Payne Pleasures 2004
And the award goes to ...
By Robert Faires, Fri., Oct. 8, 2004
On Monday, Sept. 27, the Austin Circle of Theaters handed out its annual B. Iden Payne Awards, honoring outstanding achievements in local theatre from August 2003 through July 2004. The ceremony, marking ACoT's 30th anniversary, was held at the home of Esther's Follies, an Austin theatrical institution that also got its start in the Seventies just a few years after the Circle. After a few years of recovery from his first stint as emcee, Lowell Bartholomee returned to host the affair, while Stuart Moulton and a bevy of beauty queens from the Naughty Austin production of Pageant presented the awards and kept the show moving at a record pace. (Less than two hours for the whole show? Get those folks for the Oscars!) As for the awards themselves: The most honored show was Sam Bass Community Theatre's Forever Plaid, which received four awards, including nods to Dennis Whitehead for both his direction and musical direction. Austin Playhouse was the big winner in the comedy category, going four for four in acting awards. With one more award for Michael Stuart's musical turn in its production of Kiss Me Kate, Austin Playhouse matched the five acting awards taken home by the Zachary Scott Theatre Center: three in musical productions and a pair for its version of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? The State Theater Company's spooky staging of The Woman in Black snagged three awards in the technical category. Pro Arts Collective founder and longtime actor, director, educator, and arts activist Boyd Vance was given the annual Special Recognition Award for Outstanding Achievement in Austin Theatre, and the Payne Awards Nominations Committee also dispensed special certificates to K.C. Gussler for his direction of the all-youth casts of Guys and Dolls and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Physical Plant Theatre for its site-specific work on The Fever, and Rubber Repertory Company for Mister Z Loves Company as an outstanding late-night adventure. Here is the full list of winners.
Production, Play for Youth
Tangled Tricksters (Pollyanna Theatre Company)
Director, Play for Youth
J. Richard Smith (Beauty and the Beast)
Actor, Play for Youth
Alex Garza (Tangled Tricksters)
Actress, Play for Youth
Betsy McCann (Tangled Tricksters)
Production, Music Theatre
Forever Plaid (Sam Bass Community Theatre)
Director, Music Theatre
Dennis Whitehead (Forever Plaid)
Lead Actor, Music Theatre
Roderick Sanford (It Ain't Nothin' but the Blues)
Lead Actress, Music Theatre
Latifah Taormina (Always ... Patsy Cline)
Featured Actor, Music Theatre
Michael Stuart (Kiss Me Kate)
Featured Actress, Music Theatre
Jill Blackwood (Cabaret [Zachary Scott Theatre Center])
Production, Comedy
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) (Austin Shakespeare Festival)
Director, Comedy
Ev Lunning Jr. (A Flea in Her Ear)
Lead Actor, Comedy
David Stahl (Travesties)
Lead Actress, Comedy
Babs George (Private Lives)
Featured Actor, Comedy
David Stokey (Private Lives)
Featured Actress, Comedy
Bernadette Nason (The Underpants)
Production, Drama
The Drawer Boy (Hyde Park Theatre)
Director, Drama
Ken Webster (The Drawer Boy)
Lead Actor, Drama
Philip Goodwin (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?)
Lead Actress, Drama
Joy Farmer-Clary (Romeo and Juliet)
Featured Actor, Drama (tie)
Michael David Walton (Titus Andronicus)
Ben Wolfe (Romeo and Juliet)
Featured Actress, Drama
Helen Merino (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?)
Cast Performance
Forever Plaid (Sam Bass Community Theatre)
Youth Performer
Brandon Harris (Hotel for Hollywood Has-Beens)
Set Design
Christopher McCollum (The Woman in Black)
Lighting Design (tie)
Robert T. Whyburn (The Secret Garden)
Richard Winkler (The Woman in Black)
Sound Design
The Gunn Brothers (The Woman in Black)
Costume Design
Susan Branch (It Ain't Nothin' but the Blues)
Music Director
Dennis Whitehead (Forever Plaid)
Choreographer
Jacob Ortuno (Everyman/Tibetan Book of the Dead)
Original Script
Jaston Williams (I'm Not Lying)
Original Score
Ernesto Marquez, Jonathan Hoyle, and Chris La Cava (The Comedy of Errors)
Austin Circle of Theaters' Special Recognition Award
Boyd Vance
B. Iden Payne Nominations Committee Special Certificates
Outstanding Direction of All-Youth CastsK.C. Gussler for Guys and Dolls and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
Outstanding Site-Specific Work
Physical Plant Theatre for The Fever
Outstanding Late-Night Adventure
Rubber Repertory Company for Mister Z Loves Company
