The Indys

photos by Paul Wellman

In many ways last Monday night it seemed like the teenaged Indys
ceremony had come home. Maybe it was the fact that the first award
of the evening went to Michael Smith, who, in tandem with The
Independent’s founding executive editor, Audrey Berman, invented
the Independent Theater Awards  —  affectionately known as the
Indys  —  14 years ago.

Or maybe it was the constancy of the
thing, as embodied by Los Angeles Times theater critic Philip
Brandes, whose Indy judging tenure stretches back to the first
presentations. It was, he quipped, the Indy awards’ intention “to
honor as many accomplishments as today’s attention span can
handle.” Reminding us that the ceremony was founded on the
impossibility of picking bests of any category, an Indy is meant to
celebrate the varied theatrical riches we find in this startlingly
diverse “tiny town,” as one honoree phrased it. Of the 26 awards,
one-third were given to veterans  —  like director John Blondell of
Lit Moon and set designer Tal Sanders. The rest went to deserving
first-timers, like Jamie Hixon, who wasn’t even clear what an Indy
actually was, until she walked away with the fluorescent
red-colored doodad of honor for her performance in Circle Bar B’s
The Murder Room.

Then again, perhaps it was the venue. The Indy awards ceremony
began its life at Center Stage Theater, the glorious black box in
Paseo Nuevo that continues to nurture so much fledgling theater.
Consider Dramatic Women (Tiffany Story for The Last Liberal),
Genesis West (three awards for Blue Heart), and, most recently,
Santa Barbara Theatre, which won an Indy for the critically
acclaimed production of Hughie. Though the Indys have had a happy
tenure recently at SOhO  —  which catered the after-party  —  it
just seemed like a better fit in an SRO theater. “This is the only
time of the year we all get together,” activist and actor Rod
Lathim reminded his acting homies.

But most of all, it was the crowd  —  familiar and comfortable
acting-out  —  that made the night so fine and warm. Accepting his
directing award for the Merry Wives of Windsor, John Frederick
Jones said, “Arriving at this point in the program I now know how
some of Elizabeth Taylor’s later husbands felt. I know what to do,
I just don’t know how to keep you interested.”

He needn’t have worried. At 14 years, the prize still generates
its original thrills, giving back to the people who make our home
town interesting all year ’round.

The legendary Boxtales troupe, awarded for its epic
presentation of The Odyssey, includes director Peter Lackner
(left), performers Joanne Lubeck and Jeff Mills (hands extended),
writer Jessica Bortman, Lesley Finlayson (obscured), Jeff Mills (at
the podium), and Matt Tavianini. Of the show, Lackner said, “It
wakes up the adult in children and the child inside the
adult.”

Victoria Ramos was caught completely off guard when the judges
announced her Indy award for performance in Brown Baby at
UCSB.

That un-obscure object of desire, the famed Indy award, gripped
tightly by an unknown winner. This year it was a kind of a
pollution-assisted sunset salmon color.

The director of Shakespeare Santa Barbara’s Merry Wives of
Windsor managed to combine references to Eddie Fisher and
Shakespeare’s Portia in an eloquent and hilarious acceptance
speech.

This year’s adventurous program at UCSB was crowned by an
original production called Brown Baby. Here, theater Renaissance
man Irwin Appel, renowned for acting and direction, accepts an “i”
for that play’s sound design.

Believe it or not, this was the first acting Indy for Rod
Lathim (performance in SBCC’s Spitfire Grill). The voice for art in
our fair city usually gets heaps of praise for making theater
accessible to all. Unsurprisingly, he advised the crowd of their
duty to speak up for the arts in a town where it’s getting harder
to live. We’ve learned by his example.

New to town, director Scott Schwartz will soon be taking
Rubicon Theatre’s version of Tick . . . Tick . . . Boom! to L.A.’s
Coronet Theatre in June. In the meantime, we gave him an Indy.

Peter Lackner in a questionable pose. He’s either indicating
utter assurance over his much-deserved prize for directing
Boxtales’s Odyssey, or stealing an extra one to pad his résumé. We
assume the former.

Tami Tappan Damiano and Brent Crayon sent chills through the
crowd performing the showstopper “Come to Your Senses,” from Tick
. . . Tick . . . Boom!

A sign of the times: In the middle of accepting his award for
performance in PCPA’s Inventing Van Gogh, Leo Cortez felt a strange
vibration in his pocket, pulled out his cell phone, and told his
mom in rapid-fire Spanish he was busy at the moment collecting an
Indy. His mom expressed her thanks to the judges and the room.

Homegirl Jenny Sullivan gushes gracefully after winning for her
direction of Ensemble Theatre’s Dublin Carol. Though a longtime
S.B. resident, Sullivan does most of her work at Ventura’s Rubicon
Theatre. Profusely happy, Sullivan thanked ETC “for bringing me
home.”

Everybody in the picture? Three theater women  —  (from left)
Emma-Jane Huerta, Tiffany Story, and Allison Coutts  —  surrounded
by smart male admirers.

