Teatro Luna takes its well-received current show, SEX-Oh! (pronounced ess-eee-ex-oh) on tour to Texas next month, with a coupla’ stops in Indiana. According to managing director Coya Paz, the company has been touring for several years, averaging a dozen road gigs a year. “We’re easy to tour,” she says of their low-tech productions, adding, “We make most of our money on touring.”

Teatro Luna’s engagements mostly have been colleges and university gigs, with heaviest bookings during Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept.-Oct.) and Women’s History Month (March). “Most of our Chicago audience is Latino,” Paz says, “but at a college we might only have five Latinos in the audience.” She says the troupe enjoys the change of environment and the diverse audience. Other 2006 gigs in Washington D.C. and New York City are being negotiated.

The Texas tour has a second objective: a two-week workshop at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center in San Antonio. Teatro Luna and the Center have a grant to develop a work together, Machos, which will be Teatro Luna’s first excursion into male territory. The production team will conduct interviews with men in San Antonio, San Francisco, Chicago and New York to discover their attitudes regarding Latina women. The performance text will emerge from the interviews, and will be performed by the company’s female ensemble. Paz says Chicago should see some of Machos workshopped here (as per the usual Teatro Luna MO) before the end of the year, with a full production in spring or fall of 2007. The company’s next Chicago performances will be in August at the Goodman Theatre’s third Latino Theatre Festival.

Michael Halberstam now is a New York success. The reviews were almost all good for his Big Apple directorial debut, Shaw’s Candida, at the long-established Off-Broadway Jean Cocteau Repertory. “With excellent performances from the ensemble of six, this is one of the finest productions at Jean Cocteau Repertory in many years,” said Victor Gluck in Back Stage, calling it “a very polished revival that is elegant and amusing.” In a curious caveat, Gluck added, “If this production has one flaw, it is that the cast is too charming.” Hmm, sounds just like Mr. Halberstam himself, although we hear he can turn into an animal when the moon is full or the lights are low. Reviewers also praised the scenic design by Chicagoan Brian Sidney Bembridge. Candida ran Dec. 28-Feb. 11.

Hollis Resnik also made a recent out-of-town splash. The Cleveland native returned to her youthful haunt, the Cleveland Play House, to play Blanche Dubois in A Streetcar Named Desire, the debut directing effort of the company’s new artistic director, Michael Bloom. Those used to seeing Resnik in musical fare might be surprised at her strength and ability in straight drama. Although several company members felt they hadn’t had sufficient rehearsal (just three weeks and four previews), the company had begun to hit their rhythms by the time I saw the show the last week in January. It closed Feb. 5.

An anonymous new group, the Orgie Theatre Award Committee, has announced it will give up to 10 award certificates, each accompanied by $100, before the end of February. In a short Jan. 27 press release, the group said, “The Orgie Theatre Award committee is an anonymous collection of theatre artists and patrons. To be granted an Orgie, a nominee must receive a majority of the committee’s votes. The Orgie Theatre Award committee does not claim to be fair, unbiased, or reasonable. Our goal is to encourage a spirit of originality and adventure in Chicago theatre.”

OK. But how many members are there? Is a majority, like, two votes out of three? How do you get to be a member? How are nominations made? Will they cover children’s theatre? Sketch comedy? Improv? Will they cover theatre throughout the city and suburbs? Will they distinguish between union and non-union? How do we know they’re legitimate? They could claim independence, but give all the Orgie Awards to theatres and theatre artists with whom they are affiliated.

We asked these questions in an e-mail to the Orgie Committee, which replied that the Committee is comprised of both theatre artists and patrons, with the artists slightly outnumbering the patrons. They didn’t tell us how many Orgiasts there are. The Committee also told Behind the Curtain that they do not apply for grants or solicit donations; that award money “comes from our own pockets, which are not deep. We are committed to putting our meager money where our massive mouths are.”

As for nominations, if a member of the Committee is inspired by a theatre artist’s work, they may nominate the artist. A nominee then must receive a majority of Committee votes to be awarded an Orgie. But does that mean all Committee members must see the work, as with the Jeff Awards? It’s close to a full-time job for the 45 Jeff members. How is the Orgie Committee going to handle that?

The Committee also said: “If you need to verify the legitimacy of the award, please speak to the recipients after the award winners are announced.” Still, we hope they will provide us with more info.

We believe these folks—who sound young to us—need to take just a bit more time and care to establish the depth and merit of who they are and what they wish to achieve. They will not have credibility just because they say they do or because they give out money. George Bush does both those things, and is he credible?

Playwright Will Kern (Hell Cab) is more or less back in Chicago after Los Angeles chewed him up and spit him out. He’s writing a lot of travel articles and starting an English-language business venture in Korea where he’ll spend the next three months. He’s also co-coordinating a Feb. 20 benefit at Steppenwolf for the Midwest Shelter for Homeless Veterans (MSHV). He points out that in Chicago alone there are some 18,000 vets living on the streets. The 7:30pm benefit will feature a video appearance by Sen. Barack Obama, and actor Jeff Still reading portions of “Place of Angels,” a Vietnam memoir by MSHV founder Bob Adams. To talk to Will or reserve tickets ($100/$200, both including a post-show reception) call 773/772-5272.

T.J. Jagadowski and David Pasquesi received a Nightlife Award for Unique Comedy Performance in New York, Feb. 6. Pasquesi, well-know as a legitimate and voice-over actor, appears weekly with Jagadowski in The T. J. and Dave Show at I.O.

 The Nightlife Awards, held at Town Hall in the Broadway Theatre District, are decided by a cabal of critics whose identities are withheld until the announcement of the awards. They are produced by journalist Scott Siegel. Winners of the Nightlife Awards are required to perform in lieu of acceptance speeches.