Theatre Puget Sound Announces 4th Annual Gregory Awards at ACT, 10/29

Theatre Puget Sound (TPS) has announced the 4th Annual Gregory Awards, to be held at A Contemporary Theatre (ACT) on Monday, October 29, 2012 at 7:30pm. This highly anticipated awards ceremony acknowledging achievement in the theatre arts is a who's who of the Seattle theatre scene and, as in years past, it occurs during the month-long October Arts Crush Festival. The new Melissa Hines Award, the coveted Gregory A. Falls Sustained Achievement Award and awards in 12 additional categories (supporting actor and supporting actress are new in 2012) are all presented at this ceremony.

Tickets to the awards ceremony will be on sale to the general public through the ACT box office starting September 3. TPS has received generous support for this event from ACT and a consortium of other theatres. (For a full list of supporting theatres and regional businesses; please see gregoryawards.org.)

About the Nomination Process: In 2011-2012, organizations submitted their shows to be reviewed by Gregory Award Nominators. These shows must have: been produced and rehearsed primarily in the Greater Puget Sound area; been performed a minimum of 3 weekends OR 12 performances; held an opening night within the season schedule (August 1st – July 31); and not been a staged reading, youth/educational/student performance, or short play festival. After this submission, a minimum of eight nominators were assigned to see and review each production, ranking each on a scale of 1-100. (The scoring rubric was created with the help and inspiration of the Barrymore Awards in Philadelphia.) A slate of the top-ranking candidates in each category will be submitted to a vote by the membership of Theatre Puget Sound.

The Gregory Awards are an opportunity to celebrate theatre in our region, to honor the outstanding achievements of local artists, and to raise the visibility of the local theatre scene as a whole. The new rules listed above were implemented in order to better uphold the mission of the Gregory Awards and to give each eligible production an equal voice in the nominating process. For more information on the process, click HERE.

The 2012 Award Categories open for nomination are:

Outstanding Actor

Outstanding Actress

Outstanding Supporting Actor

Outstanding Supporting Actress

Outstanding Director

Outstanding Production

Theatre of the Year

Outstanding Costume Designer

Outstanding Lighting Designer

Outstanding Music & Sound Designer

Outstanding Scenic Designer

Outstanding Playwright

About The Voting Process: Once the results of the panel's nominations are calculated, the TPS membership and the general public (subscribers to the SeattlePerforms.com e-newsletter) will receive their ballot to nominate entries for the People's Choice Award. The first phase of voting will be for the People's Choice selection in these categories: Outstanding Actor, Outstanding Actress, Outstanding Supporting Actor, Outstanding Supporting Actress, Outstanding Production, Outstanding Direction, and Theatre of the Year.

• Gregory Award nominators continue submitting their ballots through Sunday August 5, 2012.

• People's Choice and Members' Voice ballots will be sent Friday, August 17, 2012 and will remain open for submission until Sunday, September 2, 2012. These ballots will present the top four nominees from the Gregory panel in each category.

• On Saturday, September 8, 2012 the final nominees will be announced and all TPS members will be sent a final unique link to their official 2012 Gregory Awards ballot. All TPS members will have until the end of the day on Friday, September 28, 2012 to complete their ballot.

About The Melissa Hines Award: The Gregory Awards are proud to present the Melissa Hines Award for Outstanding Theatre Practitioner! The recipient of this "behind the scenes" award will be honored for their involvement with theatre in Washington State over the last year. This honor is named in memory of the late Melissa Hines. She was the stalwart managing director of the Empty Space Theatre, participated on arts boards, and directed cultural activities in Seattle. This category is intended to honor those dedicated individuals who make theatre possible, enabling artists to do their art, but who often are not recognized by curtain calls, reviews or awards. This category may include production crew and stage management, volunteers, administrators, board members, donors and patrons.

As Misha Berson stated in Melissa's obituary on April 11, 2011 in the Seattle Times, "They don't get the audience applause and the critical acclaim. But without the hard work and passionate commitment of behind-the-scenes people like Melissa Hines, Seattle would not have the vibrant performing arts scene the city is celebrated for." To nominate someone you know for this category, submit 200 words or less to melissahinesaward@gregoryawards.org by August 31, 2012 to have them be considered for this year's award.

The Gregory Awards are a Theatre Puget Sound program that celebrates the achievements of the greater Puget Sound area theatre community. The program and ceremony are an opportunity to celebrate theatre, to honor the outstanding achievements of local artists, and to raise the visibility of the local theatre scene as a whole. Opening up nominations to the TPS membership and the general public ensures that the final list of nominees on the ballot is truly reflective of the outstanding work taking place throughout the region. The Gregory Awards began in 1998 as the Gregory A. Falls Sustained Achievement Award. Over the following 11 years, it honored individuals who spent much of their careers strengthening theatre in our region. In 2009, while continuing this tradition, six annual categories were incorporated into the awards program. Since then, the total number of awards presented each year has grown, and currently stands at 14.

The Gregory Awards are named in honor of Gregory A. Falls (1922-1997), a former chair of the UW School of Drama, who is often credited with creating Seattle's vibrant theatre scene. Falls left the UW in 1971 to devote more time to ACT Theatre (which he had founded in 1965), though he stayed on as a part-time UW faculty member until 1976. He served as president of The National Theatre Conference and Washington Association of Theatre Artists. In 1994 Falls was inducted into the prestigious College of Fellows of the American Theatre.

ARTS CRUSH is a month-long festival connecting artists and audiences with invigorating new experiences at hundreds of events across the Puget Sound region. It reaches people in unique ways: through hands-on participation, once-a-year glimpses behind the scenes, surprise arts experiences in unexpected places, and more. In addition, ARTS CRUSH extends an open invitation to sample the abundance of arts and culture in our region by offering free or discounted admission to more traditional arts experiences.

Theatre Puget Sound (TPS) is a leadership and service organization founded in 1997 to advocate for the region's growing theatre community's causes and administer much-needed services. TPS is now one of the Northwest's leading arts advocacy and leadership organizations, providing programming and services that benefit both the theatre community and the larger regional arts community. TPS has a two-fold mission: to promote the spiritual and economic necessity of theatre to the public, and to unify and strengthen the theatre community through programs, resources, and services. TPS membership includes more than 1,700 individual artists and 140 performing arts organizations. Furthermore, their Space for the Arts program, Arts Crush, and educational programming serves more than 200 non-theatre arts organizations and innumerable individual artists annually. In addition to ARTS CRUSH, TPS sponsors workshops and seminars, regional auditions, manages affordable rehearsal and performance space in the Armory (formerly the Seattle Center House), produces the annual Gregory Awards, and coordinates and promotes other events which strengthen and celebrate our local community.