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STAGE-STRUCK
The Norton envelopes, please
BY CAROLYN CLAY

Outgoing Trinity Repertory Company artistic director Oskar Eustis won the Elliot Norton Prize for Sustained Excellence at the 23rd annual Elliot Norton Awards Monday night at the Cutler Majestic Theatre. Eustis, who leaves Trinity next month for the artistic directorship of New York’s Public Theatre, riffed on that word, "sustained," in what was an emotional and troupe-rallying acceptance, speaking of the ways in which theater sustains us and the necessity and difficulty of sustaining it. The annual theater-community honors were begun in homage to critic Norton by his journalistic colleagues upon his retirement, in 1982, at age 79 (he died in 2003 at the age of 100).

Both the American Repertory Theatre and the Huntington Theatre Company were winners in the course of an evening that began with a video tribute to guest of honor Elaine Stritch. Octogenarian Broadway legend Stritch had to be in New York to pay on-stage tribute to the late composer Cy Coleman, but she sent a characteristically larger-than-life video message praising Norton.

Winning honors for ART were Quebec-based Ex Machina’s The Far Side of the Moon (Outstanding Visiting Production); ART’s collaboration with Minneapolis-based Théâtre de la Jeune Lune on The Miser (Outstanding Production by a Large Resident Company); Pamela Gien’s account of South African girlhood, The Syringa Tree (Outstanding Solo Performance); and John Kelly’s turn as Cupid in Dido, Queen of Carthage (Outstanding Actor, Large Company). In the Huntington corner were Melinda Lopez, whose examination of the aftereffects of the Cuban diaspora, Sonia Flew, took honors for Outstanding New Script; Phylicia Rashad, who was cited as Outstanding Actress, Large Company, for her 286-year-old spiritual guide Aunt Ester in August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean; and Adam Stockhausen, who was honored for Outstanding Set Design, Large Company, for Sonia Flew and 36 Views. Kent Gash won kudos as Outstanding Director, Large Company, for his staging of Suzan-Lori Parks’s Topdog/Underdog at Trinity Rep and New Repertory Theatre.

Among the smaller troupes, the awards were sprinkled among many. Súgán Theatre Company’s staging of Irish playwright Tom Murphy’s The Sanctuary Lamp was chosen Outstanding Production by a Small Resident Company. Zeitgeist Stage Company’s rendering of Brit playwright Joe Penhall’s Blue/Orange won Fringe honors. Actors’ Shakespeare Project founder Benjamin Evett was designated Outstanding Actor, Small Company for three performances: Richmond in his own troupe’s Richard III and work in Permanent Collection and Quills at New Rep. Fourteen-year-old Andrea C. Ross took home the award for Outstanding Actress, Small Company, for her turn as Fredrika in A Little Night Music at Lyric Stage Company of Boston and for performances in Ramona Quimby and The Sound of Music at Wheelock Family Theatre. Richard Chambers’s rustic boathouse for The Glider at Boston Playwrights’ Theatre was cited for Outstanding Set Design, Small Company. There were also special citations awarded to two Boston institutions celebrating their silver anniversaries — City Stage Company and Shear Madness.


Issue Date: May 27 - June 2, 2005
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