DCPA NEWS CENTER
Enjoy the best stories and perspectives from the theatre world today.
Enjoy the best stories and perspectives from the theatre world today.
The Colorado Theatre Guild’s annual Henry Awards are a celebration of the entire Colorado theatre community. But the man of the hour at next month’s party no doubt will be Nathan Halvorson of Colorado Springs. The versatile everyman of the Fine Arts Center Theatre Company at Colorado College made Henry Awards history this morning by having a hand in six 2018-19 nominations. Winners will be announced at a gala event July 22 at the Lone Tree Arts Center.
Halvorson directed one production that was nominated for Outstanding Musical (Hands on a Hardbody) and another nominated for Outstanding Play (Church & State). He is also individually nominated for directing both of those shows; for choreographing Hands on a Hardbody; and for his portrayal of the mean Mrs. Trunchbull in Roald Dahl’s Matilda The Musical. And if there were a category for such things, Halvorson probably would have gotten yet another nod for simply riding to the rescue. When the star of Barnum (which closed yesterday) broke his leg in a preview performance, Halvorson, the show’s choreographer, stepped in to dance the role of the famous ringleader at every performance while actor Gil Barry played the title role from a wheelchair.
“Nathan is extraordinarily committed and passionate for everything about the theatre, and that manifests itself whether he is directing or choreographing or acting or educating the next generation of theatre artists,” said Fine Arts Center Theatre Company Producing Artistic Director Scott RC Levy.
The Henry Awards, which consider achievements among the Colorado Theatre Guild’s statewide member companies, have been a topsy-turvy, roller-coaster affair throughout their controversial 14-year existence. One example: The DCPA Theatre Company, which received just one Henry Award last year, joins the Fine Arts Center this year in leading all Colorado theatre companies with 26 nominations each. But while 29 member companies received at least one nomination today, the Henrys are a nothing if not a feast-or-famine affair: Seven companies account for a full 63 percent of the 180 overall nominations.
The DCPA Theatre Company’s Oklahoma!, daringly set in an all African-American town, leads all musicals with 11 nominations, followed by Vintage Theatre’s A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder with eight. While the Colorado Theatre Guild expanded its pool of nominees in each category from five to seven several years ago, a whopping nine shows are nominated for Outstanding Musical this year because of ties in the voting. All nine nominees will be invited to perform at the July 22 awards presentation.
The most honored play of the season is a distinction that will be shared by three productions: The Fine Arts Center Theatre Company’s Anna in the Tropics, Thunder River Theatre Company’s Equus and the Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s You Can’t Take It With You with eight nominations each. But in a quintessential Henrys quirk, You Can’t Take it With You did not land a nomination for Outstanding Play.
Seven companies are nominated each year for Outstanding Season at the sole discretion of the Colorado Theatre Guild’s Board of Directors. This year’s nominees are the Arvada Center, Aurora Fox, Colorado Shakespeare Festival, DCPA Theatre Company, Fine Arts Center Theatre Company at Colorado College, Thunder River Theatre Company and Vintage Theatre. The Fine Arts Center’s 26 nominations are widely spread between Anna in the Tropics (8), Church & State (7), Matilda The Musical (6) and Hands on a Hardbody (3). That the company has four productions nominated either for Outstanding Musical or Play makes it a virtual lock for this year’s Outstanding Season award.
Notable among the nominations this year is the Henrys’ continuing love for the Thunder River Theatre Company, located 170 miles southwest of Denver in Carbondale on the road to Aspen. Thunder River, founded in 1995 and now led by Corey Simpson, had not received a nomination before 2017. But counting its 11 honors this year, Thunder River now has 28 nominations in the past three years. It was also a breakthrough year for the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, the nation’s second-oldest of its kind. Timothy Orr’s company landed nine nominations, which is nearly double the company’s previous best of five. Cherry Creek Theatre, which operates out of the Mizel Center’s boutique Pluss Theatre, received four nominations, nearly matching the company’s five total nominations in its history. First-time Henry Award nominees include the Butte Theatre in Cripple Creek and the StageDoor Theatre in Conifer.
Among actors, Brandon Bill was singled out as a “killer” leading actor, both for Vintage Theatre’s A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder and Stagedoor Theatre’s Murder for Two. Creede Repertory Theatre’s Dustin Bronson was doubly feted as a lead actor in Barefoot in the Park and as a supporting actor in Miss Holmes, a play that puts a gender spin on Arthur Conan Doyle’s iconic detective.
Denver First Lady Mary Louise Lee, who next will star in the Vintage Theatre’s Crowns opening June 28, is nominated for Outstanding Actress in a Musical for her work in the Aurora Fox’s musical opus Caroline, Or Change. Emily Van Fleet, perhaps the most accomplished actor never to have been nominated for a Henry Award, finally broke through this year for her portrayal of Doralee (the Dolly Parton role) in Creede Repertory Theatre’s 9 to 5: The Musical. Some will say she deserved equal consideration for her work starring in the Arvada Center’s Educating Rita.
