Key Creative Team Announced for the 17th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards

Jeff Margolis, executive producer and director of the 17th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, announced that the team of talented producers and artists behind previous SAG Awards are returning to create this year's ceremonies. The 17th Annual SAG Awards also marks the 13th consecutive year Jeff Margolis Productions has produced the Actors in association with Screen Actors Guild Awards, LLC.

The 17th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards will be simulcast live from coast to coast on Sunday, Jan. 30, 2011 on TNT and TBS at 8 p.m. (ET), 7 p.m. (CT), 6 p.m. (MT) and 5 p.m. (PT). When the guests arrive and viewers tune-in, the festivities at the Los Angeles Shrine Exposition Center will look effortless and seamless. But behind the glamour and excitement is the hard work of dozens of dedicated professionals in multiple disciplines, most of whom return annually.

Jeff Margolis first took the helm as executive producer of acting's most glamorous evening with the 5th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards. This year's 17th Annual SAG Awards also marks the fourth consecutive year Margolis is bringing his Emmy(R) and DGA Award-winning directing talents to the Guild's annual awards ceremony.

Kathy Connell will produce the Screen Actors Guild Awards for the 17th consecutive year (the first two were as a producer for SAG). Connell is also Screen Actors Guild's executive producer for national programming and in 2007-2008 produced the Guild's year-long award-winning celebration of its 75th Anniversary.

The Awards Committee for Screen Actors Guild - chair JoBeth Williams, vice-chair Daryl Anderson, newest committee member Scott Bakula and veterans Shelley Fabares and Paul Napier - advise at all stages leading up to the production.

"Each year we look forward to the SAG Awards as a reunion of creative colleagues and an opportunity for fresh collaboration," shares Margolis. "We take great pride in designing a memorable evening for both the community of actors at the Awards ceremony and for our audience at home which has grown consistently year after year."

The Shrine complex is Los Angeles landmark built in 1920 in Spanish Colonial Revival style with Moorish detailing. It's grandiose and beautiful on the outside, but the inner space of the Shrine's Exposition Center, with its 34,000 square foot wooden floor, paint-trimmed overhangs and bare columns, has to be redefined for each event. Just to create a neutral backdrop from which the show's designers can begin their transformation, it takes some 15,000 square feet of black drape to cover the showroom walls and block sunlight and another 11,800 square feet of black carpet to cover the showroom floor and seating risers

Production designers John Shaffner & Joe Stewart, who together share 30 Emmy nominations, an Art Directors Guild Award for the 2006 Emmy Awards, plus four Art Directors Guild nominations and five Emmys (including their 2005 kudo for The George Lopez Show), "), will be designing their eighth new set for the SAG Awards. They recently designed the set for Conan O'Brien's new late-night show on TBS, "Conan." Shaffner is the chair of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Board of Governors, while Stewart serves as chair of the Academy's Governor's Ball committee and Sculpture committee.

Their elegant new set, reminiscent of a grand lobby will provide an opulent backdrop against which the ceremony will unfold. The most distinguishing features are a pair of monumental lacquered doors, each framed by oversized moulding with roccco staff detail, which will lead to the wings on either side of the stage. Gold-leafed vertical pipes will line the perimeter of the stage, rising up from a black and white check lacquered floor, while in the center will float a gold-leafed ornately-framed screen on which the nominated performances and tributes that are at the heart of the event will be showcased. A custom-made crystal chandelier will punctuate the stage lighting, echoed in multiple overhead crystal fixtures throughout the showroom.

"We take something that looks essentially like a basketball court on the inside and turn it into an elegant setting with dining and stage appropriate for an honors telecast," says producer Kathy Connell. "The show comes together relatively quickly during the final days because we know each other so well and can speak in shorthand."

In the days leading up to the Awards ceremony, the work can stretch well into the early morning hours for the show's production team, partners, independent contractors and volunteers. But that all comes with the territory. Together they create an evening to remember for SAG Awards nominees, presenters and industry leaders and a simulcast for TNT and TBS that is widely respected by the industry and a staple of awards season viewing.

The 17th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards will be produced by Jeff Margolis Productions in association with Screen Actors Guild Awards, LLC. For more information about the SAG Awards, SAG, TNT and TBS visit sagawards.org/about.

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