Best Actress

Consummate actress Anne Quackenbush often gets the short end of the stick when it comes to casting. The sweet-faced woman is often cast as the goofball, the loser or the whiny plain Jane. What's even harder, Quackenbush so deeply inhabits these quirky characters that it's sometimes too easy to overlook her extraordinary performances. Her acting pulses with the energy of real life. Such was the case with her performance as Lindy Love in the Alley Theatre's House and Garden. The ironically named Love suffers from domestic gloom and doom. Quackenbush padded about in a nylon warm-up suit, her mousy brown hair pinned back with silver clips, bearing the indifferent criticism of her dull-witted husband with the stoicism of an old dog. When she finally broke free at the story's end, you couldn't help but give a silent cheer for the woman whose heart was brought to with hysterically sweet life by this quiet queen of acting.