The thing that I’d been told to get ready for (since our show had a real chance of winning in the Outstanding Actress category, but not really in the three others where we were nominated) but still was
surprised and overwhelmed by, was the amazing joy of having created a “star vehicle” and have the star of that
vehicle get the Outstanding Actress award in a tremendously competitive category.
The gifted Jennifer Pace had come in eight days before
opening with the imaginative and resourceful director (and dramaturg) Michael Kirk Lane after the
actress who playing “Bette” in our show got too sick to do a show with so much solo singing. Jennifer was aided in getting her performance together so quickly by her own and Michael's abilities, and by the extraordinary musician Clare
Cooper, who would, I’m sure, have gotten a nomination had there been a supporting actress or
a music direction category in that division. (And by luck, our technical director Terry Prideaux, who had kept things running smoothly back in February and March, happened to be the one presenting that category.)
A chat friend who gets to the point asked if it was as good as the show overall getting one of the other nominated awards? As I
told him, I’ll never know that, but Jennifer’s win as Best Actress at that moment felt like a win for our whole company of five.
And some more praise for the MITF - it was quite a ceremony! The MITF really ran it like a
real awards show, which of course it was - even going over the time limit to
the extent that the marvelous producer John Chatterton complimented those who stayed
to the end for their endurance, LOL!
The awards our show was up for were all in the first half, and while the
writing and production awards went (as the buzz expected) to John Frida’s
stellarly ambitious Alien Adventure, it was a thrill to hear us in the
nominations alongside so much work that I’d admired in the festival.
(I'm trying to figure out how to put parts of the video we made online, but so far, no luck.)
