Below are the selections for the most solid work in community theatre in the greater Huntsville area for 2016.  As always with awards like this, some very deserving folks will not be below; a number of very talented folks didn’t even make the nomination list.  Frankly, that’s a good thing, if you think about it.  I wish I could give out awards to even more people, but that’s not how these things work.

It’s nice to be recognized, but we don’t do this for the trophies (which is good, because there aren’t any…).  We do it because we love doing it!

That said, here are winners of the 2016 SPOTLIGHT Awards!

Excellence in Technical Elements

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Excellence in Light Board Operation.  Multiple cues, well executed.

The Spotlight is on:  Ronnie Foreman for Eurydice
(UAH Theatre)

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Excellence in Sound Board Operation.  Multiple sound cues, and all perfectly timed.  Only two mics to handle, but well balanced throughout.

The Spotlight is on:  Jesse Pate for Tuna Christmas
(Theatre Huntsville)

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Excellence in Lobby Display.  Made the lobby display PART of the show.  Allowed the audience to continue debates about whodunit during intermission.  Drew the attention and focus.  Made it more than just a wall of headshots.

The Spotlight is on:  Sarah Mitchell for And Then There Were None
(Theatre Huntsville)

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Excellence in Scene Design.  It rained.  Onstage.  Into a river.  With water in it.
(Perfect design for the script, and impressive execution.)

The Spotlight is on:  David Harwell for Eurydice
(UAH Theatre)

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Excellence in Costume Design.  Huge workload and amazing ingenuity to meet a unique costuming challenge.

The Spotlight is on:  Ethan Mitchell and Beth Keys for Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book
(Huntsville M.E.T.)

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Excellence in Sound Design.  Mastered a true challenge–aurally creating the underworld, as well as producing the music of “the most talented musician in the world”.

The Spotlight is on: Johnna Doty for Eurydice
(UAH Theatre)

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Excellence in Lighting Design.  A stellar job on a challenging show.

The Spotlight is on:  Ronnie Foreman for Eurydice
(UAH Theatre)

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Excellence in Stage Management.  Very tight production, with a script on which it’s hard to feel what the “right” timing is supposed to be.

The Spotlight is on:  Savannah Rutherford for ‘Dentity Crisis
(UAH Theatre)

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Excellence in Technical Direction.  Every technical aspect was pushed to extremes in this one.  Amazing production values.

The Spotlight is on:  David Harwell for Eurydice
(UAH Theatre)

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Excellence in Performance Elements

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Excellence in Performance by a Youth.  A huge role, and well done.

The Spotlight is on:  Willem Butler for “Mowgli” in Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book
(Huntsville M.E.T.)

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Excellence as an Ensemble.  Kudos for the unique challenge, and the high level of attainment.

The Spotlight is on:  Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book
(Huntsville M.E.T.)

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“Featured”:  a performer in a part with relatively little time as the focus of attention.

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Excellence as a Featured Actor in a Comedy.   A distinctive, memorable portrayal of what could have been a forgettable character.

The Spotlight is on:  Chris Carter for “Kevin” in Superior Donuts
(Theatre Huntsville)

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Excellence as a Featured Actor in a Drama.  Solid portrayal of a known personality.

The Spotlight is on:  Corby Holland for “Joe Namath” in Called
(Bank Street Players)

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Excellence as a Featured Actor in a Musical.  Wonderful work as a chorus stand-out.

The Spotlight is on:  Zach Thomas for “Neleus” in Mary Poppins
(Independent Musical Productions)

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Excellence as a Featured Actress in a Comedy.  Simply exudes energy and vitality.  Took the role with both hands, and shook every drop of energy out onto the stage.

The Spotlight is on:  Joanna DeAtley for “Borachia” in Much Ado About Nothing
(Rocket City Shakespeare)

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Excellence as a Featured Actress in a Drama.  Excellent work in two utterly different small roles in the same production.

The Spotlight is on:  Sonia Anders for “Joan of Arc/Catherine” in Bluebeard:  the Trial of Gilles de Rais
(Evil Cheez Productions)

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Excellence as a Featured Actress in a Musical.  The most jaw-dropping three-minutes of stage focus all year.

The Spotlight is on:  Jamie Clasgens for “Fruma-Sarah” in Fiddler on the Roof
(Huntsville Community Chorus)

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“Supporting”:  a performer with substantial stage time, without being the Lead.

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Excellence as a Supporting Actor in a Comedy.  An incredible challenge, which he made look easy.

The spotlight is on:  Phil Parker for “Dogberry” in Much Ado About Nothing
(Bank Street Players)

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Excellence as a Supporting Actor in a Drama.  The perfect portrayal of the character.

The Spotlight is on:  Brian Waldrop for “Mr. Potter” in It’s a Wonderful Life
(Whole Backstage Theatre)

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Excellence as a Supporting Actor in a Musical.  Owned the stage, with incredible charisma.

The Spotlight is on:  Patrick Johnson for “Bert” in Mary Poppins
(Independent Musical Productions)

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Excellence as a Supporting Actress in a Comedy.  In more ways than one, probably the most insane character onstage this year.

