6-6-08
Appointments and Disappointments
Publicist Samara Harand has bid farewell to The Silverman Group to begin graduate work at Brooklyn College in New York, where she’ll earn an MFA in Performing Arts Management. Her last day was May 30. Replacing her in July will be Eric Eatherly, a Northwestern University dance graduate who has, for over a year, written the Dancin’ Feats column for the Windy City Times.
Shattered Globe Theatre has appointed ensemble member Kevin Hagen as its new artistic director, succeeding Brian Pudil (who remains an ensemble member). Scenic designer Hagen has been with Shattered Globe for 10 years and is the first non-actor to hold the top artistic job. A DePaul University design MFA, Hagen has designed for Writer’s Theatre, TimeLine, Eclipse and—of course—many times for Shattered Globe.
Christopher Prentice, until recently producing director of Signal Theatre, will move up to Canada in September as one of eight actors accepted into the 20 week Birmingham Conservatory of the Stratford Festival. The highly-selective program is for established young professionals, who will emerge in February with contracts for the Stratford 2009 season. Prentice, a co-founder of Signal, has worked extensively in Off-Loop Theatre, including most all local classical venues—Illinois Shakespeare Festival, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, First Folio, etc. He’ll spend the summer at the Montana Shakespeare Festival.
Naming names
Remy Bumppo’s newest artistic associate, Gregory Anderson, has undergone a name change. As a newly-minted member of Equity, he’s now known professionally as Greg Matthews Anderson. Whatever you call him, he played eight character roles in the just-closed Remy Bumppo production of On the Verge.
Awards and Honors
In addition to the Tony nominations, four major Broadway and Off-Broadway honors were handed out between May 5 and May 13, and Chicago did very well.
The Next Theatre’s musical version of The Adding Machine won four Lucille Lortel Awards including: Outstanding Musical (Joshua Schmidt and Jason Loewith, co-authors), Outstanding Director (David Cromer); Outstanding Lead Actor in a Musical (Joel Hatch) and Outstanding Lighting Design (Keith Parham). The Lortel Awards are exclusively for Off-Broadway theatre, as are the annual Obies, awarded by The Village Voice, which also honored Cromer and Hatch.
Off-Broadway and Broadway compete when it comes to the Outer Critics Circle Awards. Even so, The Adding Machine won Outstanding New Off-Broadway Musical, although it lost vs. Broadway in other categories (Cromer was among the Outstanding Director nominees). August: Osage County took Outer Critics Awards for Outstanding New Broadway Play, Outstanding Director of a Play (Anna D. Shapiro) and Outstanding Actress in a Play (Deanna Dunagan). Also, Steppenwolf Ensemble member Laurie Metcalf won Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play for David Mamet’s November.
Finally, the New York Drama Critics Circle—which gives out awards only for best new play, musical and foreign play of the season—gave its praise and $2,500 to Tracy Letts for August: Osage County.
Playwright and director Carlos Murillo is the recipient of the 2008 Ofner Prize, a $5,000 commission given annually by the Goodman Theatre in memory of former board chairperson David Ofner. Murillo’s dark play or stories for boys was presented as a staged reading in Goodman’s 2006 Latino Theatre Festival and went on to a world premiere production at the Humana Festival. Murillo is on the faculty of The Theatre School, DePaul University and recently directed Durango at Silk Road Theatre Project.
Ailing
Veteran actor Keith Kupferer, a Rivendell Theatre Ensemble member, suffered a heart attack on Memorial Day, May 26. Perhaps one hot dog too many? Kupferer is recuperating nicely, although medical reports indicate some serious heart muscle damage that will require cardio physical therapy down the road. It will be six months before a final assessment of his condition can be made. Rivendell, meanwhile, opened its new show, Psalms of a Questionable Nature, on schedule May 30 (through June 29) at Live Bait.
Passings
Actor, director and producer Page Hearn, 48, in New Jersey.