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.
Bre Jackson performs as Ado Annie after she was named Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Musical for the DCPA Theatre Company’s ‘Oklahoma!’ at the 2019 Henry Awards. Photo by John Moore.
The DCPA Theatre Company’s ‘Oklahoma!’ was the most honored production by the 2019 Henry Awards, with seven, including Outstanding Musical. Photo by AdamsVisCom.
The Colorado Theatre Guild’s annual Henry Awards honored the breadth of work on stages all across the state on Monday night, but the wind whipping down the plain blew most strongly in the direction of the DCPA Theatre Company’s Oklahoma! The musical, daringly set in an all African American town, was honored with seven awards, including Outstanding Musical and Ensemble.
“Representation matters,” Bre Jackson said in accepting the Henry Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Musical for her portrayal of Ado Annie. “Whether we are black, white, purple, transgender or whatever, it is important that we all be seen for the beautiful people we are.”
“Wokelahoma!” as Jackson called it, also earned awards for Outstanding Director (Chris Coleman), choreographer (Dominique Kelley), Ensemble, Actor (Antoine L. Smith) and Supporting Actor (Rennie Anthony Magee).
Playwright Jason Odell Williams joined ‘Church & State’ cast members Sally Hybl, Brian Landis Folkins and Sara Whitmore. Photo by John Moore.
Coleman, who is preparing to open his second season as the DCPA Theatre Company’s Artistic Director, thanked the community for welcoming him to Denver and cited what he called “the incredible honor” of working with the cast and creative team that brought Oklahoma! to life.
The most honored play of the theatre year that ended June 1 was Thunder River Theatre Company of Carbondale’s Equus, which won three Henry Awards, though the Fine Arts Center Theatre Company at Colorado College‘s Church & State won both Outstanding Play and Outstanding Actor for Brian Landis Folkins, a longtime DCPA Teaching Artist. Church & State is an agonizingly personal look at how a school massacre impacts a conservative North Carolina senator’s views on gun violence days before an election.
The versatile Nathan Halvorson made Henry Awards history last month by having a hand in six 2018-19 nominations as an actor, director and choreographer, but he wasn’t called to the stage on Monday until the penultimate award of the night, for directing Church & State. “I had two beers because I kept losing,” he said to laughs. He called the experience “playing in a sandbox filled with joy.” Playwright Jason Odell Williams was a surprise guest at the ceremony, which was held for the second straight year at the Lone Tree Arts Center.
Mary Louise Lee and Mayor Michael B. Hancock. Photo by John Moore.
A whopping nine shows were nominated for Outstanding Musical because of ties in the voting, and eight of them performed at Monday’s ceremony. Mary Louise Lee drew a prolonged standing ovation just before she was named Outstanding Actress for her performance in the Aurora Fox’s Caroline, Or Change as an African American maid in 1963 Louisiana. Among those standing was her husband, the recently re-elected Denver Mayor Michael B. Hancock.
“She’s never ceased to amaze me,” said Hancock, “whether she’s stepped on the stage as a singer for her band or as a performer in a theatrical musical – which I know is her favorite thing to do. She was wonderful tonight, and I am so proud of her.” Lee is currently starring in the Vintage Theatre’s Crowns through August 4.
Lee accepted her award “on behalf of my ancestors and their untold stories.” She thanked her mother for taking her to productions at the Bonfils Theatre when she was a girl. “That’s why I wanted to become an actor,” Lee said. The Henry Awards are named for Henry Lowenstein, the late longtime producer at the former Bonfils Theatre. Kevin Hart, who won the Outstanding Supporting Actor Award for his work in Breckenridge Backstage Theatre’s Lend Me a Tenor, also credited Lowenstein for his start.
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. The DCPA Theatre Company, which received just one Henry Award last year, took home eight of Monday’s 28 competitive awards, followed by the Fine Arts Center with five, and Thunder River with four.
Go to our growing gallery of photos from Monday’s Henry Awards
The Arvada Center, which led all companies with eight wins in 2018, won two on Monday while Miners Alley Playhouse, which won seven Henrys last year, landed just one nomination this year. But beyond the Oklahoma! runaway, the rest of Monday’s awards were widely dispersed. In all, 12 companies and 14 productions won at least one award.
In accepting one of two awards for Outstanding Direction of a Play for The Diary of Anne Frank, Christy Montour-Larson pointed out that had Anne Frank survived the Holocaust, she would have turned 90 last month. “She could have given so much to the world,” Montour-Larson said. “But through her work, we see what was destroyed by the murder of 6 million human beings – the lost promise, creativity and potential from the failure of a world to respond. I think Anne Frank lives on in everyone here tonight who uses the power of theatre to shine a light about prejudice and the nobility of human compassion.”
