Lara Teeter, Tony-nominated actor and new head of Musical Theatre at Webster University, will serve as emcee of the 3rd annual Kevin Kline Awards, which is scheduled for Monday, March 31 at the Loretto-Hilton Center for the Performing Arts at Webster University (130 Edgar Rd.). The event begins at 7 p.m.
In addition to Teeter, three of the celebrity presenters will include Tony Award winning choreographer
Jerry Mitchell, St. Louis City Mayor Francis Slay and Mary Engelbreit, famed artist, entrepreneur and resident of Webster Groves. Mitchell, Slay and Engelbreit will be among 18 presenters distributing the coveted award throughout the ceremony. Engelbreit will be presenting the "Theatre for Young Audiences" award. An advocate for children's literacy and cultural education, Engelbreit worked with Kline on a DVD project based on her illustration of "The Night Before Christmas," a few years ago.
Teeter, a native Ponca City, Oklahoma, headed to New York City after high school where he performed in numerous shows on Broadway, including
On Your Toes,
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas,
Pirates of Penzance,
Happy New Year, and
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, to name a few. He has performed at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall and The Muny. Before arriving back in St. Louis, Teeter served as guest director at California State University at Long Beach; professor in the performing arts department at Cal State-Fullerton; director of the Light Opera Works in Evanston, Ill.; professor at Northwestern University (Illinois) and the Shenandoah Conservatory at Shenandoah University (Winchester, Va.). In addition to hosting the awards ceremony, Teeter will perform several musical numbers throughout the event.
Mitchell is an award-winning director and choreographer from Paw Paw, Michigan. His most recent Broadway project as both director and choreographer, is
Legally Blonde: The Musical, which opened last spring in New York. He won the 2005 Tony Award for Best Choreography and the 2005 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Choreography, both for
La Cage aux Folles. He also won an Emmy Award nomination for his work on
The Drew Carey Show. He has choreographed numerous Broadway shows including
You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, and
The Full Monty.
The two-hour event, directed by
Kevin Kline Award winner Rob Ruggiero, will feature an original score developed by St. Louisan Al Fischer, and a musical medley starring performers nominated for the coveted award. The musical numbers will include songs highlighted in the 2007 performances nominated in the category of Outstanding Production of a Musical. These musicals include:
Altar Boyz,
Crazy For You,
The Full Monty, I
Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change,
Les Miserables and,
A Little Night Music.
In all, 24 St. Louis theater companies are vying for top honors at the event, which celebrates professional theater in the area. Forty-five plays and musicals produced in St. Louis during 2007 share 118 nominations in 22 different categories.
Tickets may be purchased by calling 314-531-7529. Various levels of ticket prices are available. A special pre-event cocktail reception will be held for premium and elite seating level guests beginning at 6 p.m. All ticket-holders are invited to attend the post-event red-carpet gala from 9 p.m. to midnight featuring music by GrooveThang.
The Professional Theater Awards Council (PTAC), which administers awards, was formed in 2004 to heighten awareness of theater in St. Louis. During 2007, 100 different plays and musicals were evaluated by a floating pool of 45 judges. Each show was reviewed by seven judges, and each judge was required to submit a ballot within 24 hours of attending a production, thus insuring each production was weighed on its own merits rather than in comparison to others.
.png)
.png)
