Reagan, Grounded, Dobama
            Donald Carrier, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Beck Center
            Greg Cesear, Plath and Orion, Cesear’s Forum
            Sean Derry, Boogieban, None Too Fragile
            Terry Burgler, Scapin, Ohio Shakespeare Festival
           
Best Choreographer: Martin Céspedes, Jane Eyre, Cleveland Music Theatre
Superior Achievement:
            Mary Ann Black, Anything Goes, Porthouse
            Jaclyn Miller, Mamma Mia!, Great Lakes Theater
            John E. Crawford-Spinelli, Oklahoma!, Porthouse

Best Musical Direction:  Jennifer Korecki, Oklahoma!, Porthouse
Superior Achievement:
Jonathan Swoboda, Next to Normal, Porthouse
Jordan Cooper, Memphis, Cain Park
Matt Dolan, Avenue Q, Blank Canvas

Best Scenic Design:  Cameron Michalak, John, Dobama and The Effect, Dobama
Superior Achievement:
            Aaron Benson, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Beck Center
            Inda Blatch-Geib, Sassy Mamas, Karamu
            Robert Mark Morgan, Sweat, Cleveland Play House
            Russell Mentheny, Macbeth, Great Lakes Theater
           
Best Lighting Design: Michael Boll, The Invisible Hand, Cleveland Play House
Superior Achievement:
            Alan C. Edwards, The Royale, Cleveland Play House
            Benjamin Gantose, Jane Eyre, Cleveland Music Theatre
            Marcus Dana, Freak Storm, None Too Fragile
            Rich Martin, Macbeth, Great Lakes Theater

Best Projection Design:  T. Paul Lowry, Ella Enchanted, Dobama
Superior Achievement:
            Kasumi, Hair, Beck Center
            T. Paul Lowry, Jane Eyre, Cleveland Music Theatre
T. Paul Lowry, Sunset Baby, Dobama
            T. Paul Lowry, The Effect, Dobama         

Best Costume Design:   Martha Hally, Pride and Prejudice, Great Lakes Theatre
Superior Achievement:
Inda Blatch-Geib, Sassy Mamas, Karamu
Marty LaConte, Romeo and Juliet, Ohio Shakespeare Festival
Tracy Christensen, Mamma Mia!, Great Lakes Theater

Best Sound Design:  Daniel Perelstein, The Invisible Hand, Cleveland Play House
Superior Achievement:
            Brian Kenneth Armour, Boogieban, None Too Fragile
            Jane Shaw, The Royale, Cleveland Play House
           
Best Touring Production:  Hamilton, Playhouse Square

Best New Play by a Local Playwright:  The Casual Tree Ward, Convergence-Continuum, Robert Hawkes

Best Ensemble in a Musical:  Oklahoma!, Porthouse
Superior Achievement:
            Mamma Mia!, Great Lakes Theater
            Avenue Q, Blank Canvas

Best World Premiere in the Cleveland area:  Boogieban, None Too Fragile
           
Special Mention:

Cleveland Public Theatre for taking the lead, in a major way, in providing theater arts education for under-served communities through initiatives such as Brick City Theatre, Cleveland Act Now, Y Haven Theatre Project, the Student Theatre Enrichment Program, Teatro Público de Cleveland and Masrah Cleveland Al-Arabi.

Dougfred Miller, Great Lakes Theater

Martin Friedman, 50th production at Lakeland

Roe Green, philanthropic contributions to Cleveland area theater organizations (Maltz Performing Arts Center, Kent State University, Cleveland Play House, Case Western Reserve, Jewish Community Center)

How to End Poverty in 90 Minutes, Cleveland Public Theatre, for bringing community awareness to poverty in Cleveland

Tony Silas for his efforts in leading the rebirth of Karamu as a viable theater program

Porthouse on its 50th anniversary and Terri Kent on her 18th season as its Artistic Director

Dorothy Silver’s five-minute monologue on why her character went crazy, in John at Dobama

Krumping Consultants, Javion Allen, Keith T. Benford and Fitness/Boxing Consultant KJ Johnson for the stylized boxing sequences in The Royale, Cleveland Play House

New World Performance Lab for a galvanizing and inventive production of a bilingual adaptation of Don Quijote by Argentine playwright Patricia Suarez