Musical genius Jim Connolly, caught testing for alleged
psychedelic properties of the famed Indy statuette. He believed
that stuff about bananas too.

Rich Hoag’s one-man show of Will Rogers usually includes a
little easy riffing on contemporary headlines in Rogers’s drawling
argot. In our case he made a slight exception while performing in a
short recess at the show. Quoting Rogers, he said, “The Oscar
represents the triumph of nothingness over the spectacularness of
zero.” Then, embellishing a bit: “Course the Indys ain’t like that
. . . especially if you get one.” For the record, Hoag’s show did
get one just last year.

Surrounded by judges Bojana Hill and Phil Brandes, a grateful
Harold Gould accepts an acting acknowledgement for his role in
Rubicon Theatre’s Tuesdays with Morrie.

and the winners are . . .

Michael Smith, Lighting Design, Blue Heart
Genesis West Scott Schwartz, Direction, Tick . . .
Tick . . . Boom! Rubicon Theatre Company Tal
Sanders, Scenic Design, Blue Heart and Far Away Genesis
West Jenny Sullivan, Direction, Dublin Carol
Ensemble Theatre Company Harold Gould,
Performance, Tuesdays with Morrie Rubicon Theatre Company
Andrew Samonsky, Performance, Tick . . . Tick
. . . Boom! Rubicon Theatre Company Peter Lackner,
Direction, The Odyssey Boxtales Theatre Company Ann
Bruice, Costume Design, The Beard of Avon SBCC Theatre
Group Jim Connolly, Original Score, Richard II
Irwin Appel, Sound Design, Brown Baby Theatre UCSB Tiffany
Story, Performance, The Last Liberal Dramatic Women
Victoria Ramos, Performance, Brown Baby Theatre
UCSB Rod Lathim, Performance, Spitfire Grill SBCC
Theatre Group Jessie Sherman, Performance, By the
Bog of Cats Theatre UCSB Boxtales, Outstanding
Ensemble Production, The Odyssey Boxtales Morlan
Higgins, Performance, Hughie Santa Barbara Theatre
Yevgenia Nayberg, Scenic Design, Richard II Lit
Moon Theatre Company/Westmont College Leo Cortez,
Performance, Inventing Van Gogh PCPA Jonathan Wade
Drahos, Performance, Merry Wives of Windsor Shakespeare
Santa Barbara Mitchell Thomas, Performance,
Richard II Lit Moon Theatre Company/Westmont College
Maurice Lord, Direction, Blue Heart Genesis West
John Frederick Jones, Direction, Merry Wives of
Windsor Shakespeare Santa Barbara Erik Ehn,
Playwright, The Saint Plays Westmont College Jamie
Hixon, Performance, The Murder Room Circle Bar B
Joe Miller, Creator/Performance, Walt Whitman:
Radical Patriot John Blondell, Direction, Richard
II Lit Moon Theatre Company/Westmont College Michael
Smith, Lighting Design, Blue Heart Genesis West Scott
Schwartz, Direction, Tick . . . Tick . . . Boom! Rubicon Theatre
Company Tal Sanders, Scenic Design, Blue Heart and
Far Away Genesis West Jenny Sullivan, Direction,
Dublin Carol Ensemble Theatre Company Harold
Gould, Performance, Tuesdays with Morrie Rubicon Theatre
Company Andrew Samonsky, Performance, Tick . . .
Tick . . . Boom! Rubicon Theatre Company Peter
Lackner, Direction, The Odyssey Boxtales Theatre Company
Ann Bruice, Costume Design, The Beard of Avon SBCC
Theatre Group Jim Connolly, Original Score,
Richard II Irwin Appel, Sound Design, Brown Baby Theatre UCSB
Tiffany Story, Performance, The Last Liberal
Dramatic Women Victoria Ramos, Performance, Brown
Baby Theatre UCSB Rod Lathim, Performance,
Spitfire Grill SBCC Theatre Group Jessie Sherman,
Performance, By the Bog of Cats Theatre UCSB
Boxtales, Outstanding Ensemble Production, The
Odyssey Boxtales Morlan Higgins, Performance,
Hughie Santa Barbara Theatre Yevgenia Nayberg,
Scenic Design, Richard II Lit Moon Theatre Company/Westmont College
Leo Cortez, Performance, Inventing Van Gogh PCPA
Jonathan Wade Drahos, Performance, Merry Wives of
Windsor Shakespeare Santa Barbara Mitchell Thomas,
Performance, Richard II Lit Moon Theatre Company/Westmont College
Maurice Lord, Direction, Blue Heart Genesis West
John Frederick Jones, Direction, Merry Wives of
Windsor Shakespeare Santa Barbara Erik Ehn,
Playwright, The Saint Plays Westmont College Jamie
Hixon, Performance, The Murder Room Circle Bar B
Joe Miller, Creator/Performance, Walt Whitman:
Radical Patriot John Blondell, Direction, Richard
II Lit Moon Theatre Company/Westmont College