The Aurora Fox’s 15 nominations might be seen as a vote of confidence from the Guild in Helen R. Murray’s first season as Executive Producer – a controversial slate that was almost completely unknown to most theatregoers going in. But while only three companies earned more nominations, the Fox’s nods all went to two productions with seven nominations each: Tony Kushner’s Caroline, Or Change and Jason Robert Brown’s song cycle Songs for a New World.
There often are nominee clusters in the four design categories because the Guild splits scenic, lighting, sound and costume nominees into two tiers determined by member companies’ annual overall operating budgets. Seven member companies reported budgets above this year’s $1 million threshold (down from $1.2 million the past several years) and therefore made up Tier I: The Arvada Center, Creede Repertory Theatre, Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Colorado Springs TheatreWorks, DCPA Theatre Company, Fine Arts Center Theatre Company and Theatre Aspen. The rest were placed into Tier II. In an effort to make the tiers more balanced going forward, the Guild has further lowered the budgetary dividing line to $500,000 for the new judging season that began June 1.
This year’s list of multiple individual nominees is led, of course, by Halvorson, followed by his Colorado Springs co-worker Christopher L. Sheley, who was honored three times for designing the sets for Shakespeare in Love, Roald Dahl’s Matilda The Musical and Church & State. This season’s two-time nominees include Aurora Fox Sound Designer Curt Behm and Scenic Designer Brandon Case; DCPA Theatre Company Costume Designer Jeff Cone and Lighting Designer Diane Ferry Williams; and Arvada Center choreographer Kitty Skillman Hilsabeck, who already is a four-time winner. Thunder River’s Sean Jeffries, who earned a record five individual nominations in 2017, is back with nods for sound and lighting, both for Equus. Mark Martino is nominated both for directing and choreographing Ragtime for Theatre Aspen.
Among those working for multiple companies, Sound Designer Jason Ducat is doubly nominated for the Arvada Center’s The Diary of Anne Frank and Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s You Can’t Take It With You. Scenic Designer Michael R. Duran is nominated for Parker Arts/Inspire Theater Company’s NEWSIES and Breckenridge Backstage Theatre’s Lend Me a Tenor. Brian Miller, who won last year for lighting, is nominated this year both for designing the set for Bas Bleu Theatre’s The Waverly Gallery and lighting OpenStage Theatre & Company’s Frankenstein. Lighting Designer Jacob Welch is nominated both for NEWSIES and Local Theater Company Paper Cut in Boulder.
Every year, the Henry Award nominations also spawn an unofficial list of eye-raising omissions. Among those sure to be disappointed this season are all those involved with Phamaly Theater Company’s Into the Woods, which easily ranked among the handicapped company’s greatest achievements. Other widely praised but slighted productions include the Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Vintage Theatre’s Every Brilliant Thing, Benchmark Theatre’s Wakey Wakey and 1984, and The Catamounts’ United Flight 232. Buntport Theater’s Coyote. Badger. Rattlesnake. did not land among the honorees for Outstanding New Play. Miners Alley Playhouse, the darling of the 2018 Henry Awards largely on the strength of its groundbreaking production of Fun Home, received just one nomination this year despite solid stagings of Lungs, Lost in Yonkers and Our Town.
Noticeably missing from the nominee slate again this year is Curious Theatre Company, a former Henry Awards darling that pulled out of further consideration in 2016, citing “a profound lack of diversity” among the winners. This year, the Lake Dillon Theatre Company also withdrew, citing its own discomfort with the awards process. “However, instead of offering complimentary tickets to Henry Award judges, the Lake Dillon Theatre Company has pledged to donate those tickets to local not-for-profits use for their stakeholders and beneficiaries,” said Artistic Director Christopher Alleman.
The Henry Award nominations are determined through a judging process involving more than 100 judges statewide. This year, local theatre journalists and bloggers were eliminated from the pool in favor of a peer judging process made up primarily of fellow theatre artists, academics and educators, as well as general theatre-lovers who apply to become judges. For the just-completed season, the Colorado Theatre Guild pledged to increase the number of judges scoring each show from five to nine, and board member T. David Rutherford said the Guild succeeded in getting 206 member productions qualified.
The Colorado Theatre Guild is promising other format changes for next year, notably the addition of two new youth award categories for both leading and supporting roles. That is sure to create its own controversy given that last year produced the youngest Henry Award winner in history: Twelve-year-old Sophia Dotson, who was named Outstanding Actress in a Musical for Miners Alley Playhouse’s Fun Home, without the need for age distinctions. This year a strong contender for Outstanding Actress in a Play will be 16-year-old Darrow Klein for the Arvada Center’s The Diary of Anne Frank.
The Colorado Theatre Guild is a statewide advocacy organization that presents the Henry Awards as its annual fundraising event. They are named for longtime local theatre producer Henry Lowenstein. The July 22 awards show again will be directed by Betty Hart and Robert Michael Sanders. A highlight each year is the presentation of the Guild’s annual Lifetime Achievement Award. This year’s honoree will be announced later this month.
John Moore was named one of the 12 most influential theater critics in the U.S. by American Theatre Magazine in 2011. He has since taken a groundbreaking position as the Denver Center’s Senior Arts Journalist. He was a Henry Award judge from 2005-18.