– This past weekend the 8th Annual Omaha Entertainment and Arts Awards honored the outstanding achievements for last years theatrical performances. The Omaha Community Playhouse led the way in overall awards with 6 as Ellen Struve’s Recommended Reading for Girls took home Best New Script and Best Supporting Actress (Laura Leininger), Evil Dead: The Musical took home Best Director (Carl Beck) and Best Actor (Brian Zealand), Legally Blonde: The Musical earned Best Supporting Actress (Theresa Sindelar) and The Wizard of Oz won Best Youth Performer (Charlotte Hedican).
The Bluebarn Theatre and Snap Productions each took home 3 awards for the evening. Bluebarn Theatre’s production of Red received honors for Best Play and Best Actor (Jerry Longe) and The 39 Steps won for Best Director (Susan Clement-Toberer). Snap Productions’ staging of Clybourne Park won Best Comedy while last year production of Next to Normal (not to be confused with the current production at Omaha Playhouse) won Best Musical and Best Actress (Echelle Childers).
Other honors that night included a Best Actress Award for Laura Marr in Gertrude Stein and a Companion at The Circle Theatre, a Best Supporting Actor Award for Jim McKain in Lofte Community Theatre’s production of The Producers, and a Best Supporting Actor Award for Dan Chevalier in Nebraska Shakespeare Festival’s version of Twelfth Night.
Overall, the reaction to awards night was a positive one, with the exception of attendees wishing for the reinclusion of the technical categories for next year’s awards night. For a total recap of the awards night, visit www.oea-awards.com.
– If you attend the production of Will Eno’s Gnit at the Bluebarn Theatre, opening this weekend, keep an eye (or rather ear) on the sound design. While certain pieces, like the famed Edvard Grieg composition of Peer Gynt, will no doubt be familiar to you, much of the design will feature original compositions from Sound Designer and local musician Larry Dunn (better known in the Omaha music scene as Lash LaRue).
– Next week, The UNO Theatre Department will be presenting the world premiere of Death by Design: A Comedy with Songs and Murder written and directed by New York-based playwright and UNO Alum Rob Urbinati. The show is a musicalized version of Urbinati’s play of the same name that was originally commissioned by the Houston Family Arts Center in 2011.
Cold Cream looks at theater in the metro area. Email information to coldcream@thereader.com