The 29th Drammy Awards ceremony—the Portland theater community’s annual recognition of outstanding achievement by its members—was last night, and, now that the haze of uppers and cough syrup is starting to wear off, we’ve come away with one strong impression: the committee (of which I am a member) really, really liked Portland Center Stage’s Twelfth Night. The fairly traditional production, directed by Seattle’s Jane Jones and performed in repertory with Amy Freed’s The Beard of Avon, won a whopping six awards for acting, direction, set design, costume design and overall production. What can I say—it was a good show. PCS swept the ceremony, walking away with a dozen of the 37 awards, but Chris Coleman’s smash-hit, Storm Large-helmed Cabaret only received one—for Michele Mariana, who played Fräulein Schneider. Whether Coleman, PCS’ Artistic Director, will interpret the Twelfth Night landslide as a snub or an honor remains to be seen, but he accepted the half-dozen awards for the show’s Ashland-based production team gracefully.
Third Rail Rep took home the usual pile of well-deserved awards, most of them for Grace. This is as it should be.
There were two big surprises in the night. The first was the unexpected (I think) recognition of The Wild Party, the first non-concert production by Live on Stage. The show, which our reviewer didn’t like very much, won three awards for acting and choreography.
The second surprise was the shortage of acting awards for women: a grand total of four, versus ten for male actors. The imbalance is shocking enough to move Eleanor O’Brien, who co-hosted the ceremony with her mother, Vana, to ask the women in the audience to join her in a collective “what the fuck.” She (and they) are correct; the committee was remiss in giving so few few awards to actresses, even in a season that offered few good female roles. I hadn’t realized just how big the difference was until last night. This is clearly something the fourteen of us on the committee (mostly women, by the way) will have to address next year.
Without further ado, here are the winners of the 2008 Drammy Awards for outstanding achievement in Portland theater.
ACTOR: Bruce Burkhartsmeier, Shining City, Third Rail Rep
ACTOR: Darius Pierce, Beard of Avon, Portland Center Stage
ACTOR: Leif Norby, Grace, Third Rail Rep
ACTOR: Brent Harris, Beard of Avon, Portland Center Stage
ACTRESS: Luisa Sermol, 9 Parts of Desire, CoHo and Cygnet Productions
CHOREOGRAPHY: Jessica Wallenfels, Sometimes a Great Notion, Portland Center Stage
CHOREOGRAPHY: Mike Barber, Good, Sojourn
CHOREOGRAPHY: ROBERT GIUTON, The Wild Party, Live on Stage
COSTUMES: Claudie Jean Fisher, The Clean House, Artists Rep
COSTUMES: Deborah Trout, Twelfth Night, Portland Center Stage
COSTUMES: Mary Rochon, Go, Dog. Go! Northwest Children’s Theater.
DIRECTOR: Sarah Jane Hardy, The Lesser Magoo, defunkt theatre
DIRECTOR: Jane Jones, Twelfth Night, Portland Center Stage
DIRECTOR: Slayden Scott Yarbrough, Grace, Third Rail Rep
LIGHTING DESIGN: Dan Covey, Sometimes a Great Notion, Portland Center Stage
LIGHTING DESIGN: Dan Crossley, Einstein Is A Dummy, Oregon Children’s Theatre
LIGHTING DESIGN: Michael Mazzola, Grace, Third Rail Rep
MUSICAL ACTOR: Joe Theissen, No Way to Treat a Lady, Broadway Rose
MUSICAL ACTOR: Todd Hermanson, The Wild Party, Live on Stage
MUSICAL ACTRESS: Erin Charles in The Wild Party, Live on Stage
MUSICAL ACTRESS: Michele Mariana, Cabaret, Portland Center Stage
PRODUCTION: Twelfth Night, Portland Center Stage
PRODUCTION: Good, Sojourn
PRODUCTION: Grace, Third Rail Rep
PUPPETEERS: The Long Christmas Ride Home, Theatre Vertigo
SCENIC DESIGN: Sean O’Skea, No Way to Treat a Lady, Broadway Rose
SCENIC DESIGN: William Bloodgood, Twelfth Night, Portland Center Stage
SCENIC DESIGN: Tony Cisek, Sometimes a Great Notion, Portland Center Stage
SCENIC DESIGN: Curt Enderle, Nobody Here But Us Chickens, Third Rail Rep
SOUND DESIGN: Jen Raynak, Grace, Third Rail Rep
SUPPORTING ACTOR: Brad Bellamy, Twelfth Night, Portland Center Stage
SUPPORTING ACTOR: Garfield Wedderburn, Streamers, Sowelu Theatre
SUPPORTING ACTOR: Ken Albers, Twelfth Night, Portland Center Stage
SUPPORTING ACTOR: Tyler Caffall, Garden, Artists Rep
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Brittany Burch, House, Artists Rep
VOCAL DIRECTION: Alan D. Lytle, Plaid Tidings, Broadway Rose Theatre
YOUNG PERFORMER: Eli Hirsch, Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing, Oregon Children’s Theater
Dear Ben thank you for the nice article and mention. Also touching in to amend the mis-spelling of my names: it’s Michele with one ‘L’ and Mariana with one ‘N.’ Would that I were tall enough to carry two of each but alas…
Thanks again.
peace. michele
Corrected. Thank you, Michele.