The night belonged to Les Miserables at the 47th Annual Theatre Arts Guild Awards, honoring the past season’s outstanding accomplishments in Omaha area theatre. The winner for Best Musical, Les Miz took home a whopping 13 awards yesterday evening, 10 more than any other production. On top of Best Musical, Director Carl Beck and Susie Baer Collins took home Best Director, Jim Boggess won Best Musical Director, Joe Dignoti won Best Lead Actor in a Musical for his performance of Javert.
Les Miz also swept the design categories, winning the awards for Best Sound, Props, Set, Lighting, and Costume design. On top of Dignoti, the show won a host of acting awards that included Megan McGuire and Tyler Buglewicz taking home Best Featured Actor and Actress, Noah Jeffrey winning Best Youth Actor, and the show’s rendition of ‘One Day More’ won the Best Ensemble category.
Overall, the Omaha Playhouse won 19 awards in total, including Best Actress Kathy Tyree in the title role of Ella, Spencer Williams and Judy Radcliffe won Best Supporting Actor and Actress for Young Frankenstein, Noah Diaz won Best Featured Actor for Sirens, Grace Bydalek won Best Youth Actress for Next to Normal, and Best Special Event went to the 21 & Over staged reading of Exit, Pursued by a Bear.
The Blue Barn Theatre’s production of 33 Variations by Moises Kaufman took home the award for Best Drama, also garnering honors for Nils Haaland as Best Actor and Mary Kelly as Best Supporting Actress.
The Shelterbelt Theatre’s production of The Battle of Battles by local playwright Joe Basque won Best Comedy and Best Director of a play. The theatre also received the award for Best One Act Play for Chekhov’s Gun by Ben Beck. (https://balonlatino.net/)
SNAP Productions took home 3 awards, including Best Actress Sally Neumann Scamfer for her performance in Come Back Little Sheba. Local playwright Daena Schweiger’s play Voices from the Closet won best new script and also received the Best Featured Actress honor for Nichole Hawkins.
The other awards included Best Supporting Actor honors for Dan Chevalier as Sir Andrew Aguecheek in Nebraska Shakespeare’s 12th Night and Debbie Massey winning Best Choreography for her work on Papillion La Vista theatre’s production of 42nd Street.
The highlight of the evening was The Norman and Louise Filbert Lifetime Achievement Award presented to Creighton University Professor and area designer Bill Van Deest.
For a complete rundown of award recipients, you can go online to www.theatreartsguild.com.
Cold Cream looks at theater in the metro area. Email information to coldcream@thereader.com