The Philadelphia Inquirer du lieu suivant : Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page C03

INQUIRER.COM TUESDAY, NOV. 5, 2013 THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER C3 Barrymore Awards resurrected V.diM yy. (- 1, 41 4 1' VA td 71 lore sov 14111, "Ikr- do .4 000, Performer and teacher Ceal Phelan, who died in February, won the Lifetime Achievement Award. MARK GARVIN Charlotte Ford received the F. Otto Haas Award for Emerging Philadelphia Theatre Artist.

MARK GARVIN Arden Theatre Company's "Next to Normal" won the Brown Martin Philadelphia Award. MARK GARVIN Steve Pacek in "The Born bitty of Errors" by llth Hour Theater Company. Chrissy Photography. with Theatre Exile, Pig Iron, Lantern, Arden, and other local companies. The 810,000 award, created by Carole Haas Gravagno, aims to keep talented performers in Philadelphia.

Nominees, getting 81,000, were Jacqueline Gold-finger, Adrienne Mackey, Liza Mikis, and Alex Torra. That award in particular lies at the heart of Theatre Philadelphia's current game plan: keeping the city from being seen as a stepping-stone to New York, and continuing to provide a platform for arts philanthropy. The 2012 demise of the Alliance, a touchy subject in theater circles, came after years of controversy about its role and mission. When it finally shut down after the William Penn Foundation withdrew support, its leadership issued a statement saying the Alliance was no longer needed. (Two of its services were taken up by theaters the Tessatura ticketing service, now administered by the Wilma Theater, and the annual open audition of young actors, run by the Walnut Street Theatre.) According to the Cultural Alliance of Philadelphia, the number of theatrical organizations in greater Philadelphia the city and Pennsylvania suburbs, much of South Jersey, and New Castle County, Del.

grew from 127 in 1998 to 150 in 2003 to 175 in 2013. Though these numbers don't distinguish between amateur and professional, there are an estimated 100 professional theaters in the region, with an overall economic impact in 2012 estimated at 8177.4 million. Recognition by theater peers has always been valued one reason why the Barrymore adjudication process has been changed to avoid scoring flukes that have had a single show monopolizing the nominating process. Formerly, committee members simply submitted their scores. Now, nominators will meet in person and talk.

BARRYMORES from Cl sion of local theater with the message that there are achievements to be recognized and livings to be made. "We don't need a red carpet. We don't need a TV celebrity host," said Kevin Glaccum, producing artistic director of the Azuka Theatre. "If you put on a good show, people are going to be curious to see it." The event was the first major public effort by Theatre Philadelphia, founded by 11 theater leaders (including Glaccum, who is president of its board) in the wake of the 2012 dissolution of the awards' original sponsor, the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia. Though the full slate of awards for specific artistic work won't resume until next fall's ceremony, cash awards went to host Arden Theatre Company and the llth Hour Theatre Company, among others.

About 400 theater artists, administrators, and supporters turned out for Monday's sold-out ceremony and after-party. The evening's credo: Philadelphia may not create stars, but it offers a life. "The kids who come here to school see that there are many working professionals here," said Steve Pacek, cofounder of llth Hour, "people who have a life and don't work in a restaurant." "New York is the gold standard," said Glaccum, "but you'd be hard-pressed to find anything like this in the breadth of work being done here, from the Fringe Festival to a Broadway musical at the Walnut Street Theatre and everything else in between." The Lifetime Achievement Award went to Ceal Phelan, longtime stalwart of People's Light and Theatre Company. Phelan died in February at 63, after an 11-year struggle with colon cancer during which she never stopped working. Director, teacher, performer, she had had four Barrymore nominations, including The Breath of Life in 2010 at the Lantern Theater b.1,c1 6, 5:0 I 1 (.

Iii-. 21. I' OF I' I l' i 7 ..,4 si 1 4 1 A I 1 'AM re, i 1 '1'. 3.0:,!.,- 1 ko Before Monday's awards, actors Leonard C. Haas (left) and Peter De Laurier, and actress Mary Lee Haas.

De Laurier's late wife, Ceal Phelan, received the Lifetime Achievement Award. DAVID WARREN Staff Photographer gets of less than $400,000. In past years, 11th Hour has earned 31 Barrymore nominations and seven Barrymores. Other nominees were Azuka Theatre, Ego-Po Classic Theatre, Inis Nua Theatre Company, and Quintessence Theatre Group. The Otto Haas Award for an Emerging Philadelphia Theater Artist went to Charlotte Ford, a comedian, actress, and director well-known for such Fringe hits as Flesh and Blood Fish and Fowl and Bang, as well as work Company, and was a cofounder of the Delaware Theatre Company.

The award was accepted by her husband, actordirector Peter De-Laurier. The Brown Martin Philadelphia Award ($25,000, sponsored by the Virgina Brown Martin Fund) recognizes theater that tackles humanitarian and community issues. The winner was the Arden Theatre Company for its 2012 production of Next to Normal, a musical drama that portrays mental illness. The other nominees, receiving 82,800, were 1812 Productions for It's My Party: The Women and Comedy Project; Simpatico Theatre ProjectThe Renegade Company for The Amish Project; and the Wilma Theater for Angels in America, Part Two: Perestroika. The 11th Hour Theatre Company, exclusively dedicated to producing musicals, won the new June and Steve Wolfson Award for an Evolving Theater, a $10,000 prize specifically supporting organizations with bud dstearnsphillynews.com Eminem Hendrix as American Master in a fascinating portrait For fans of the guitarist, the revelation will be the archival footage and the Hendrix family photos that illuminate Jimi's salad years from his unstable childhood in Seattle, to his first band as a teenage Chuck Berry wannabe, to enlisting contentedly in the Army at 17.

