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No egos, please — we're Philadelphians
Return of the Barrymore Awards
Steve Cohen
The opening production number at last month’s Barrymore Awards was “Together Again” — quite appropriate, since the Philadelphia theater community’s answer to Broadway’s Tony Awards was suspended two years ago with the demise of its original sponsor, the Philadelphia Theatre Alliance. “There’s no need for remembering when,” sang young Philadelphia performers like Steve Pacek, Jeff Coon, Rachel Camp, Steven Wright, Justin Jain, Melanye Finister, and Samantha Bellomo, who comprise an encouraging sample of Philadelphia theater’s emerging generation.
After several minutes, they were joined by veteran actors Dito Van Reigersberg, Mary Martello, and Grace Gonglewski. The point was clear as this group of ten filled the stage: What mattered here was not star power but the diverse nature of Philadelphia theater. Many who came on stage did so without identification, yet each appearance was greeted with the sort of warm applause and whistling you usually find at a pep rally.
Past Barrymore ceremonies, by contrast, focused more on entertainment, with fully staged musical scenes. I cherish fond memories of Tony Braithwaite channeling Johnny Carson as he emceed. This leaner version, on the other hand, presented only brief semi-staged musical highlights.
This approach delineated the differences between the Barrymores and New York’s Tonys. The Barrymores can’t boost the box office sales of the award-winning plays, since all of them have finished their runs. And there’s no impulse to use big name stars to attract TV viewers. Previous Barrymores brought in celebrities from New York; not so this year.
Here, the focus was not so much on individuals as on theater companies. Inis Nua was honored as a relatively small company that specializes in English and Irish repertory; it also won an honor for its production of Midsummer, a Play with Songs. Theatre Horizon in Norristown was recognized for shining light on transvestites and transgendered people with its production of I Am My Own Wife. The latter, by the way, was developed in 2003, when playwright Doug Wright, director Moisés Kaufman, and actor Jefferson Mays got together under the auspices of the Wilma Theater — a case of an older established company mentoring a new one.
The ceremony functioned smoothly, finishing in less than two hours — thanks in part to the absence of several winners and, consequently, a merciful dearth of thank-you speeches. And you can’t really blame the award nominees for missing a ceremony that’s held almost a year after their productions closed. Could the Barrymore’s planners consider scheduling future programs for the springtime, when the productions are fresh in people’s minds and the nominees haven’t scattered to the winds?
What, When, Where
Barrymore Awards for Excellence in Theatre. Theatre Philadelphia production. October 27, 2014 at the Merriam Theater, 250 S. Broad St., Philadelphia. www.theatrephiladelphia.org.
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