All Photos by Martín Hernández

Three Little Piggies

That’s Our Theater: The Wolf Can Huff and Puff, but He Can’t Blow our House Down

On Monday night (May 4) around 300 people showed up to party at Hollywood’s Sassafras Saloon for Stage Raw’s annual theater awards celebration (honoring work staged in calendar year 2025). At 7:30 pm, the announced time to open the house, a line of celebrants trailed down Vine Street, almost to the edge of Lexington Avenue. (Next year, we’ll likely open the doors earlier to get people into the venue and to avoid the logjam.)

The night was spent mostly drinking, eating passed snacks, and networking (most of the awards were available at a table in an outdoors courtyard). However at 8:30 pm, what was planned as a 30 minute ceremony to honor legacy recipients (Artistic Leadership, Queen of the Angels, Lifetime Achievement and Passing the Torch awards) ran for about 50 minutes.

The event was not without screwups. Some award recipient certificates went missing, and one was misspelled: annoying but repairable. Even with the speakers all but yelling into their microphone on the raised stage (which is like a small balcony over the tavern), the crowd talked through everything, clinking glasses, so that hearing the speakers in the crowded room became a challenge. Some attributed this to the New Orleans saloon setting, but when we did this event in the more formal confines of Los Angeles Theatre Center’s Tom Bradley Theater, drinks had been served in the lobby, and my memory of trying to speak from the large stage of a legit theater was much the same: that some in our community, with a touch of liquor in them, become oblivious to whatever is going on around them, wherever they may be. (This is not a complaint, it’s just an observation.) In defense of the chaos, think of it like Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, with the groundlings throwing crap at the actors and living their own lives during, say, a performance of As You Like It. From that perspective, I guess we should be grateful. Nobody was throwing veggies or heckling the performers. In the 21st century, we’ve acquired some decorum after 400 years of practice. Not much, but some.

Left to right: Jack Grotenstein and Max Sanders, students at L.A. County High School for the Arts, before their performance of “Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream”

The ceremony started with Jack Grotenstein and Max Sanders, recruited from the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts (which provides many of our Youth Journalists – a program Stage Raw administers in partnership with Unusual Suspects Theatre Company). The teens took the stage each with their own standup microphone. They sang acapella, and in perfect harmony, Ed McCurdy’s 1950 anti-war song, “Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream . . .” (“I dreamed the world had all agreed to put an end to war.”). The song has been embraced and interpreted by a stream of crooners: Pete Seeger, Simon and Garfunkle, the Kingston Trio, Joan Baez, Arlo Guthrie, Johnny Cash, Garth Brooks, John Denver, and Serena Ryder.

The roar of approval at the end of the song indicated an appreciation for a kind of legacy, a musical legacy, being passed to a new generation.

Youthful exuberance from our Youth Journalists, left to right, Warren Riley, Keelyn McDermott, and Katy Kragel

A quartet from Stage Raw’s most recent cohort of Youth Journalists (Fable Isaacson, Warren Riley, Katy Kragel and Keelyn McDermott) joined me to introduce the legacy award winners, starting with an Artistic Leadership Award given to Moving Arts AD Darin Anthony.

Distinguished Artistic Leadership: Moving Arts’s Darin Anthony

One of two Queen of the Angels awards went to Beth Hogan. Beth was in the room but was perhaps too shy to jump up on that stage to receive her tribute. (She’s been working in the shadows for some time over at the Odyssey Theatre, and perhaps prefers it that way.)

The tireless Beth Hogan, Queen of the Angels, a fixture at the Odyssey Theatre since the mid-1970s

Julia Rodriguez Elliott and Geoff Elliott gave a poised and dignified acknowledgement of their Queen of the Angels Award. There were two Lifetime Achievement awards:

A Noise Within’s Geoff Elliott and Julia Rodriguez Elliott, Queen of the Angels Award for growing a mid-size theater from a 99-seat theater, and then sustaining it.

David Hunt Stafford received one of two Lifetime Achievement nods for his tenacity in helping keep Theatre Forty alive and thriving for the better part of 30 years.

David Hunt Stafford, leading Theatre Forty for decades, giving his acceptance speech for Lifetime Achievement

Playwright Levy Lee Simon introduced Lifetime Achievement Recipient Ben Guillory.

Playwright Levy Lee Simon introducing Lifetime Achievement recipient, Robey Theatre Company’s leader, Ben Guillory

Robey Theatre Company’s leader Ben Guillory accepting his Lifetime Achievement Award for sustaining a theater dedicated to telling of Black people’s experiences around the globe.

This is not a time of constancy, in politics or in our theater. Los Angeles is seeing a transfer of leadership at theaters large and small, from Center Theatre Group to the Geffen Playhouse to South Coast repertory to Ensemble Studio Theatre – L.A. Rogue Machine’s leader, John Flynn has stepped down after leading that company since 2008, and Gary Grossman is also stepping down, from his perch at the Skylight Theatre. Both men received Stage Raw’s first-ever “Passing the Torch” award.

Gary Grossman and John Flynn, recipients of Stage Raw’s “Passing the Torch” award.

Ben Guillory (Center) with his Robey Theatre Company entourage. The guy in the blue suit, directly in front of him, is publicist Phil Sokoloff (Phil Sokoloff Publicity for the Arts)

Ann Noble, Leading Performance recipient for “Corktown ’39” at Rogue Machine

Stage Raw’s G. Bruce Smith, handling ticket sales at the door. See the poster to his right? The sentence is red is absolutely not true.

Left to right: Elmira Rahim and Dana Martin. Elmira organized the photos for the ongoing slide show in the venue. She will be leading Playwrights’ Arena as its Artistic Director when Jon Lawrence Rivera steps down in the next year or so. (Jon will continue serving on the company’s Board of Directors.) Dana is a Stage Raw contributor and the producer of Monday night’s event.

Stage Raw’s Iris Mann has just entered the building as is clearly eager to get to her post at the awards certificates table.

New American Theatre’s Jeannine Stehlin and Jack Stehlin. Jack received a “Leading Performance” award for his title role in “Lear Redux” at the Odyssey Theatre.

Stage Raw’s Julia Stier and Madison Mellon, working the check-in desk. They make look vicious, but they’re actually very nice people. The sign directly behind Madison is the grade given to both of them by the County of Los Angeles for their work checking in party guests.

And here, in the courtyard, is the certificates desk, capably handled by Stage Raw’s Lovell Estell III and Socks Whitmore.

Publicists Lucy Pollak (Lucy Pollak Public Relations) and David Elzer (DEMAND PR). Not sure who’s the fellow in the picture frame, but he’s clearly over-dressed.

Green Galactic Publicist Lynn Tejada and Yours Truly. We swapped eye-glasses for the photo. Can you tell?

2026 Stage Raw Theater Awards Party Sponsors: The Beverly Hills Playhouse, Theatre Forty, Rogue Machine, The Geffen Playhouse, Davidson & Choy Publicity, Theatricum Botanicum, The 24^th Street Theatre, DEMAND PR, Borne Identities, Dina Morrone, Fringe Management, The Group Rep, The Hudson Theatre, Jaxx Theatricals, Sandra Kuker PR, PLAY LA, Lucy Pollak Public Relations, Onstage411.com, Pacific Resident Theatre, Philip Sokoloff Publicity for the Arts, Playwrights’ Arena, The Road Theatre Company, Robey Theatre Company, Sacred Fools, The Santa Monica Playhouse, Theatre 68, Theatre West, and The Victory Theatre Center.

A program for the event and listing of all awards recipients is here.

All Photos by Martín Hernández