The New Colony has been named by The League of Chicago Theatres as the winner of the 2011 Broadway in Chicago Emerging Theater Award. The prize entails a $5,000 award, plus a marketing package to be co-created with an executive team from Broadway in Chicago.
It's quite an honor for the four-year-old theater company, which has built its reputation on presenting eight ensemble-created world premieres since its 2007 inception. The New Colony is the same age as the award, which was created by Broadway in Chicago and the League of Chicago Theatres to encourage and promote emerging non-Equity theaters that have "demonstrated great ability and promise, artistic excellence and fiscal responsibility in business practices." Previous winners of the award are The House Theatre of Chicago, Silk Road Theatre Project, the side project and Steep Theatre.
Some of the more memorable New Colony productions include its environmental staging of Frat at the Dank Haus, and its most recent work called The Warriors (based upon New Colony ensemble member Mary Hollis Inboden's efforts to reconnect with her classmates who were survivors of the 1998 Westside Middle School shootings in Jonesboro, Ark.).
In my opinion, some New Colony shows didn't fully coalesce, like 11:11 or Tupperware: An American Musical Fable. However, I was still happy that The New Colony was focusing so much effort on creating world premieres.
The New Colony bested other finalists via a majority vote from the entire League membership. The 2011 finalists included 16th Street Theater, Theater Wit, Theatre Seven of Chicago and Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre.
Non-Equity Jeff noms
Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre may have missed out on the Emerging Theater Award, but it can at least take some consolation in the 12 Non-Equity Jeff Award nominations it nabbed last week. The Rogers Park-based theater company had the most nominations for a single production (eight nods for Cats), and was second in the highest tally for nominations (the top honor went to The Hypocrites with its 14 nods—seven of which went to its staging of Cabaret).
All in all, there were 106 nominations in 23 categories, with a record 32 theater companies receiving nominations for productions that opened between April 1, 2010 and March 31, 2011. The Jeff Committee also announced that the nomination field is so big and talented that not one person was nominated twice this year.
For a full list of how the Chicago-area non-Equity theater companies were recognized, visit www.jeffawards.org for a complete list of nominees. The winners are to be announced at the 38th Anniversary Non-Equity Jeff Awards Ceremony at Park West, 322 W. Armitage, at 7:30 p.m. Monday, June 6. Tickets are $40-$45.
Porchlight's new leading man
Porchlight Music Theatre has named Michael Weber to be the organization's new artistic director. Weber takes over for departing artistic director L. Walter Stearns, who is now with the Mercury Theatre.
Weber is a two-time Jeff Award winner and a seven-time nominee. Weber previously served as artistic director for the inaugural season of Drury Lane Theatre Water Tower Place in 2005 and with Theatre at the Center from 1998 to 2004.
"I am extremely honored to accept this position with Porchlight Music Theatre," said Weber in a statement. "I have long admired Porchlight's innovative approach to musical theater and I look forward to continuing their tradition of excellence starting with the 2011-2012 season."
That season includes the Sondheim revue Putting it Together (Sept. 2-Oct. 16), the Chicago premiere of the musical A Catered Affair (Feb. 17-April 1, 2012) and the Jonathan Larson pre-Rent musical tick, tick… BOOM! (April 27-June 10, 2012). Porchlight Music Theatre is currently producing its first Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, The King and I.
Steppenwolf's Woolf to wow Broadway
Start kicking yourself now if you missed Steppenwolf Theatre's critically acclaimed revival of Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? The Pam MacKinnon-directed production that also recently played the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., is now headed to Broadway.
Set to open on Oct. 13, 2012—50 years to the day of the original Broadway opening of Albee's controversial drama—this revival is set to feature the Chicago and D.C. casts of Steppenwolf Theatre ensemble members Tracy Letts and Amy Morton alongside Carrie Coons and Madison Dirks.
Now some might feel that this Virginia Woolf revival might be arriving too soon, just seven years after the 2005 Broadway production starring Kathleen Turner and Tony Award-winner Bill Irwin. (These two stars also brought the play on tour to the now-Bank of America Theatre in Chicago in 2007.) However, when it comes to the American classics, there is always room for new interpretations and a new generation who hasn't seen this particular work before.
This transfer of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? brings to mind another Chicago-to-Broadway production, namely the Robert Falls-directed 50th-anniversary staging of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. That Goodman Theatre production triumphed not only on Broadway in 1998, but also in London in 2005.
Let's hope that Steppenwolf Theatre can replicate the same kind of global success with another pillar of classic American drama.
Please send theater news and other related tidbits to scottishplayscott@yahoo.com or Andrew@windycitymediagroup.com .
