The Philadelphia Inquirer du lieu suivant : Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page C04

C4 www.phill3r.com THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER Tuesday, October 4, 2011 Nice finish for Wilma at Barrymores 2011 Barrymore Awards Play In the Next Room, or the vibrator play, The Wilma Theater Musical The Flea and the Professor, Arden Theatre Company New Play Michael Hollinger, Ghost-Writer, Arden Theatre Company Director, Play Blanka Zizka, In the Next Room, or the vibrator play, The Wilma Theater lio.0- 4'i I :..2 I 11 A ,14, -v! 1 4 '310. 11111Pr, 4. (1104 I.V .111. IV; 0 Director, Musical Matthew Decker, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Theatre Horizon Leading Actor, Play Dan Hodge, Around the World in 80 Days, Delaware Theatre Company Leading Actress, Play Anna Deavere Smith, Let Me Down Easy, Philadelphia Theatre Company Leading Actor, Musical Rob McClure, The Flea and the Professor, Arden Theatre Company Leading Actress, Musical Melinda Chua, Miss Saigon, Walnut Street Theatre STEVEN M. FALK Staff Photographer Theatre Horizon director Matthew Decker (left) with his parents Ray and Michele.

Decker won best director of a musical for "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee." Supporting Actor, Play James ljames, Superior Donuts, Arden Theatre Company Supporting Actress, Play Krista Apple, In the Next Room, or the vibrator play, The Wilma Theater Supporting Actor, Musical Michael Doherty, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Theatre Horizon Supporting Actress, Musical Rachel Camp, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Theatre Horizon Ensemble, Play In the Next Room, or the vibrator play, The Wilma Theater AWARDS from Cl Gana Botez-Ban's Victorian-era costumes, Christopher Colucci's sound design, and Alexis Distler's set, which turned several rooms into a wintry garden during the last minutes. The Wilma rebuilt its seating area so the play could be performed salon-style, in the middle of the audience, rather than on its proscenium stage. The best production of a musical went to an Arden Theatre Company children's show The Flea and the Professor, a world premiere the company commissioned from Jordan Harrison and Richard Gray, based on Hans Christian Andersen's tales. Its leading actor, Rob McClure, won a second Barrymore medallion for the play, as best actor in a musical; he played a professor who has only a flea in his vest to accompany him on what becomes a world tour. Both In the Next Room and The Flea and the Professor had received the most nominations for this year's awards, a dozen apiece.

About 700 attendees, some in formal wear, had gathered for the 17th annual awards ceremony. During the program the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia, which organizes the awards, stressed a theme of education. Many presenters spoke of their initial brushes with theater. The evening's host, 6ABC news anchor Rick Williams, spoke of his 9-year-old son's audition for a role. Presenters included Mayor Nutter and Tony Award-winning playwright Terrence McNally, who won the distinguished-artist Barry-more.

McNally has premiered several plays at Philadelphia Theatre Company, whose producing artistic director, Sara Garonzik, presented the award. McNally said he was grateful to Philadelphia and "your wonderful audiences, who aren't afraid of being part of the process of bringing new plays to the stage." One of the region's longest-running theater gurus to young people Harry Dietzler, for 35 years the force behind the Upper Darby Performing Arts Center was given a lifetime achievement award. "I will venture to guess that every nominee and award-winner tonight can point to some person or some moment in their childhood when someone ignited the spark of excitement in them that turned into a passion for theater," said Dietz ler, who was nominated by 30 Rock's Tina Fey, one of his former charges. 'PAro others Terrence Nolen and Amy Murphy, leaders of the Arden presented the award. The ceremony opened with a short segment from We Write South Phi lly, a play developed 11 I 1 'a 0 ,41,17 ii --1 VOIL 1 4dolls ib 10.

A 1114 ittl' 1 Si t.I.:;.. lit.4Alik.,,,41,ski Nik, dt, Ensemble, Musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Theatre Horizon Set Design Alexis Dist ler, In the Next Room, or the vibrator play, The Wilma Theater Lighting Design Thom Weaver, In the Next Room, or the vibrator play, The Wilma Theater Lavita Shaurice, James ljames at the awards. ijames won for supporting actor for "Superior Donuts," then received the $10,000 F. Otto Haas Award for an emerging theater artist. Costume Design Oana Botez-Ban, In the Next Room, or the vibrator play, The Wilma Theater Passage Theatre Company, from Trenton, won the $25,000 Brown Martin Philadelphia Award, given to a theater that encourages the building of community, for a production called Love and Communication, about autism.

