The O'Neill Festival: Some of the participating acts were better than othersBrazil's Compania Triptal was my personal favorite, though Kate Valk and the Wooster Group have lost none of their firebut the Goodman Theatre's "Global Exploration" brought together an international array of artists testifying to the universality of this American playwright's insight into the human condition.
Victory Gardens' The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity: Even the elderly opening-nighters whooped and hollered like teenagers at a rock concert under the spell of Kristoffer Diaz' hip-hop narrative and David Woolley's wink-at-the-audience fights, but we all went home the wiser for our walk through the tinsel world of pro wrestling.
Steppenwolf's The Tempest and Goodman's Rock And Roll: It's easy for big shows to stagger under their own weight, but these retained control of their special f/x at all times. A special gallons-of-gore award goes to Northlight's The Lieutenant of Inishmore.
Profiles' Graceland and Theatre Seven's Diversey Harbor: Exquisite little shows have their place, too, and these were beacons for starwatchers. Other small gems: Lifeline's Busman's Honeymoon, Theo Ubique's Evita, Route 66's High Fidelity. Special boat-in-the-bottle awards: Joseph Riley, Katie Schweiger and Alan Donahue. A special dancing-on-the-head-of-a-pin award goes to Brenda Didier.
Silent Theatre's The Wild Party and Victory Gardens' Love Person: How many languages can a theater audience comprehend simultaneously? These productions proposed to take playgoers outside their linguistic comfort zones to open new vistas of communication. Also: Griffin's Little Brother
Raven's Death of a Salesman, Remy Bumppo's Heroes and the return of American Blues Theatre: Young people doing old plays are a part of the learning process, but theater performed by adults, for adults, provide the model. Special Prodigal Son award: Michael Shannon in Mistakes Were Made. Special AARP pin-up award: Jeff Christian in Day On Which A Man Dies
Timeline's The History Boys: And every play when actors under the tutelage of dialect instructors such as Eva Breneman, Sarah Eames, Lindsay Bartlett, Anita Deeley, Elise Kauzlaric, Cecilie O'Reilly, Kate DeVore and Vera Kelly keep us firmly grounded in time and place, however far from home the playwright may take us.
Theo Ubique's Taming of the Shrew: And every time the audiences at Black Ensemble witness back at the actors, joining in the onstage magic to physically illustrate the artistic principle of communion between performer and spectatora phenomenon that can only occur in LIVE theater.
Every time I see playwrights like Ellen Fairey, Marisa Wegrzyn, Andrew Burden Swanson and Rinne Groff, they assure us that good American plays will continue to be forthcoming as we proceed into the second decade of the 21st century. The same is true every time people like Brenda Barrie, Desmin Borges, Jon Michael Hill and Mierka Girten remind us that there will be actors to perform them.
The unlucky 10Cahn Auditorium and Stage Two at the McGaw YMCA: Light Opera Works produced some of the most original and innovative shows of the seasonincluding a My Fair Lady to surpass the one currently playing in the suburbsbut both were reduced to school-pageant chintziness by their mismatched playing spaces. Please, somebody find this company a real theatre.