After a medical discharge, he became a peripatetic sideman on the chitlin' circuit, backing performers such as Little Richard and Wilson Pickett. But it was in England that his genius was recognized and he became a star. Seeing him whirl through "Purple Haze" on Top of the Pops in 1967 is still palpably electrifying. It wasn't just his phenomenal musicianship or his primal theatrics. Hendrix could make a guitar talk in tongues, using feedback and distortion HENDRIX from Cl virtuoso in the two-hour Jimi Hendrix Hear My Train A Comin' (Tuesday, 9 p.m.

on WHYY TV12). Presumably, an even clearer picture will emerge when All Is by My Side, the Hendrix biopic starring Andre Benjamin of Outkast, is released next year. If nothing else, Hear My Train, directed by Bob Smeaton, proves that Hendrix was a better guitarist than most of his contemporaries while playing behind his back and using only one hand. In fact, he pulls off exactly that acrobatic display in the film's opening scene, as he bashes out "Wild Thing" in front of a gobsmacked crowd at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. and making liberal use of the whammy bar to create ferocious waves of sound.

One surprising facet of Hear My Train is the sophistication and devotion that infused his short but brilliant recording career. A producer, his astonishment still evident, recalls a session at which Hendrix laid down 39 takes of "Little Wing" before he was satisfied. The level of popularity Hendrix enjoyed is remarkable three albums in the Top 20 simultaneously. And he did it all without American television. While other rock bad boys like Elvis and the Rolling Stones still got exposure, including huge boosts from appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show, Hendrix was considered too dangerous for the medium.

Interesting commentary is provided by other musicians (most notably Paul McCartney), journalists, Hendrix family members, and female intimates. But the real drawing card for Hear My Train A Comin' is the music, including a captivating coda that shows Hendrix strumming and picking the title song on an acoustic 12-string guitar. While worthy, this is hardly an intimate portrait. And that opacity would have suited its subject just fine. He preferred to keep people, by and large, at a comfortable hearing distance.

And Jimi always had the amplifiers cranked to 11. t-e' f': Continued from Cl Guy." It picks up where "Stan," from MMLP, left off. There, an obsessed fan named Stan killed himself and his pregnant wife because Eminem did not respond quickly enough to his letters. Now, Stan's brother, Michael Matthews (note the initials), tries to kidnap and kill Eminem to exact revenge. He succeeds.

So does Eminem, who proves he is still an enthralling storyteller who loves waging war against himself. In the last verse, he angrily raps: "I'm the nightmare you fell asleep in and woke up still in, I'm your karma closing in with each stroke of a pen." The next track, "Rhyme or Reason," is fluffier and more playful but no less lyrically adroit and haunted. Over a sample of "Time of the Season," the 1969 smash by the Zombies, Eminem adopts a Yoda voice, and immaturely (or satirically, depending on how you interpret his tone) quips that "with great power comes no responsibility," transforming his source's chorus into a nihilistic ode: "There's no rhyme or no reason for nothing." This is not the first time Eminem has sampled songs from the classic rock canon. He used Aerosmith's "Dream On" on The Eminem Show, and he rapped along with Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama" in 8 Mile, the semi-autobiographical movie in which he starred. "So Far," from MMLP2, samples guitarist Joe Walsh's "Life's Been Good." On paper, that sounds like a very bad idea but it is actually quite funny.

After griping like a grandpa about "All these kids with their camera cellphones," the Walsh riff momentarily melts into the beat from "The Real Slim Shady," and Eminem raps: "Went to Burger King, they spit on my onion rings, I think my karma is catching up with me." That's Eminem's second reference to karma. He has always been super-conscious of his myriad misdeeds (e.g., the time he used his infant daughter Hai lie's voice on a song about killing her mother), and the idea that he will eventually be punished always looms large. He almost confronts his demons on MMLP2 (many of them, of course, are internal), but the overall narrative is about survival more than judgment day. Eminem could not pull such things off a few years ago. See his barely tolerable, forgettable Recovery (2010).

But, for the first time in a very long time, Eminem sounds invincible again. Well, almost invincible. There are some awfully low points on MMLP2. Rihanna's chorus on "The Monster" is astoundingly stupid. The same goes for the jarring chorus from the song featuring Skylar Grey, the title of which is unprintable.

And the early single "Survival" is an arena-aspiring anthem filled with the type of corny game-day slogans not even the laziest coach would dare utter to his team. Otherwise, MMLP2 is a success. Eminem's rapping is often acrobatic and mesmerizing. His lyrics are smart and absurd and irreverent. When Eminem teams up on "Love Game" with Kendrick Lamar, one of the best rappers of the day, he sounds just as electrifying as his young collaborator.

On the Beastie Boys and Billy Squier-sampling "Berzerk," the typically tormented Eminem actually sounds like he is having a good time. The ghosts' voices have become softer. For now. dhiltbrandphillynews.com 215-854-4552 11 daveondemandtv For fans of the guitarist, the revelation will be the archival footage and early family photos. MRPI Authentic Hendrix, L.L.C.

For fans of the guitarist, the revelation will be the eaarcrhlyivfaalmfoilyotpaghoetaonsd. if. MRPI Authentic Hendrix, N. ik: ,5, gly wt.t.: i I..