Greater Baltimore Theater Award Winners Announced

The Greater Baltimore Theater Award winners for 2006 were recently announced.  It seems it was a banner year for local theatre as just about every major local company got at least one award for their mantle.

According to their website and spokesman Ken Wilson, "We're a small group of theater fans. We don't pretend to be experts and our choices for "outstanding" are not meant to be definitive. We created the awards as a way of saying thanks and acknowledging the terrific work that often goes unheralded around the region. We're so pleased that a number of companies have used the Greater Baltimore Theater Awards in their marketing materials and on their web sites. We're thrilled when we see the Greater Baltimore Theater Awards mentioned in "who's who" sections of theater programs. These awards were meant for that."  The site goes on to address the exclusion of such companies as CenterStage and Baltimore Shakespeare Company, who "to bring most of their talent in from out of town. There are many opportunities for those artists to be recognized in other communities. We reserve the GBTAs for our community and our resident artists."

Nominees met the following guidelines:  "Shows are eligible if they have been produced in Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Anne Arundel County or Howard County in calendar year 2006. These awards are for resident companies so that at last 50% of the cast must reside in the state of Maryland. Professional and Amateur productions are judged together using the same criteria."

Earlier, a list of nominees was announced (see Baltimore.BroadwayWorld.com article "Greater Baltimore Theater Award Nominations Announced" posted 12/13/2006).  Three awards are given in the Outstanding Play, Actor, Actress and Direction categories, and one winner is announced in each of the Outstanding Scenic Design, Costume Design and Experimental Theatre categories.  The winners were:

Outstanding Play:

• Faith Healer, Performance Workshop Theatre
• King Lear, Chesapeake Shakespeare Company
• Opus, Everyman Theatre

Outstanding Actor:

• James Denvil, Candida, Everyman Theatre
• BJ Gailey, Taming of the Shrew, Chesapeake Shakespeare Company
• Bruce Nelson, School for Scandal, Everyman Theatre

Outstanding Actress:

• Megan Anderson, The Cripple of Inishmaan, Everyman Theatre
• Nancy Asendorf, Ragtime, Toby's Dinner Theatre of Baltimore
• Kathrine Lyons, Faith Healer, Performance Workshop Theatre

Outstanding Direction:

• Vincent M. Lancisi, School for Scandal, Everyman Theatre
• John Vreeke, Opus, Everyman Theatre
• Alex Willis, The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?, Mobtown

Outstanding Scenic Design:

• Daniel Ettinger, Tintypes, RepStage

Outstanding Costume Design:

• Gail Stewart Beach, School for Scandal, Everyman Theatre

Outstanding Experimental Production:

• Variations on Fear, Run of the Mill

 Several of these winners were also selected as Best of 2006 by Baltimore.BroadwayWorld.com.

PHOTOS (TOP to BOTTOM): King Lear (Chesapeake Shakespeare Company); Opus (Everyman Theatre); The Cripple of Inishmaan (Megan Anderson (L), Everyman Theater).  Photos courtesy of the companies.