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Best Production

Alley Theatre's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

In the 1960s one critic called Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? "a sick play for sick people." Who can argue with such a statement when the infamous couple at the center of Albee's tale are the sort of middle-aged vipers Americans love to hate? And of course, now that it's 2003, most of us are willing to admit that yes, we are a little sick. Maybe that's why Albee's story still packs a wallop some 40 years after it first won a Tony. Outlandish and shocking as ever, Albee's script is one of the most psychologically ornate in the American canon, and nobody knows that better than director Gregory Boyd, whose dizzying winter production of the classic had an almost barbaric splendor. Held up by a terrific cast of four -- Judith Ivey, Ty Mayberry, James Black and Elizabeth Bunch -- the show was undoubtedly the most powerful, most gorgeously horrifying production of the season.

Best Production

Alley Theatre's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

In the 1960s one critic called Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? "a sick play for sick people." Who can argue with such a statement when the infamous couple at the center of Albee's tale are the sort of middle-aged vipers Americans love to hate? And of course, now that it's 2003, most of us are willing to admit that yes, we are a little sick. Maybe that's why Albee's story still packs a wallop some 40 years after it first won a Tony. Outlandish and shocking as ever, Albee's script is one of the most psychologically ornate in the American canon, and nobody knows that better than director Gregory Boyd, whose dizzying winter production of the classic had an almost barbaric splendor. Held up by a terrific cast of four -- Judith Ivey, Ty Mayberry, James Black and Elizabeth Bunch -- the show was undoubtedly the most powerful, most gorgeously horrifying production of the season.

Best Performance by Out-of-Towners

Charlie Victor Romeo, Collective: Unconscious

Suspense on stage is difficult to achieve. But New York's Collective: Unconscious succeeded with its play Charlie Victor Romeo. The title refers to a plane's black box, or cockpit voice recorder. The theater group took public-domain transcripts of plane crashes and staged the scenes with a cockpit mock-up. Before each of the six scenes, title slides indicated the flight information and reason for disaster. The exceptional sound design established the pressurized cabin environment with such accuracy that you could actually feel your ears pop, and a feeling of doom gripped you and didn't let go. The actors treated the material with respect and restraint, letting the transcripts speak for themselves. It was a panicky wild ride of a show.

Best Performance by Out-of-Towners

Charlie Victor Romeo, Collective: Unconscious

Suspense on stage is difficult to achieve. But New York's Collective: Unconscious succeeded with its play Charlie Victor Romeo. The title refers to a plane's black box, or cockpit voice recorder. The theater group took public-domain transcripts of plane crashes and staged the scenes with a cockpit mock-up. Before each of the six scenes, title slides indicated the flight information and reason for disaster. The exceptional sound design established the pressurized cabin environment with such accuracy that you could actually feel your ears pop, and a feeling of doom gripped you and didn't let go. The actors treated the material with respect and restraint, letting the transcripts speak for themselves. It was a panicky wild ride of a show.

Best Gay-Themed Show

Stargaze Theatre's Dream Boy

The gothic setting of rural North Carolina, with its hidden back roads and lost graveyards, is part of what made Stargaze Theatre's spring production of Eric Rosen's Dream Boy so gripping. But it was a terrible paradox -- that such a bucolic setting could hide puritanical repression and extreme violence -- that was the real triumph of the show. There couldn't be a worse place for a gay boy to come of age. Director Christian DeVries created a technically clever production that included a starry-night backdrop and a rolling country river made of light. Against this beautiful landscape, the boys of Rosen's world got naked and engaged in some of the most disturbingly erotic scenes seen on a Houston stage in years. Violent, painful and deeply moving, Dream Boy rose above the constraints of "gay" theater and captured the desperate sadness of the human condition.

Best Gay-Themed Show

Stargaze Theatre's Dream Boy

The gothic setting of rural North Carolina, with its hidden back roads and lost graveyards, is part of what made Stargaze Theatre's spring production of Eric Rosen's Dream Boy so gripping. But it was a terrible paradox -- that such a bucolic setting could hide puritanical repression and extreme violence -- that was the real triumph of the show. There couldn't be a worse place for a gay boy to come of age. Director Christian DeVries created a technically clever production that included a starry-night backdrop and a rolling country river made of light. Against this beautiful landscape, the boys of Rosen's world got naked and engaged in some of the most disturbingly erotic scenes seen on a Houston stage in years. Violent, painful and deeply moving, Dream Boy rose above the constraints of "gay" theater and captured the desperate sadness of the human condition.

Best Two-Man Show

Alley Theatre's Stones in His Pocket

Most of the time it's the stars who get all the attention. But Irish playwright Marie Jones turned all that around with her story about two extras on location in a small Irish village. The Alley's April production of Stones in His Pockets starred Todd Waite and Jeffrey Bean as the quintessential Irish blokes, working for 40 quid a day and sneaking extra slices of lemon meringue pie from the food cart. They broke our hearts with their Hollywood dreams and small-town means. But Waite and Bean did more than bring these lovable extras to life -- they actually played every part in this multicharacter show, including the movie's bratty female star and a local drug addict who commits suicide during filming. The production offered an astonishing display of the art of acting, with both performers morphing from role to role with a flip of the wrist and a turn of a head.

Best Two-Man Show

Alley Theatre's Stones in His Pocket

Most of the time it's the stars who get all the attention. But Irish playwright Marie Jones turned all that around with her story about two extras on location in a small Irish village. The Alley's April production of Stones in His Pockets starred Todd Waite and Jeffrey Bean as the quintessential Irish blokes, working for 40 quid a day and sneaking extra slices of lemon meringue pie from the food cart. They broke our hearts with their Hollywood dreams and small-town means. But Waite and Bean did more than bring these lovable extras to life -- they actually played every part in this multicharacter show, including the movie's bratty female star and a local drug addict who commits suicide during filming. The production offered an astonishing display of the art of acting, with both performers morphing from role to role with a flip of the wrist and a turn of a head.

Best Special Effects

Infernal Bridegroom Productions' Phaedra's Love

No theater group in town is better equipped to pull off Sarah Kane's fiery Phaedra's Love than the folks at Infernal Bridegroom Productions. All about incest, murder and mayhem, the fall 2002 production, under Jason Nodler's direction, was filled with the technical magic that sets IBP apart. Fires blazed, bellies were cut open, and every gory thing the Greeks and Romans (Seneca wrote the original version) relegated to the wings was pulled to center stage -- much to the audience's voyeuristic delight. The moment when Phaedra's body went up in smoke in a great funereal pyre at the back of the stage couldn't have been more electrifying or immediate.

Best Special Effects

Infernal Bridegroom Productions' Phaedra's Love

No theater group in town is better equipped to pull off Sarah Kane's fiery Phaedra's Love than the folks at Infernal Bridegroom Productions. All about incest, murder and mayhem, the fall 2002 production, under Jason Nodler's direction, was filled with the technical magic that sets IBP apart. Fires blazed, bellies were cut open, and every gory thing the Greeks and Romans (Seneca wrote the original version) relegated to the wings was pulled to center stage -- much to the audience's voyeuristic delight. The moment when Phaedra's body went up in smoke in a great funereal pyre at the back of the stage couldn't have been more electrifying or immediate.

Best Of Houston®

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