The Spotlight is on:  Mary Segal for “Edith” in ‘Dentity Crisis
(UAH Theatre)

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Excellence as a Supporting Actress in a Drama.  A LOT of stage time for a “supporting” actress, and great connection to the audience.

The Spotlight is 0n:  Tanja Miller for “Narrator” in Bluebeard:  the Trial of Gilles de Rais
(Evil Cheez Productions)

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Excellence as a Supporting Actress in a Musical.  A lot of levels to this character, with plenty of chances to sing and dance.

The Spotlight is on:  Aisha Richardson for “Vanessa” in In the Heights
(Lyrique Music Productions)

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“Lead”:  a performer in a part around whom the story revolves.  Often has the most stage time; almost always has a “character arc”.

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Excellence as a Lead Actor in a Comedy.  Subtle and understated is hard.

The Spotlight is on:  George Kobler for “Arthur” in Superior Donuts
(Theatre Huntsville)

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Excellence as a Lead Actor in a Drama.  Frankly, sometimes it comes down to the difficulty of the part.

The Spotlight is on:  Rankin Sneed for “Scrooge” in A Christmas Carol
(Fantasy Playhouse Children’s Theatre)

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Excellence as a Lead Actor in a Musical.  Very solid work in this category, with a number of great singers and actors.  This actor had the opportunity to also show off some serious dance moves, and nailed it.

The Spotlight is on:  Christopher Gunner for “Usnavi” in In the Heights
(Lyrique Music Productions)

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Excellence as a Lead Actress in a Comedy.  Nudged out of a very talented pack by the difficulty rating.

The Spotlight is on:  Melissa Waldron McMahan for “Beatrice” in Much Ado About Nothing
(Bank Street Players)

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Excellence as a Lead Actress in a Drama.  Given what was available in the script, she definitely pushed to the extremes, and there’s no question that this actress went to some very uncomfortable, challenging places.

The Spotlight is on:  Raye Bonham Carter for “Vera” in Seventh Symphony
(Renaissance Theatre)

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Excellence as a Lead Actress in a Musical.  Very solid work in this category by all the nominees.  Great heart, and wonderful depth of character from this actress.

The Spotlight is on:  Erin Barrow for “Olive Ostrovsky” in 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
(Calhoun Community College)

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Excellence in Artistic Elements

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Excellence in Dance Choreography.  A very difficult choice, which could have gone a few different ways, depending on how one wanted to rate the difficulty level.

The Spotlight is on:  Nikki Ahlf, Hope Keys, and Gabriele Gonzalez for In the Heights
(Lyrique Music Productions)

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Excellence in Fight Choreography.  A number of shows had physical stunts, slaps, falls, punches, and out-right brawls.  Almost all were executed safely, most managed to generally support the needs of the script, but unfortunately, none were exciting or even believable.

The Spotlight is off.

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Excellence in Writing.  This was a clear choice.  Very solid writing.

The spotlight is on:  Chuck Puckett for Called
(Bank Street Players)

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Excellence in Music Direction.  Not an easy decision, but ultimately, this was the work with the cleanest difficult music.

The Spotlight is on:  Barry Petty for Mary Poppins
(Independent Musical Productions)

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Excellence in Direction of a Comedy.  Probably the hardest decision on this list of awards–went back and forth many times.  In the end, the award goes to the show that touched many different emotions–a very deep, rewarding experience for the audience.

The Spotlight is on:  Sam Marsh for Superior Donuts
(Theatre Huntsville)

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Excellence in Direction of a Drama.  While weak in some casting decisions, this production took some artistic choices to the edge, and it paid off.

The Spotlight is on:  Mandy Hughes and Lee Hibbard for Macbeth
(Rocket City Shakespeare)

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Excellence in Direction of a Musical.  Solid work with a very large cast.  Perfect emotional and dramatic impact.

The Spotlight is on:  Susan Godwin for 1776
(Bank Street Players)

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Excellence in Production of a Comedy.  A quality production of a very good script. 

The Spotlight is on:  Superior Donuts
(Theatre Huntsville)

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Excellence in Production of a Drama. The audience sat in stunned silence at the conclusion of the performance.  Truly impressive work.

The Spotlight is on:  Eurydice
(UAH Theatre)

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Excellence in Production of a Musical. There were “cleaner” shows than this one, but this show had the greatest overall emotional impact and artistic excitement.

The Spotlight is on:  In the Heights
(Lyrique Music Productions)

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Excellence as a Theatrical Company.  This theatrical group put on a solid, entertaining show every single time in 2016, and is a reliable bet to continue to do so.

The Spotlight is on:  Bank Street Players

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And that’s it.  Congrats and kudos to everyone.
Winners are welcome to leave their acceptance speeches below in the comments.
(They have thirty seconds before the music starts…)

I’m looking forward to an even better 2017.
See you at the theatre!

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Note:  I scrounged the photos above from the web.  Let me know if I got any credits wrong.
I’ll also be more than happy to insert pictures above for winners missing them, if anyone sends them to me.  Email address:  HuntsvilleTheatreReviews(at)gmail.com.

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