The 2015-16 Austin Critics Table Awards
Top honors to Capital T's Year of the Rooster, Mary Moody Northen Theatre's Mr. Burns, a post-electric play, and Vortex's Terminus
By Robert Faires, Fri., May 27, 2016
Capital T Theatre had a reason to crow at the Austin Critics Table Awards ceremony on Monday, winning three awards for its staging of the dark cockfighting comedy Year of the Rooster, but the night was just as exxx-cellent for the Mary Moody Northen Theatre's Mr. Burns, a post-electric play and Vortex Repertory Company's Terminus, both of which also received a trio of prizes from the association of area arts scribes at its 24th presentation of honors.
Eight more works were recognized for notable artistic achievements in two areas: Austin Playhouse's Disgraced; Austin Shakespeare's Medea; Butler Opera Center's At the Statue of Venus/Three Decembers; Kathy Dunn Hamrick Dance Company's True Story; Hyde Park Theatre's The Night Alive; Ebony Stewart and the Vortex's Hunger; Tapestry Dance Company's In Your Shoes; and Zach Theatre's Sophisticated Ladies. In all, the Critics Table distributed honors in 40 categories this year, as well as welcoming three more local creatives – Peter Bay, Stephen Mills, and Cookie Ruiz – into the Austin Arts Hall of Fame.
Critics participating in this year's awards – covering the period from May 1, 2015, to April 30, 2016 – were the American-Statesman's Andrew J. Friedenthal (theatre), Claire Canavan (theatre), Luke Quinton (classical music/visual arts), Claire Spera (dance), and Jeanne Claire van Ryzin (arts), and the Chronicle's H.C. Arnold (visual arts), Elizabeth Cobbe (theatre), Jonelle Seitz (dance), Shanon Weaver (theatre), and Robert Faires (arts).
THEATRE
Production, Drama
Terminus, Vortex Repertory Company
Production, Comedy
Year of the Rooster, Capital T Theatre
Production, Musical (tie)
She Loves Me, Mary Moody Northen Theatre
Tortoise & Hare, Summer Stock Austin
Direction
David Long, Mr. Burns, a post-electric play
Acting in a Leading Role
Franchelle Dorn, Medea
Jason Liebrecht, Year of the Rooster
Jennifer Underwood, Terminus
Ben Wolfe, Disgraced
Acting in a Supporting Role
Crystal Bird Caviel, Disgraced
Tom Green, The Night Alive
Afra Hines, Sophisticated Ladies
Amber Quick, A Streetcar Named Desire
Michael Stuart, The Norwegians
Ensemble Performance
Mr. Burns, a post-electric play, Mary Moody Northen Theatre
Music Direction
Austin Haller, Sunday in the Park With George
Movement
Natasha Davison, The Wild Party
David Mark Cohen New Play Award (tie)
Hunger, Ebony Stewart
Tender Rough Rough Tender, Sarah Saltwick
DANCE
Dance Concert
True Story, Kathy Dunn Hamrick Dance Company
Short Work
"Motherwell Amor," Erick Hawkins Dance Company/Shay Ishii Dance Company
Choreographer
Charles O. Anderson/Kathy Dunn Hamrick/Lisa Nicks/Kate Warren, More Than One Complication
Dancer
Michael Love, In Your Shoes
D. Poet Powell, True Story
Ashley Lynn Sherman, Desire/Hamlet
Duet
Matt Shields & Tony Merriwether, Sophisticated Ladies
Ensemble
Tapestry Dance Company, In Your Shoes
DESIGN
Scenic Design
David Molina-Garza, The Diary of Anne Frank
Costume Design
Jenny McNee & Jennifer Rose Davis, The History of King Lear
Lighting Design
Patrick Anthony, Year of the Rooster/Hunger/Terminus/Medea/Marie Antoinette
Sound Design
Robert S. Fisher, The Night Alive/Gusev/The Realistic Joneses
Video/Projection Design
Eliot Gray Fisher, The Warriors: A Love Story
VISUAL ART
Museum Exhibition
"Strange Pilgrims," The Contemporary Austin
Solo Gallery Exhibition (tie)
"Seth Orion Schwaiger: Complex I," Pump Project
"Jade Walker: Four Cornered," Galleries I & II, Texas State University
Group Gallery Exhibition
"The Contemporary Print," PrintAustin
Work of Art: Independent or Public Project
Field Constructs Design Competition, Rachel Adams, Catherine Gavin, and Igor Siddiqui
Work of Art: installation
Hurlyburly, Orly Genger, Waller Creek Conservancy/The Contemporary Austin
Gallery, Body of Work
grayDUCK Gallery
CLASSICAL MUSIC
Symphonic Performance
Compassion, Austin Symphony Orchestra with Lior
Chamber Performance
Traffic Jam, Steve Parker
Choral Performance
Considering Matthew Shepard, Conspirare
Opera
At the Statue of Venus/Three Decembers, Butler Opera Center
Singer
Karen Slack, Aida
Julia Taylor, Three Decembers
Original Composition/Score
"In the Face of Trouble," Graham Reynolds
Instrumentalist
Keith Womer, Start the New Year With Bach!
Ensemble
La Follia Austin Baroque
SPECIAL CITATIONS
John Bustin Award for Conspicuous Versatility
Marc Pouhé
W.H. "Deacon" Crain Award for Outstanding Student Work
Cheyenne Barton, St. Edward's University
Matt Buzonas, St. Edward's University
Maureen Fenninger, St. Edward's University
Site for Sore Eyes Award
Illusory Impressions and Lumen, for their invigorating collaborations of dance and music in site-specific performance
Best Face on it Award
Tara Cooper, for her exquisite masks of the Simpsons characters in Mr. Burns, a post-electric play
Outside the Box (and String) Award
Physical Plant & Parallelogramophonograph for their pioneering collaboration in improvisational drama
