Bragging on my team

The NVTA One-Act Play Festival Champagne Reception and Awards Ceremony was last night. David, Ali, Pete, and I represented the Perfectly Good Airplanes team. (David was, of course, our Stage Manager, Ali played the Daughter, Pete is Ali's SO and ushered, and I .... well, I'm rather chatty and I like champagne.)

Nothing gets an evening like this off to a good start like champagne and nibbles, so we all got ourselves equipped with a bit of the bubbly and some veggies and chicken tenders and stuff. Ali then brilliantly gathered us at a small table near the door so that we could eat and drink without danger of wearing ranch dressing and while we were there Sara Joy arrived (looking faboo in a pink evening dress and lovely party sandals - Sara cleans up well) and came over and congratulated me. "For what?" And then she listed the nominations that our show got. Six! We got six nominations!! We were nominated for almost every category for which we were eligible: Ted was nominated for Best Actor, I was nominated for Best Director, Steve was nominated for Best Original Script, the show was nominated for Best Ensemble Performance and Best Original Production and Best Overall Production. At which point all I could say for a while was "Oh my."

The awards themselves were fun with light-hearted entertainment (Lisa and Andy did a great parody of My Favorite Things with all the shows mentioned, the scholarship recipient recited his comic monologue, and later Lisa sang a knock out rendition of Some People) and the speeches were generally light and friendly in tone. Except for Scott's because (and this still cracks me up) Scott seems to have decided that bitter and brooding make the most memorable theater persona. To play this up, although Scott directed two shows, he wasn't nominated for directing either one of them but was chosen to present the award for best direction, a point he highlighted to good effect in his presentation.

Longish story slightly shorter, Perfectly Good Airplanes won for Best Lead Actor and Best Original Script. Ali accepted Ted's award and I accepted Steve's so we both got to sashay up onto the stage. Ali's speech on Ted's behalf (claiming to be one he had written) thanked the appropriate people and then ".... is the story of a beautiful 27-year-old..... um, I may have edited this a bit..." and my speech for Steve included the appropriate thanks to Ali, Ted, David, and Ira and ".... and I know for a fact that Steve would thank me. If I accept your award for you, you're thanking me." And, of course, we both honored David Ives's description of David Mamet's plays: we kept them short and to the fucking point. I'm pleased to say that even with a live mic in front of me and two glasses of champagne inside me, I was able to be brief, be witty, and be seated. The room marveled. And David told me later that I was dignified and funny, so his boyfriend points are stacking up.

And I got to thank the adjudicators again, who gave me some good thinking points for when we re-mount the show at the Stage's One-Act Festival in August. Good adjudicators are pearls beyond price. If ours is a better show in eight weeks, they deserve some of the credit.

And if we couldn't sweep and win everything - even awards for which we weren't eligible - then the next best thing was that Mary-Anne and Deb got lots of nominations and awards as well. Mary-Anne's husband and Lori's mother passed away at the beginning of the month and Deb stepped up and took on a role in Mary-Anne's show on pretty much a week's notice, in addition to everything else she was doing for the Festival. At its best, theater is my favorite team sport and these two fine women had each other's - and several other people's - backs. Deb also won a judge's descretionary award for the music that she wrote and performed for her own show as well as for Best Production of an Original Play. Mary-Anne took home plaques for Best Director and Best Overall Production. Nano unexpectedly had his gallbladder removed so his show had to be moved to the second weekend but he gave a just-barely-post-recovery terrific performance (which I didn't get to see, dammit!) and his show, The Guys, took Best Ensemble Performance. Nano made it to the reception as well and his ability to flirt with women has not been affected at all by the surgery, so that's a relief.

I think Mary-Anne made me laugh the hardest when, in one of her acceptance speeches, she said that she wanted to direct Bitter Sauce because "I knew that drunk bitch was me!" Mary-Anne is highly quotable, but not necessarily in front of small children.

Being the geeky person I am known to be, no one should be surprised that I made a chart of the awards. There was a good distribution of nominations and awards across the 14 shows. Three shows were nominated for six awards, none for more than six. The average number of nominations per show was about three and a half. Two shows won two awards, no shows won more than two. The average number of wins was less than one. Three companies produced more than one show, but one only company (Go, Castaways!) was nominated for more than one show. (I wasn't a math major, but Mom was...) And, ahem, the Stage was the only company to be nominated for all of the Production, rather than specific person, awards.

There are lots of bragging rights to go around and no matter how you look at it, lots of winners and lots of good theater. And - and I truly believe this, squishy-headed idealist that I am, so call me what you will - if the goal is good theater, then the awards are just a fun excuse for a celebratory party. I'll happily accept any awards people want to give me, but the goal was a good festival for the most important people in the room - the audience, who go to work to earn the money to buy the tickets.