‘Indecent,’ ‘Creve Coeur,’ New Jewish Theatre Are Big Winners at Eighth Annual St. Louis Theater Circle Awards Ceremony

‘Indecent,’ ‘Creve Coeur,’ New Jewish Theatre Are Big Winners at Eighth Annual St. Louis Theater Circle Awards Ceremony

            COVID-19 Pandemic Results in Production Streamcast by HEC Media

New Jewish Theatre led the way with six awards at the eighth annual St. Louis Theater Circle Awards ceremony on Tuesday, April 7, 2020. Max & Louie Productions’ performance of Indecent garnered five awards, followed by four awards to The Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis for its production of A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Circle’s gala event for this year’s award ceremony, originally scheduled for March 30, 2020 at the Loretto-Hilton Center, was canceled. Instead, HEC Media produced a version of the ceremonies that was streamcast on HEC Media’s Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/hectv/live/) as well as telecast on Spectrum channel 989 and AT&T U-verse channel 99. Here is the YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/embed/tCo0AFHbChE

Awards were given in 31 categories covering comedies, dramas and musicals as well as two categories for opera. In addition, Ken and Nancy Kranzberg received a special award for their philanthropic contributions to the arts and theater in the St. Louis area, including many developments in Grand Center. The awards honored outstanding achievement in locally produced professional theater for the calendar year 2019.

A total of 21 productions and 14 companies were recognized by the awards, including eight individuals who have received honors in previous years. Will Bonfiglio, honored as Outstanding Actor in a Comedy for his performance in New Jewish Theatre’s production of Fully Committed, received an award for the third time in the last four years.

The 2020 presentation featured nominees from two companies, Black Mirror Theatre and The Q Collective, which were represented for the first time in consideration of St. Louis Theater Circle Awards.  Each company received an award for outstanding achievement.

In all, 25 local companies received nominations in 33 categories for comedy, drama, musical and opera, as well as 125 individuals up for awards. Honorees who have previously received St. Louis Theater Circle Awards include Will Bonfiglio, J. Samuel Davis, Kari Ely, Michael Hamilton, Patrick Huber, Sean M. Savoie, Margery and Peter Spack, and Maggie Wininger.

The mission of the St. Louis Theater Circle is simple: To honor St. Louis professional theater. Other cities around the country, such as Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Francisco and Washington D.C., pay tribute to their own local theatrical productions with similar awards programs.

Nominations for the St. Louis Theater Circle Awards were divided into categories for musicals, dramas, comedies and operas.  More than 120 local professional theatrical productions were staged in the St. Louis area in 2019.

Honorees of the eighth annual St. Louis Theater Circle Awards are:

Outstanding Ensemble in a Comedy

A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur, Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy

Kelley Weber, A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur, Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy

Patrick Blindauer, Love’s Labors Lost, Shakespeare Festival St. Louis

Outstanding Actress in a Comedy (tie)

Katie Kleiger, Pride and Prejudice, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis

Maggie Wininger, A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur, Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis

Outstanding Actor in a Comedy

Will Bonfiglio, Fully Committed, New Jewish Theatre

Outstanding Director of a Comedy

Kari Ely, A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur, Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis

Outstanding Production of a Comedy

Brighton Beach Memoirs, New Jewish Theatre

Indecent

Outstanding Ensemble in a Drama

Indecent, Max & Louie Productions

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama

Carly Uding, Translations, Black Mirror Theatre

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama

J. Samuel Davis, District Merchants, New Jewish Theatre

Outstanding Actress in a Drama

Donna Weinsting, Salt, Root and Roe, Upstream Theater

Outstanding Actor in a Drama

Gary Wayne Barker, District Merchants, New Jewish Theatre

Outstanding Director of a Drama

Joanne Gordon, Indecent, Max & Louie Productions

Outstanding Production of a Drama

Indecent, Max & Louie Productions

Outstanding Set Design in a Play

Margery and Peter Spack, Brighton Beach Memoirs, New Jewish Theatre

Outstanding Costume Design in a Play

Felia Davenport, District Merchants, New Jewish Theatre

Outstanding Lighting Design in a Play

Patrick Huber, Indecent, Max & Louie Productions

Outstanding Sound Design

Phillip Evans, Indecent, Max & Louie Productions

Outstanding Set Design in a Musical

Mary Engelbreit and Paige Hathaway, Matilda, The Muny

Outstanding Costume Design in a Musical

Sarah Porter, La Cage aux Folles, New Line Theatre

Outstanding Lighting Design in a Musical

Sean M. Savoie, Man of La Mancha, Stages St. Louis

Outstanding Musical Director

Charles Creath, Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope, The Black Rep

