How to scream like a banshee

"Remember, it's only amateur theater until you offend someone - then it's art." Mike Baker quoting someone else.

David and I went to the WATCH awards tonight. For those of you following along at home, the WATCH program is peer review for community theater and the WATCH awards night is 480 people in one room at the Birchmere saying "You look great!" and "So what are you working on?" to each other while we prance about in our finery and fab-u-lous shoes. (A shout out here to Holly who was wearing the best shoes I saw all night.)

My home team, Silver Spring Stage, received 16 nominations this year and we brought home 3 statues, all for Bedroom Farce. They are our first wins for WATCH, so every time I heard "Silver Spring Stage" announced from the Stage, I screamed in a way that still makes my thoat hurt. Andy won for his amazing set (just try to fit three complete bedrooms into a 20x21-foot rectangle where the lighting instruments are 9 feet above the deck), Pauline won for directing it, and the show itself won for best play.

My pals over at the Providence Players of Fairfax took home three statues as well, for their lovely, lovely production of The Man Who Came to Dinner. It's one of my favorite plays, so I'm pretty darn picky about it, and I just loved what they did with it. So good on you guys! Naturally, I shrieked for them as well. And they heard me and knew it was me. From across a room with nearly 500 people in it.

As always, there were awards with which I agreed, some with which I did not agree, some great speeches, and some terrible ones. But I had a nice scotch & soda and good company, so I even got through songs from the nomiated musicals - "Annie" and "Evita" among them. "Hard Knock Life" and "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina" are battling for space in my brain.

I don't know exactly when Todd will post the list of the winners (probably as soon as he gets home), so anyone interested in the results can check www.washingtontheater.org.