I'M STILL HERE Theater Awards Party To Celebrate 2023 Awards Recipients And Los Angeles Theatrical Community

The Stage Raw Theater Awards celebrate excellence on Los Angeles-area stages. This year's Stage Raw "I'm Still Here" Theater Awards Party will recognize productions that opened in the calendar year 2022. Stage Raw is a community funded professional journalism website that was launched in 2014, in response to the decline of arts coverage in local mainstream and alternative media.

The Awards party will be held Monday night, April 17, 2023 at the Sassafras Saloon, 1233 N. Vine Street in Hollywood. Tickets are $20 for everybody, if purchased in advance. $25 at the door. (Capacity is limited and tickets will no longer be available once that capacity is reached.)

Admission includes complimentary food, music, dancing and a cash bar. All proceeds will be used to support the professional journalists of Stage Raw, and their ability to continue covering Los Angeles-area theater.

This year, Stage Raw is recognizing productions in venues of all sizes, rather than focusing entirely on venues of 99-seats or fewer. Also, Stage Raw has changed its system of allocating recognition in response to the flaw in prior years of excluding excellent productions that were unable to attract a "quorum" of contributors. This year, each Stage Raw contributor has been allocated a number of votes, in proportion to the number of Stage Raw-reviewed shows they saw, and they have cast their votes to any person, production or in any category they choose.

Explains Founding Editor Steven Leigh Morris: "The hoped-for effect of this system is to diversify the number of companies receiving awards by honoring the generational, ethnic, gender and aesthetic diversity of our individual contributors, who will each be selecting award winners." And finally, the entire feel of the event will be more of a party than an awards show. The actual ceremony will be 30-45 minutes dedicated to announcements, and the presentation of the "Queen of the Angels" and "Lifetime Achievement" awards. All of the other awards recipients will be named during this ceremony and can retrieve their awards at a table.

THE 2023 STAGE RAW AWARD FINALISTS/RECIPIENTS:

FIGHT CHOREOGRAPHY

Ahmed Best, Hooded, or Being Black for Dummies, Echo Theater Company

SOUND DESIGN

Dean Harada, Tea, Hero Theatre at Inner-City Arts

LIGHTING DESIGN

Lap Chi Chu, The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe,

Center Theatre Group, Mark Taper Forum

VIDEO/PROJECTION DESIGN

Hsuan-Kuang Hsieh, The Great Jheri Curl Debate, East West Players

Nick Santiago, Green Day's American Idiot, Chance Theatre

SET DESIGN

Ann Beyersdorfer, Afterglow, Midnight Theatricals at the Hudson Theatre

John Iacovelli, The Brothers Paranormal, East West Players

Cindy Lin, Untitled Baby Play, IAMA Theatre Company

Rachel Myers, Power of Sail, Geffen Playhouse

SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE

Aimee Carrero, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Geffen Playhouse

Alexandra Hellquist, On the Other Hand We're Happy, Rogue Machine Theatre

Michael Matts, Angels in America: Perestroika, Foolish Production Company

Eileen T'Kaye, A Doll's House, Part II, International City Theatre

COMEDY PERFORMANCE

Brent Grimes, Hooded, or Being Black for Dummies, Echo Theater Company

SOLO PERFORMANCE

John Rubinstein, Eisenhower: This Piece of Ground, New Los Angeles Repertory Theatre Company, Theatre West and Hudson MainStage Theatre

SOLO WRITING-PERFORMANCE

Alex Alpharaoh, Wet: A DACAmented Journey, Greenway Court Theatre

Colin Campbell, Grief: A One-Man Shitshow, The Broadwater

Ben Moroski, Dog, The Broadwater

Jesús I. Valles (Un)documents, Latino Theater Company

WRITING-PERFORMANCE

Judy Carter, A Death-Defying Escape!, Hudson Guild Theatre

LEAD PERFORMANCE

Hugo Armstrong, Uncle Vanya, Pasadena Playhouse

Kevin Ashworth, A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay About the Death of Walt Disney, Theatre Planners at the Odyssey Theatre

Ramón de Ocampo, Hamlet, Antaeus Theatre Company

Jenny O'Hara, Little Theatre, Rogue Machine Theatre

Zachary Quinto, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Geffen Playhouse

Jennifer Shelton, A Doll's House, Part II, International City Theatre

Michael A. Shepperd, Valley Song, International City Theatre

Kalean Ung, Macbeth, Independent Shakespeare Co.

DIRECTION

Nancy Lantis, The Sandman, Eclipse Theatre LA and Santa Clarita Shakespeare Festival

COMEDY DIRECTION

Ahmed Best, Hooded, or Being Black for Dummies, Echo Theater Company

DIRECTION/ENSEMBLE

Will Block and the ensemble of All is True or Henry VIII, The Porters of Hellsgate Theatre Company

Gregg T. Daniel and the ensemble of Radio Golf, A Noise Within

COMEDY ENSEMBLE

Can't Pay? Don't Pay!, The Actors' Gang

ENSEMBLE

Anna in The Tropics, A Noise Within

Blues for an Alabama Sky, Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum

The Colored Museum, Loft Ensemble

Freestyle Love Supreme, Pasadena Playhouse,

If Nobody Does Remarkable Things, Pandora Productions at the Garage Theatre

The Inheritance, Geffen Playhouse

Masao and the Bronze Nightingale, CASA 0101 and the Japanese American National Museum

ADAPTATION

James Fowler, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Open Fist Theatre Company

PLAY WRITING

Carla Ching, Revenge Porn, Ammunition Theatre Company

Bernardo Cubria, The Play You Want, Road Theatre Company

Kelly McBurnette-Andronicos, The House of Final Ruin, Ophelia's Jump

Murray Mednick, Three Tables, Padua Playwrights at the Zephyr Theatre

PRODUCTION EXCELLENCE IN QUEER STORYTELLING

Interstate, East West Players

DISTINGUISHED MUSICAL REVIVAL

Oklahoma! Center Theatre Group/Ahmanson Theatre

DISTINGUISHED PRODUCTION

A Midsummer Night's Dream, Open Fist Theatre

The Penelopiad, City Garage

Roe, Fountain Theatre

Uncle Vanya, Pasadena Playhouse

DISTINGUISHED SEASON

The Road Theatre Company (The Play You Want, Beloved, Bright Half Life, According to the Chorus)

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT

Maria Gobetti and Tom Ormeny (Victory Theatre Center)

Frédérique Michel and Charles Duncombe (City Garage)

QUEEN OF THE ANGELS

The SB116 Coalition (Teri Ball, Beatrice Casagran, Elina DeSantos, Emmanuel Deleage, Martha Demson, Christopher Maikish, Leo Marks, Marc Antonio Pritchett and Vanessa Stewart)