Outstanding Choreographer

Dexandro Montalvo, Such Sweet Thunder, Shakespeare Festival St. Louis,

Big Muddy Dance Company, Jazz St. Louis, Nine Network of Public Media

Outstanding Ensemble in a Musical

Matilda, The Muny

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Musical

Taylor Louderman, Kinky Boots, The Muny

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Musical

Tielere Cheatem, La Cage aux Folles, New Line Theatre

Outstanding Actress in a Musical

Kendra Kassebaum, Guys and Dolls, The Muny

Outstanding Actor in a Musical

Luke Steingruby, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, The Q Collective

Outstanding Director of a Musical

Michael Hamilton, Man of La Mancha, Stages St. Louis

Outstanding Production of a Musical

Such Sweet Thunder, Shakespeare Festival St. Louis,

Big Muddy Dance Company, Jazz St. Louis, Nine Network of Public Media

Outstanding New Play

Nonsense and Beauty, by Scott C. Sickles, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis

La Boheme

Outstanding Achievement in Opera (tie)

Terence Blanchard and Kasi Lemmons, Fire Shut Up in My Bones, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis

Roland Wood, Rigoletto, Opera Theatre of St. Louis

Outstanding Production of an Opera

La Boheme, Union Avenue Opera

Special Award

Ken and Nancy Kranzberg

Members of the St. Louis Theater Circle include Steve Allen, stagedoorstl.com; Mark Bretz, Ladue News; Bob Cohn, St. Louis Jewish Light; Tina Farmer, KDHX; Michelle Kenyon, snoopstheatrethoughts.com; Gerry Kowarsky, Two on the Aisle (HEC Media); Chuck Lavazzi, KDHX; Sarah Bryan Miller, St.Louis Post-Dispatch; Judith Newmark, judyacttwo.com; Ann Lemons Pollack, stlouiseats.typepadcom; Tanya Seale, Broadwayworld.com; Lynn Venhaus, PopLifeSTL.com; Bob Wilcox, Two on the Aisle (HEC Media); and Calvin Wilson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch.Eleanor Mullin, local actress and arts supporter, is the group’s administrator. 

For more information, contact stltheatercircle@sbcglobal.net or ‘like’ The St. Louis Theater Circle on Facebook.

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Down in the Marrow – Opera Theatre’s ‘Fire Shut Up in My Bones’ Breaks Hearts and Boundaries

Down in the Marrow – Opera Theatre’s ‘Fire Shut Up in My Bones’ Breaks Hearts and Boundaries

By CB AdamsContributing WriterTo mix musical genres – and to begin with the finale of Fire Shut Up in My Bones – this new “opera in jazz” answers the same rhetorical question raised in “Alive and Kicking” by Simple Minds: “What’s it gonna take to make a dream survive? / Who’s got the touch to calm the storm inside?” The rhetorical answer in general is each of us and in particular, it is the opera’s hero-protagonist, Charles.

Opera Theatre of St. Louis premiered Fire Shut Up in My Bones, an opera that bends – if not downright breaks – the style, presentation and story arc of what we think of as traditional opera. If your idea of opera is a stage full of European white people voicing the story and words of some dead white dude, then Fire will surprise you in multiple ways – not the least of which is the all-African-American cast.

First is the source material. Fire is adapted
from the memoir of the same name by New York Times columnist Charles
Blow, rather than fables, fairy tales or fiction. Fire was created by
librettist Kasi Lemmons (director/writer/actress) and composer Terence
Blanchard (film score composer/noted jazz trumpeter). This is Blanchard’s
second commission from OTSL; the first was Champion presented in 2013.

The narrative is presented in a book-ended fashion, with the opening and concluding scenes set in Charles’ home. Correspondingly, the reason the Charles has returned to his hometown (physically and metaphorically) is explained at the beginning and reaches its resolution at the end. Within those bookends, Fire follows a linear timeline that satisfyingly links the beginning with the ending.

Jeremy Denis, Davone Tines and Karen SlackOf course, Fire is an opera and peddles the usual Big Themes (Love, Infidelity, Violence, Murder), but like the good gumbo that it is, it adds sexual molestation, sexual identity, abject poverty and fraternity hazing – not to mention the challenges and monotony of working in a chicken processing plant! Instead of Nordic mountains or an Italian villa, Fire is set in the rural idyll of Gibsland, Louisiana, with a set design that practically exudes the heat and humidity of the American South.

The music of Fire leans away from traditional Western European orchestration and into a unique patois of American jazz, folk, blues and big band performed by an orchestra/jazz combo hybrid, conducted by William Long.

