By BTL Staff
2006 Wilde Awards: Let the Voting Begin
2005-06: Another season of excellence
Time flies when Michigan's busiest theater critics are having a blast reviewing shows staged by the state's professional theater companies, but Theater and Arts Editor Donald V. Calamia and Associate Critic John Quinn wouldn't have it any other way.
"While on the one hand, we're pretty much confined to sitting in dark theaters nearly every weekend during the theater season, it's a commitment we're happy to make," Calamia recently told Curtain Calls. "We have a vibrant theater scene here, and someone has to tell the world about it – so it might as well be us!"
Whereas many local media outlets have shamefully curtailed their theater coverage over the past few years, Pride Source Media Group – publishers of Between The Lines – has done just the opposite. "The LGBT community and the theater community have always had a unique and wonderful relationship, and so we felt it was important for us to provide the best and most comprehensive coverage possible," said Susan Horowitz, BTL's co-publisher and editor-in-chief. "We're proud of the fact that straights and gays alike recognize the quality of our work, and that they've come to rely on us for our thoughtful, insightful and extensive coverage."
Since Curtain Calls began in the fall of 2001, Calamia and Quinn have reviewed 373 professional productions. "We made a commitment to the theater community that we would review every professional production that's scheduled to run three weekends of more, and we've pretty much achieved that goal," Calamia said. "In recent years, for the most part, the only shows we've missed are those that have, for whatever reason, intentionally NOT asked us to review them. That's their prerogative and, quite frankly, their loss."
The 2005-06 season
Ninety-four shows at 26 different venues were reviewed during the recently closed 2005/06 season, a 10 percent drop in shows from the year before. The decrease, Calamia believes, is due primarily to the disappearance of several small theaters that staged shows the year before. "The history of Detroit theater is littered with small, upstart theaters that pop up with good intentions – especially during political turmoil and tough economic times – but because of a lack of funding or poor management skills, they disappear almost as quickly. That certainly appears to be the case this year. In fact, half of this year's decrease – five productions – is the result of just one theater mysteriously shutting its doors."
But it was Michigan's ecomony that played the villain at most if not all of the state's professional theaters. "Attendance was noticeably down pretty much across the board and funding is almost non-existent, so it's been quite fascinating to watch how each of our theaters adapted to the tough times," Calamia said. "Some trimmed their schedules or cast sizes and others raised prices, but most got creative and tried to find new ways to get more patrons into their seats. So far it seems to have worked – at least no one has shut their doors for next season. Yet."
Not all news was bad, however. Shows at East Lansing's Wharton Center and Jackson's Michigan Shakespeare Festival were reviewed for the first time, while others such as Hamtramck's Planet Ant Theatre and Ann Arbor's Performance Network Theatre increased the number of shows they produced.
And overall, the quality of work produced by the theaters remained quite high. "To their credit, none of the theaters took the cheap way out to save money," Calamia noted. "They continued to use the finest actors they could find, and the technical aspects of their shows did not noticeably suffer. That was a very smart move on their parts, as audiences can quickly smell desperation. And the worst thing they could have done was drive their customers away because of shoddy productions."
Fifth Annual Wilde Awards
It's no secret that queers love a good party. So in 2002, BTL established The Wilde Awards to celebrate theater and the arts in Michigan. "Since we were already covering professional theater and the arts, it only made sense to honor Michigan's best every year with a big celebration," co-publisher Horowitz said.
Nominations for The Fifth Annual Wilde Awards – named after 19th century gay playwright Oscar Wilde – were determined by critics Calamia and Quinn based solely on their reviews covering the period May 15,2005 through May 13, 2006.
This year's ballot includes a total of 62 actors and 18 directors in 18 categories, with 53 productions at 20 venues receiving at least one nomination.
For the second year in a row, readers and theatergoers are encouraged to vote for their favorite productions of the season in six Readers' Choice categories; winners of the performance categories will be determined by Calamia and Quinn.
Balloting begins today – June 1 – and continues through noon, June 30. Voters can either submit the paper ballot found elsewhere this issue or they can vote online on our new Web site, http://www.wildeawards.com.
Winners will be announced at a delightfully prestigious event – Southeast Michigan's only media-sponsored theater award ceremony this year – Wednesday, August 30 at Detroit's Historic Gem Theatre. "It's always a fun night with plenty of surprises," Horowitz said. "And this year will be no different."
The Nominations
More so than in the past, nominations this year were evenly spread out among several of Michigan's professional theaters, with no one production receiving more than three nominations. Performance Network Theatre topped the nominations with 12, followed closely by Planet Ant Theatre and Chelsea's Purple Rose Theatre Company with 11. Meadow Brook Theatre earned 10, while first-time nominees included Breathe Art Theatre Project (2), Michigan Shakespeare Festival (4) and The Thick Knot Rhythm Ensemble (1).
Several actors once again received multiple nominations, including Darryl Glasgow, Grant R. Krause, John Lepard, Naz Edwards, Neil Necastro and Paul Hopper.
But it was Carmen Decker who set a record once again as the only person to be nominated in all five years of The Wilde Awards. Will 2006 be her lucky year? The answer will be revealed August 30!
View the entire list of nominations here.
The 2006 Wilde Awards ballot is here.