Nationally known writer-performer Anna Deavere Smith won as best leading actress in a play, for her one-woman Let Me Down Easy, a compelling look at the nation's health-care system through the words of people, both notable and obscure, she had interviewed. The Philadelphia Theatre Company staged it here. Melinda Chua was named best musical actress, for her title performance in the Walnut's Miss Saigon, and Dan Hodge as best actor in a play, for his role as a bumbling British detective in Delaware Theatre Company's Around the World in 80 Days. This season's new-play Barry-more went to Michael Hollinger, for his Ghost-Writer at the Arden, where he is tantamount to playwright-in-residence. For outstanding choreography or movement, Waldo Warshaw and Aaron Cromie won for their staging of fights in Theatre Exile's bloody, funny The Lieutenant of Inishmore.

Alex Bechtel won for his music direction of a Frank Sinatra tribute called My Way, at the Walnut Street Theatre's Independence Studio. After the program the audience strolled to a reception a few blocks away at the Benjamin Franklin House Sound Design and Original Music Christopher Colucci, In the Next Room, or the vibrator play, The Wilma Theater Music Direction Alex Bechtel, My Way: A Musical Tribute to Frank Sinatra, Walnut Street Theatre Choreography Movement Waldo Warshaw and Aaron Cromie, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Theatre Exile F. Otto Haas Award Emerging Theater Artist James in a program with South Philadelphia High School, whose principal, Otis D. Hackney HI, worked with the Wilma, 1812 Productions, and Philadelphia Young Playwrights to create the piece. Hackney and the theaters won an award for theater education for the project, which involved more than 50 students who studied acting and play-writing over three semesters, and was a response to incidents in which African American students attacked Asian students at the school in 2009.

For one of the region's smaller professional companies Theatre Horizon it was a big night. Horizon took four Barry-mores, second only to the Wilma, all for its production of the popular musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, which it produced in the top-floor performance area called Centre Theater on De Kalb Street in Norristown, where the company is based. The cast of the show won for outstanding musical ensemble. Also honored were Horizon director Matthew Decker, and two performers for supporting portrayals: Michael Doherty as a student speller who has little confidence, and Rachel Camp as a sad girl with absentee parents. Horizon's wins underscore two dynamics about professional theater in metropolitan Philadelphia, which has exploded over the last decade to include 51 companies, the most ever.

First, top-quality theater is no longer confined to Center City, where the critical mass of stages remain. And second, the many smaller professional companies are coming into their own. It was also a landmark night for local actor James tiames, who won a best supporting actor award for portraying the young counterman of the Arden's Superior Donuts, then later in the evening received the $10,000 Otto Haas Award for an emerging theater artist. Brown Martin Philadelphia Award Passage Theatre, Love and Communication New Approaches to Collaborations Robert Smythe and the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Stravinsky's L'Histoire du So Oat, Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts Theater Education and Community Service Award Otis D. Hackney III, principal, South Philadelphia High School Lifetime Achievement Award Harry Dietz ler, executive and artistic director, Upper Darby Summer Stage Contact staff writer Howard Shapiro at 215-854-5727, hshapirophillynews.com, or philastage on Twitter.

Distinguished Artist in the Theater Terrence McNally Not a fit night out, but 'Carmen' still soared Carmen I ii III )101N yll iA4. II ,2. 1.11.-- 1-11-- 74'f. 1 ,,,1 ..:::,:.1 4 4 1-, 1 I lg. I MINl'.

'Pr ---A A 1, yrfiT rjkol A. 4 "TPA' witil-Z l'r. 11,1 1'4 A-7-. C5rc' l' 0- fr L- li 0. ilk i- i Music: Georges Bizet.

Libretto: Henri Meihac and Ludovic Ha levy. Directed by David Gately, designed by Allen Charles Klein. Cast: Carmen Rinat Shaham Don Jose David Pomeroy Escamillo Jonathan Beyer Micaela Ailyn Perez Morales Eric Dubin Opera Company of Philadelphia Chorus and Orchestra, Corrado Rovaris conducting. Performances: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, 2:30 p.m.