 Fire efficiently packs Blow’s entire memoir into a couple of captivating hours’ worth of opera. It cinematically – and efficiently – quick-cuts from scene to scene (home shack, porch, farm fields, chicken factory, farmland, molestation bed, college fraternity party) leading to the denouement and resolution of Charles’ conflicts. The success of OTSL’s Fire is attributable in no small part to the production – weighty and evocative without being heavy – helmed by director James Robinson, making his OTSL debut.

At the premiere, the talents of Allen Moyer (set
design), Christopher Akerlind (lighting design) and Greg Emetaz (video
projection engineer), cohered as the stage morphs from scene to scene using
movable set pieces in tempo with the music, singing and action (kudos, too, to
choreographer Seán
Curran and Tom Watson, wig and makeup design). The attention to telling details
extended to the palpable bloodiness of the chicken processors (more kudos to
James Schuette for costume design here and throughout). Even the table cloths
in a nightclub scene looked like old-fashioned bottle caps, evoking the
pleasure to be found there.

Equally impressive were the principal performers of Fire. Blanchard and Lemmons solved the
challenge of presenting the lead character from age six to adult (in sung
roles) by using both a child, the delightful Jeremy Denis as Char’es-Baby, and the
adult Charles, the bass-baritone Davóne Tines. They were often in scene together, with
Charles providing context and counsel like a sort of Jiminy Cricket to his own
younger self. Along with several other young actors, it was engaging to watch
children on stage do something more meaningful than add background.

One of the opera’s pivotal scenes is the molestation of
the Char’es-Baby by a cousin, and it was one of the highlights of this
production – harrowing and nauseating without being prurient, pervey or porny.

Some of the opera’s ensemble played multiple roles, the
most obvious of which was soprano Julia Bullock who played the Chorus-like Destiny
and Loneliness as well as Greta Charles’ love-interest for a time. Bullock
transitioned among these characters easily, without calling attention to her
ability to fully inhabit and portray them. No good Southern story is complete
without a sassy and strong mama, and soprano Karen Slack as Billie, Charles’s
mother, is no exception. Her performance commanded the audience to fully
experience her character rather than sit back passively and watch and listen.

Davone Tines, Karen Slack in “Fire Shut Up in My Bones.”In a way, it is Billie who has the last word in Fire as Charles seems to accept her recurring advice that “sometimes you gotta leave it in the road.” To mix musical genres again, there’s a similar sentiment in “The Wiz.” It’s the notion that “Don’t you carry nothing / That might be a load.” Fire leaves on the hopeful if unsung note that moving on in life Charles will indeed “Ease On Down the Road.”

Opera Theatre of St. Louis presented the world premiere of “Fire Shut Up in My Bones” June 15-29 at the Loretto-Hilton Center. Fore more information visit www.experienceopera.com

“Fire
Shut Up My Bones”
Opera Theatre of St. Louis
June 15 – June 29
Loretto-Hilton Centerwww.experienceopera.com
314-961-0644

Join Racial and Gender Equity Conversation Jan. 20

Join Racial and Gender Equity Conversation Jan. 20

Representation & Responsibility: Racial and Gender Equity in Film and TelevisionThe second installment of Opera Theatre’s 2019 Representation & Responsibility series will take Sunday, Jan. 20, at 1 p.m. at the Regional Arts Commission. This community conversation will focus on the topic of racial and gender equity in film and television.The panel discussion will be followed by a light wine and cheese reception. It is free to attend, but RSVPs are encouraged at opera-stl.org.Kasi LemmonsA native of St. Louis, Kasi Lemmons has been acting, writing, and directing for 40 years. She has written and directed films including “Eve’s Bayou” (1997), starring Samuel L. Jackson, and “Talk to Me” (2007), starring Don Cheadle, and her film, “Harriet,: about the life of Harriet Tubman is set to be released in 2019. Some of the stars of Harriet include Cynthia Erivo, Janelle Monáe, and Leslie Odom Jr.She wrote the libretto for Opera Theatre’s 2019 world premiere Fire Shut Up in My Bones.Colleen McGuinness Colleen McGuinness has written for numerous television shows, including NBC’s Emmy-winning “30 Rock,” for which she also received Emmy, WGA, and PGA award nominations. She most recently served as a consulting producer on Amazon’s “Forever,” starring Maya Rudolph and Fred Armisen, and is now a co-executive producer on Stargirl, an upcoming series for the DC Comics streaming service. She has developed pilots with Tina Fey, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, HBO, and F/X, and is currently creating a show with Reese Witherspoon producing, based on the Curtis Sittenfeld book “You Think It, I’ll Say It.” McGuinness graduated cum laude in English from Harvard University and lives in Los Angeles with her husband Blake, son James, and dog Elaine. Cat NevilleCatherine Neville is the producer of St. Louis’s own nationally syndicated television series “TasteMAKERS” and host of “Feast TV? on KETC. She co-created Sauce Magazine in the early 2000s and launched Feast Magazine in 2010.This event is presented by Opera Theatre of St. Louis. For more information, visit www.opera-stl.org.