There were two special awards given this year. The Denver Children’s Theatre, which ceased operations last month, was recognized for performing for more than 150,000 young people over the past 22 years at the JCC Mizel Arts and Culture Center. In presenting the award to Executive Artistic Director Steve Wilson, actor Ilasiea L. Gray thanked him for casting her as a black Sleeping Beauty. “DCT always played for a diverse group of children, and that was an invaluable inspiration for kids of color and all backgrounds as to what is possible,” she said. “And for me as an actor, Steve broke down a barrier in my mind about what was possible to me.” Wilson used the occasion to encourage all producers to serve youth audiences. “Consider this work as core to your missions,” he said.
Lifetime Achievement Award winner Beki Pineda. RDG Photography
The annual Lifetime Achievement Award went to Beki Pineda, who over the past 35 years has served in a variety of capacities, primarily as Props Designer. Pineda has worked on the making of 10 theatrical productions in the past year alone. She started as a volunteer at the Bonfils Theatre on East Colfax Avenue before building her trade in properties for countless theater companies. She turns 80 on August 19.
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 winner was a foregone conclusion when the Fine Arts Center landed 26 nominations, including a Henrys first: Four productions nominated either for Outstanding Musical or Play. The company’s strong season (its 30th) included Anna in the Tropics (8 nominations), Church & State (7), Matilda The Musical (6), Hands on a Hardbody (3), Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind, Shakespeare in Love, Bad Dates and Barnum.
The Colorado Theatre 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.
Monday’s program was directed for the second straight year by busy area actor/directors Betty Hart and Robert Michael Sanders. Hart is directing Vintage’s Crowns and he’s about to open as Amos in Phamaly’s Chicago, opening August 1 at the Denver Performing Arts Complex. Sanders, choreographer Jessica Hindsley and Musical Director Eric Weinstein created an original song to open the show called “All the World’s a Stage.” As part of the number, two dozen actors honored Colorado’s recent theatre past by cleverly re-creating poses from production photos of notable shows as the pictures were projected above them on the stage.
Notable among this year’s individual design winners was Brian Miller, who earned one of the two scenic design awards for Bas Bleu Theatre’s The Waverly Gallery. Miller won last year for lighting. Thunder River’s Sean Jeffries, who earned a record five individual nominations in 2017, was back at the winner’s podium Monday for lighting Equus.
Among those sure to be disappointed by Monday’s results are Vintage Theatre, which had 10 nominations, and Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company (seven), both of which left empty-handed. Other prominent companies that were not recognized this year include Phamaly Theatre Company, Miners Alley Playhouse, BDT Stage, Creede Repertory Theatre, Buntport Theater, Candlelight Dinner Playhouse, the soon-to-close Midtown Arts Center, Benchmark Theatre and The Catamounts. Curious Theatre Company and the Lake Dillon Theatre Company have withdrawn from awards consideration.
Sam Gregory has now been nominated for acting nine times without a win, this time for his role as Grandpa Vanderhof in the Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s You Can’t Take it With You. He joked that he should get a special Susan Lucci Award, a reference to the soap-opera queen who was nominated for 19 Daytime Emmys before she finally broke through in 1999.
The Henry Awards’ nominees and winners 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 increased 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 has announced the addition of two new categories for next year: Youth awards for both leading and supporting actors.
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.
Scott RC Levy accepts the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center’s Henry Award for Outstanding Season by a Company. Photo by John Moore.
Click on any photo to see a larger version. Photos by RDG Photography and John Moore. More photos will be added at the link below.
Go to our growing gallery of photos from Monday’s Henry Awards
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Photo by Jeff Kearney
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Sheryl McCallum in DCPA Theatre Company’s ‘Oklahoma.’ Photo by Adams VisCom
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The Diary of Anne Frank. Matthew Gale Photography.
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Photo by John Moore.
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Photo by Austin Colbert.
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DCPA Teaching Artist Brian Landis Folkins in “Church & State.” Photo by Jeff Kearney.
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Photo by Jeff Kearney.
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Ta’Nika Gibson and Antoine L. Smith. Photo by AdamsVisCom.
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Denver First Lady Mary Louise Lee in ‘Caroline or Change.’
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Kevin Hart as Saunders in ‘Lend Me a Tenor.’
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Brittany Dye in Thunder River’s ‘Equus.’
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Bre Jackson and Renee Anthony Magee. Photo by AdamsVisCom.
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The company of Oklahoma! Photo by AdamsVisCom.
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Zachary Andrews and Sommer Carbuccia in Local Theatre’s ‘Paper Cut.’ Photo by Michael Ensminger.
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Double-nominee Jeff Cone won the Henry Award for costuming ‘Anna Karenina.’ Pictured: Kate MacCluggage, Patrick Zeller and the Company of ‘Anna Karenina.’ Photo by AdamsVisCom.
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Photo by Austin Colbert.
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Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s ‘You Can’t Take It With You.’ Photo by Jennifer M. Koskinen.
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he Waverly Gallery. Photo by William Cotton.
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Matthew Gale Photography.
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Kate Austin-Groen Photography
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Again the ceremony include a video tribute produced by the Denver Center honoring those from the theatre community who have died in the past year:
Video by DCPA Senior Arts Journalist John Moore