Celebration Theatre Artistic Director Michael A. Shepperd Set To Host 31st Annual Ovation Awards

Celebration Theatre Artistic Director Michael A. Shepperd has been set to host the 31st Annual LA Stage Alliance Ovation Awards Ceremony, this year to be presented in a virtual format, on Tuesday, March 30, at 8pm.

Michael A. Shepperd has been Artistic Director or Co-Artistic Director of Celebration Theatre since 2007. It is the oldest continuously producing lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, inter-sexed, two-spirited, asexual, cis-gendered, gender non-binary, gender non-conforming theatre in the country. The theatre's production history includes The Boy from Oz (six Ovation Awards including Best Director for Shepperd and LADCC Award for Best Director); BootyCandy (Ovation and Stage Raw Awards, Best Supporting Actor); The Color Purple (six Ovation Awards including Best Musical); The Producers (Ovation Award nomination, Best Supporting Actor in a Musical); Four; The Women of Brewster Place (Ovation Awards, Best Production and Ensemble); Take Me Out, Coffee Will Make You Black, [title of show], and many others. Broadway, off-Broadway, and regional acting credits include Peter Pan starring Cathy Rigby; Little Shop of Horrors; Caroline, or Change; Five Guys Named Moe; Fences (Ovation Award nomination, Lead Actor in a Play); Choir Boy; Smokey Joe's Café; and The Whipping Man. Television credits include Bosch, Why Women Kill, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Hot in Cleveland, Wizards of Waverly Place, Monk, Criminal Minds, and NCIS.

Jean-Yves Tessier will design lighting and Cricket Myers will design sound. Dolf Ramos is music director. Filming and editing are by David Kartsonis and Bakers Man Productions. Producers are Marco Gomez, Brandy Jacobs, and DOMA Theatre Company, and associate producers are Victor Mercado and Cesar Martinez.

Sponsors of this year's Ovation Awards are DOMA Development Corporation; DOMA Theatre Company; Requiem Media Productions, LLC; SE7EN Waves Entertainment, LLC; Venture Hills Entertainment, LLC; UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television; F&D Scene Changes LTD; Ken Werther Publicity; Bakers Man Productions; Rosebrand; Zodiac Entertainment, LLC; Perpetua Holdings, LLC; Behind the Mask, Inc.; Millennia Development, Inc.; Kinetic Lighting; The Shubert Foundation; KPBS Theatre Corner; Footlights Publishing; LA Dept. of Cultural Affairs; Variety; KCET; TheaterMania; USC School of Dramatic Arts; Los Angeles County Arts Commission; Peter Konerko; Ralph M. Parsons Foundation; and Awareness Ties.

The ceremony will be broadcast at www.ovationawards.com beginning at 8pm (PDT).

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