Terence Blanchard, Kasi Lemmons Here for OTSL ‘Fire Shut Up in My Bones’ Events

Terence Blanchard, Kasi Lemmons Here for OTSL ‘Fire Shut Up in My Bones’ Events

Opera Theatre of Saint Louis will host Grammy-winning composer Terence Blanchard and celebrated filmmaker Kasi Lemmons for a series of public events in January, February, and March 2019. As the composer and librettist of Fire Shut Up in My Bones, the latest commission in OTSL’s New Works, Bold Voices series, these two artists will discuss the creation of their world premiere opera, engage in community conversations around equity and representation in the arts, and provide unique perspectives landmark projects from across their careers.
Based on the bestselling memoir by New York Times columnist Charles Blow, Fire Shut Up in My Bones traces Mr. Blow’s story of growing up in Gibsland, Louisiana, a place where memories and shadows of the past perpetuate a cycle of violence. The young Charles’s attachment to his mother, a fiercely driven woman with five sons, cannot protect him from secret abuse at the hands of an older cousin. Years of anger and searing self-questioning follow, until Charles must choose whether to continue the cycle of violence himself. The opera is co-commissioned with Jazz St. Louis.

The community tour featuring Kasi Lemmons and Terence Blanchard is presented with the support of a wide range of community partners, including Cinema St. Louis, Exodus Gallery, Jazz St. Louis, Left Bank Books, Maryville University, the Missouri History Museum, St. Louis University Library Associates, the Regional Arts Commission, and the Webster University Film Series. Further events with the opera’s creators will be scheduled during the 2019 season. All events are free and open to the public, unless otherwise stated. Tickets can be reserved online at opera-stl.org, or via the Box Office at (314) 961-0644.
FILM SCREENING OF EVE’S BAYOU WITH DIRECTOR KASI LEMMONS
            Saturday, January 19, 6:30 p.m. – 9 p.m.
            Presented in partnership with Cinema St. Louis and the Webster University Film Series
Winifred Moore Auditorium (Webster University)
470 E Lockwood Ave, St. Louis, MO 63119
 