Sunday and 8 p.m. Friday at the Academy of Music, Broad and Locust Streets. Tickets: Information: 215-893-1999 or www.operaphilaorg. MICHAEL S. WIRTZ Staff Photographer Rinat Shaham made a sultry Carmen projected on the big screen at Independence Mall.

The sodden crowd watching the free simulcast in a chilly rain enjoyed close-ups not afforded the warm, dry paying customers at the Academy of Music. There are more performances of Bizet's opera this week at the Academy. 'CARMEN from Cl Simulcast director Bruce Bryant wouldn't have been surprised to hear this. Stationed inside a truck parked in front of the Academy of Music with monitors representing each camera, Bryant marveled at how good all the singers looked on screen. "The camera loves all of them," he said.

That's unusual in a world known for vertically challenged tenors and late-middle-aged sopranos playing teenager. What the Academy of Music audience warm and dry but close-up-deprived might have missed: When dressed up for a bullfight in the final act, Rinat Shaham (Carmen) became a Penelope Cruz look-alike. Ailyn Perez, playing the good girl Micaela, sang her Act 3 aria as a deeply private prayer, and with the physical subtleties of someone acquainted with how these things work in the world of Roman Catholicism. Part of the Independence Mall appeal was the price: There wasn't one. A pair of Drexel University physical therapy students with limited exposure to opera found out about the event on the university's website and gave it a try.

A Chinese family of five made the trip from Warrington, having been to the Metropolitan Opera movie-theater simulcasts. The main instigators were the teenage daughters, who seem to think of Car singer and character merged with seamless simplicity. Opera buffs live for such moments. The rain didn't stop when she sang, but seemed to. men as in the same genre as Wicked.

Longtime Opera Company subscribers expressed relief that the David Gately-directed production had none of the high-concept missteps of the company's last Carmen, in 2002. When the curtain rose on a traditional representation of Old Europe Seville, one patron whispered to another, "It's better already!" The Allen Charles Klein set resembled the view from a Seville side street with all kinds of angular buildings that border on a bull ring with the name of the star bullfighter, Escamillo, written everywhere. In the final act, the set even took on cinematic ve racity on the simulcast screen; at times, it could have been shot on location. Overall, the superbly plotted opera about a Gypsy seducing the mentally unstable soldier Don Jose pressed all the right buttons. Subsidiary characters were strongly drawn, though crowd scenes had momentary clumsiness.

The simulcast's sound system gave the voices a strident edge, but the often-iffy opera orchestra was in polished form under Corrado Rovaris. Few casts have so many strengths. Vocally, it was all good. As Carmen, Shaham projects plenty of raw sex, but also a cat-and-mouse wit that gives the character an ex tra level, besides having the kind of true, deep mezzo-soprano voice that brings to the role a lower-range gravity unheard since Marilyn Home. One touch I loved: Instead of playing castinets while dancing for Don Jose, she broke a plate and used the pieces as a makeshift rhythm instrument.

David Pomeroy's Don Jose had a new-car smell: The voice was fresh and unlabored, with a particularly gratifying bloom in the upper range. Details were lacking, however, along with the character's irrational desperation. None of Escamillo's vocal challenges were apparent in the excellent singing of Jonathan Beyer, even if his stage charisma didn't begin to match Shaham's. The best performance came from Perez in the secondary role of Don Jose's possible Micaela. Thanks to her innate stage allure, Perez's Micaela was among the few I've seen that pose serious competition for Carmen.

Often, Micaela represents middle-class boredom; with her dusky soprano and way of listening intently to what characters around her are saying, Perez became the voice of sanity. Perez has often been theatrically radiant and vocally captivating since arriving here as an Academy of Vocal Arts student. But on Friday, A brief strike last weekend by IATSE Local 8 which represents stagehands, box office and wardrobe workers, and ushers was suspended until Monday. Depending on what happens during renewed talks then, the Oct. 14 performance might be jeopardized.

Look for updates at operaphilaorg. Contact music critic David Patrick Stearns at dstearnsphillynews.com.