SFBATCC to announce 44th Annual Theatre Awards recipients via on-line presentation

The San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle will announce the recipients of its 44th Annual "Excellence in Theatre" awards with an online presentation via its website this coming April 30, the group announced today.

Originally scheduled for March 30 at San Francisco's Victoria Theatre, the event was postponed as the coronavirus crisis gained a foothold in the US. It was then cancelled altogether as the situation worsened, as was every other scheduled large gathering. Understanding that the local theatre community could use a bit of positive news as they struggle to deal with the new-pandemic-normal, the SFBATCC will unveil a web page containing all the award information at 6:00pm PDT on Thursday, April 30.

"The theater world is shut down until a safer date, but it would be unfair to our many nominees to keep them waiting any longer," said group president Barry Willis. "Our Chief Information Officer Harry Duke has worked tirelessly to reconfigure our theatrical slide show for online presentation, greatly aided by Susan Dunn of Island City Opera, and by Petaluma Argus-Courier critic Alexa Chipman, who did a fantastic job with the awards certificates. The video presentation will be aurally augmented with an original musical composition titled 'And the Award Goes to...' by Bay Area native Mike Bodulow."

The online presentation will also include "video acceptance speeches" from this year's four Special Award recipients - Jerry Friedman Award recipient Carl Jordan, Gene Price Award recipient Loretta Greco of the Magic Theatre, Paine Knickerbocker Award recipient Carla Befera of Carla Befera & Co., and Annette Lust Award recipients Bruce Coughran and Alexandra Frappier Coughran of Indra's Net Theater.

Award recipients will be able to request a PDF of their Award certificate be emailed to them and/or a printed copy to be delivered by the USPS at a later date. The Critics Circle website will have an interactive page where awardees can make their requests and provide the necessary delivery information.

"We regret that our always rowdy annual event won't happen this year," said Willis, "But we have great hope that this modern plague will be under control within a few months. We hope even more that all of the Bay Area's diverse theater community will stay healthy and be able to join us in person next time."

For more information about the Circle Awards, visit the SFBATCC web site at www.sfbatcc.org