Tickets $5 to the general public.
Admission is free to Webster University students, faculty, and staff.
Cinema St. Louis and the Webster University Film Series join OTSL to host a screening of Kasi Lemmons’s groundbreaking 1997 debut, Eve’s Bayou. The film explores the childhood of Eve, a young girl growing up in rural Louisiana. Lauded as a “nostalgic, tragic, exhilarating reverie” by CNN, Eve’s Bayou remains one of the most vital coming-of-age films in the modern cinematic canon. Dawn Suggs, Video Department Director at the St. Louis American, moderates a post-film conversation with Kasi and the audience about Eve’s Bayou and her current project, Harriet, being released by Focus Features and featuring Cynthia Erivo, Leslie Odom Jr., and Janelle Monáe. Tickets are $5.
REPRESENTATION AND RESPONSIBILITY:
RACIAL AND GENDER EQUITY IN FILM AND TELEVISION
            Sunday, January 20, 1 p.m. – 2 p.m.
            The Regional Arts Commission
            6128 Delmar Boulevard, St. Louis, MO 63112
Producer, director, writer, and actress Kasi Lemmons joins a panel of distinguished leaders in film and television for a conversation exploring questions of representation and equity in the industry. Additional panelists include Colleen McGuinness and Catherine Neville. Ms. McGuinness has received Emmy, WGA, and PGA award nominations for her work as a writer and producer for 30 Rock. She most recently served as consulting producer and writer on Amazon’s Forever, starring Maya Rudolph and Fred Armisen. Ms. Neville is an Emmy-winning food journalist who has translated her success locally leading Feast Magazine and Feast TV on Nine Networks into the nationally syndicated PBS series TasteMAKERS, which made its debut in October. This event is a continuation of OTSL’s new Representation and Responsibilityseries, which is exploring equity in the arts, entertainment and media.
FIRE SHUT UP IN MY BONES FROM PAGE TO STAGE WITH KASI LEMMONS:
A BOOK CLUB CONVERSATION
            Friday, February 1, 7:30 p.m. – 9 p.m.
Presented in partnership with Left Bank Books and the St. Louis University Library Associates
Pere Marquette Room & Sinquefield Stateroom, DuBourg Hall
St. Louis University, 221 Grand Blvd, St. Louis, MO 63103
 Left Bank Books hosts a special book club event in partnership with St. Louis University Library Associates highlighting Charles Blow’s memoir Fire Shut Up in My Bones. Kasi Lemmons will explore the memoir from her perspective adapting it into an opera libretto, in a conversation with Jonathan Smith, Ph.D., Vice President for Diversity and Community Engagement at Saint Louis University.
           MUSIC AND WORDS: COMPOSING ACROSS GENRES
            Sunday, March 17, 3:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
            Missouri History Museum
            5700 Lindell Blvd, St. Louis, MO 63112
Join composer Terence Blanchard, St. Louis-based musician Lamar Harris, and other musical guests in an exploration of music and the written word. Each artist will share their storytelling experiences through musical composition and the written word, followed by live examples of these various musical languages (hip hop, jazz, opera, soul) colliding. The panel will be followed by a workshop to kick off OTSL and Jazz St. Louis’s new high school composers lab, called THE LAB. THE LAB is designed to bring students from across the region together to develop their own musical voices and explore composition across genres. Over six sessions, students selected for the program will compose new work, which will ultimately be performed at a special event in May at Jazz St. Louis.
 REPRESENTATION AND RESPONSIBILITY:
EQUITY IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY
            Monday, March 18, 7 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
            Jazz St. Louis
           3536 Washington Ave, St. Louis, MO 63112
Gene Dobbs Bradford, president and CEO of Jazz St. Louis moderates a panel featuring composer Terence Blanchard and other prominent musicians in the St. Louis community to discuss equity and representation in the music industry. The event will be followed by a short reception with the panelists.
 FILM SCREENING OF BLACKKKLANSMANWITH COMPOSER TERENCE BLANCHARD
            Tuesday, March 19, 6:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.
Presented in partnership with Maryville University
Maryville University Anheuser Busch Auditorium
650 Maryville University Dr, St. Louis, MO 63141
 Maryville University hosts a screening of Spike Lee’s newest film BlacKKKlansman, called a “stunning tour de force” by The New York Times. Based on a true story, the film follows Colorado detective Ron Stallworth, who successfully infiltrated and exposed the Klu Klux Klan. The screening will be followed by a discussion and Q&A with composer Terence Blanchard, who scored the film. A private reception including students from Maryville’s Multicultural Scholars program will be offered before the film.
 Additional community tour events are planned with Charles Blow, author of Fire Shut Up in My Bones and New York Times columnist, April 25 – 28, 2019. Details on these events and other in-season programs featuring Mr. Blow, Ms. Lemmons, and Mr. Blanchard will be announced in the spring of 2019.
Fire Shut Up in My Bones is made possible in part by the Fred M. Saigh Endowment at Opera Theatre and by the Sally S. Levy Family Fund for New Works, which provides support for contemporary opera and related community engagement activities. Leadership support comes from the Whitaker Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Centene Charitable Foundation.
This production is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts and made possible by an OPERA America Innovation Grant, supported by the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation. Major production support is provided by OPERA America’s Opera Fund.  A generous endowment gift from the late Pris McDonnell supports composer and librettist residencies, and audience development programming for this project is made possible by PNC Arts Alive.
In addition to the world premiere of Fire Shut Up in My Bones, the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis 2019 Festival Season also features three great classics from the operatic canon, Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, Verdi’s Rigoletto, and Monteverdi’s The Coronation of Poppea, as well as OTSL’s annual young artist Center Stage concert, led by Music Director Emeritus Stephen Lord. The season opens on Saturday, May 25, 2019. Subscriptions and single tickets can be purchased online, in person at the Loretto-Hilton Box Office, or by calling (314) 961-0644.
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About Opera Theatre of Saint Louis
Opera Theatre of Saint Louis is a spring festival featuring casts of the opera world’s most exciting singers accompanied by the acclaimed St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. Each season, OTSL presents four inventive new productions in English during the months of May and June. In addition to presenting innovative interpretation of classics, OTSL is also committed to premiering new and relevant operas by prominent composers; since its inaugural season in 1976, 27 operas have premiered at Opera Theatre.
Opera Theatre’s competitive young artist programs foster the next generation of emerging American singers; these programs have been a springboard for countless artists to launch international careers.
Opera Theatre of Saint Louis is funded in part by the Regional Arts Commission, Arts and Education Council, National Endowment for the Arts, and the Missouri Arts Council, with audience building programs supported by The Wallace Foundation.