Arizoni Award Nominations to be Announced 7/26

The Arizoni Theatre Awards of Excellence (the "Zonies") will announce this year's nominations on Monday, July 26 in the Encantada Room of Tempe's Fiesta Inn. A cross-section of Phoenix area theater companies can be found at this now traditional event. The festivities are open to the public and all potential nominees are invited to attend.

The nominations will be followed by the organization's twentieth annual awards ceremony on September 20.

The Zonies have had both high and low levels of legitimacy over their two decades. The adjudication process has been refined numerous times, but the awards took its biggest step toward lasting credibilty when it split itself in half. For many years the Zonies honored child and adult performers at the same ceremony. This often led to long evenings of acceptances speeches from 50 or more winners aged 17 and younger. Four years ago the children were given their own event and ever since  the Zonies have been more slick, professional, and their regard within the theater community continues to rise.

The Arizoni Awards were originally called the Zony Awards, an appropriate combination of Arizona and Tony Awards. After several years operating under that title, lawyers from the Sony Corp. contacted the Zony Awards staff and informed them that their title was to close to "Sony" and must be changed. Despite Sony's effort and over ten years under the new name, the community-at-large still refers to them as the "Zonies."

The Fiesta Inn is located at 2100 South Priest Drive in Tempe. The party begins at 6:30 with the nominations to be read at 7:00 PM. There will be appetizers and a cash bar in the Encantada room and guests are encouraged to patronize Milagro's Restaurant onsite after the event.