Fifth Annual Stage Raw Theater Awards Recipients

By Steven Leigh Morris

View from the upper Mezzanine: IAMA and AMMO perform the opening number (“Turn Off Your Cellphones”). DJ Eartha Litt in background. (Photo: courtesy Ammunition Theatre Company)

Co-producers IAMA Theatre Company and Ammunition Theatre Company had been working for eight months on the details of the Fifth Annual Stage Raw Theater Awards, presented Monday night at Los Angeles Theatre Center. Some 450 attendees packed the venue’s Tom Bradley Theatre for the Awards — the culminating event of the first-ever Stage Raw/PLAY LA Theater Festival Weekend: two colloquies and six new-play readings, funded by HUMANITAS and LA STAGE Alliance.

DJ Eartha Litt provided music during the show, while the band Verbal + Icarus accompanied, quite loudly, the catered post-show party, driving the older celebrators to mingle in the venue’s outdoor lobby in order to converse, while a younger crowd danced happily within. 

IAMA and Ammo’s rigor and skill paid off in a buoyant, community-oriented ceremony that clocked in — as promised — at under two hours (115 minutes, to be precise) — punctuated by videos of artistic directors from legacy and emerging companies, weighing in on their strategies and prospects for the future.

Rose Portillo served up a spirited, interactive introduction to Queen of the Angeles Tomas Benitez, honored for his community service to arts in LA for the better part of 40 years.

John Farmanesh-Bocca offered a loving homage to the husband-and-wife “theater producing machine” Jeannine Wiskonsky Stehlin and Jack Stehlin, who received the Career Achievement Award.

Full list of recipients:

FIGHT CHOREOGRAPHY
Jen Albert – Marian, or The True Tale of Robin Hood, Theatre of NOTE

VIDEO/PROJECTION DESIGN
David Murakami – Bronco Billy – The Musical, Skylight Theatre Company

SOUND DESIGN
Jeff Gardner – American Saga: Gunshot Medley – Part 1, Rogue Machine Theatre

LIGHTING DESIGN
Matthew Brian Denman – Cabaret, Celebration Theatre

COSTUME DESIGN (tie)
Terri A. Lewis – The Little Foxes, Antaeus Theatre Company
AND
Michael Mullen – Cabaret, Celebration Theatre

ORIGINAL MUSIC
Romero Mosley – Hype Man, The Fountain Theatre

CHOREOGRAPHY
Janet Roston – Cabaret, Celebration Theatre

MUSICAL DIRECTION
Anthony Zediker – Cabaret, Celebration Theatre

SET DESIGN
John Iacovelli – August Wilson’s Two Trains Running, Sophina Brown at The Matrix Theatre

TWO PERSON PERFORMANCE
Burt Grinstead and Anna Stromberg – Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Los Angeles LGBT Center

FEMALE COMEDY PERFORMANCE                           
Jenny Soo – Gloria, The Echo Theater Company

MALE COMEDY PERFORMANCE                   
Bob Turton – Accidental Death of an Anarchist, The Actors’ Gang

SUPPORTING FEMALE PERFORMANCE       
Nija Okoro – August Wilson’s Two Trains Running, Sophina Brown at The Matrix Theatre

SUPPORTING MALE PERFORMANCE
Adolphus Ward – August Wilson’s Two Trains Running, Sophina Brown at The Matrix Theatre

LEADING FEMALE PERFORMANCE                                            
Cheri Lynne VandenHeuvel – I Go Somewhere Else, Playwrights’ Arena

LEADING MALE PERFORMANCE
Rob Nagle – The Judas Kiss, Boston Court Pasadena

ADAPTATION
ÉLAN Ensemble – How We’re Different From Animals, Atwater Village Theatre

PLAYWRITING
Inda Craig-Galván – I Go Somewhere Else, Playwrights’ Arena

PRODUCTION DESIGN
Bronco Billy – The Musical, Skylight Theatre Company

COMEDY ENSEMBLE
Gloria, The Echo Theater Company

ENSEMBLE
August Wilson’s Two Trains Running, Sophina Brown at The Matrix Theatre

COMEDY DIRECTION                       
Chris Fields – Gloria, The Echo Theater Company

DIRECTION   
Michael Matthews – Cabaret, Celebration Theatre

REVIVAL OF THE YEAR
August Wilson’s Two Trains Running, Sophina Brown at The Matrix Theatre

PRODUCTION OF THE YEAR
Cry It Out, The Echo Theater Company

QUEEN OF THE ANGELS
Tomas Benitez

CAREER ACHIEVEMENT
Jack Stehlin and Jeannine Wisnosky Stehlin

(Note: More photos to come.)