The Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle (LADCC) has announced its nominations and special awards for excellence in Los Angeles and Orange County theatre in 2012. The 44th annual LADCC Awards ceremony will take place on Monday, March 18, 2013 at historic, heralded Los Angeles Theatre Center, 514 S. Spring Street in downtown L.A.

All tickets have been reduced to $30.00. Tickets can be arranged through crixawards2013@gmail.com, and PayPal will be accepted prior to March 18. Credit cards will be accepted at the door.

Nominees are entitled to a single complimentary ticket.  Nominees please click here for important information regarding ticketing etc.

Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. on March 18 for drinks, music, hors d’oeuvres (no full dinner) and conversation, while at a Silent Auction attendees can bid on theatre and film-related items. Only cash or checks will be accepted at the auction, please. The show will commence at 7:30 p.m.

Scheduled host French Stewart is a 25-year mainstay of the Los Angeles theatre scene and a notable star of TV and film. Best known for his six seasons co-starring on NBC’s  3rd Rock From the Sun, he is a member of Sacred Fools and played the title role in that company’s 2012 production of Stoneface, The Rise and Fall and Rise of Buster Keaton, which has received two LADCC nominations.

In recognition of this year’s theme, “Theatre Everywhere,” representatives of theatre companies based within the geographic beat covered by members of the Circle will join Stewart and Circle members to present awards in 17 competitive categories.

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NOMINEES:

The 2012 nominees are…

SPECIAL AWARDS:

Six special awards will be presented under the sponsorship of organizations and individuals to whom the LADCC is most grateful. Honors have been announced for local institutions Celebration Theatre (for sustained excellence); and The Fountain Theatre and Center Theatre Group (for their excellent seasons). The Circle also recognizes prominent individuals: David O; Elina de Santos; Stephen Gifford; as well as Evelina Fernandez for her A Mexican Trilogy, an outstanding L.A. world premiere play.

The 2012 special awards winners are…

ALREADY-VOTED AWARDS:

Three already-voted awards will be presented on awards night.

Plaques will be presented on March 18 to the following recipients:

Adrian Kohler with Basil Jones for Handspring Puppet Theatre, in recognition of the design, fabrication, and direction of the puppets of War Horse at the Ahmanson Theatre

David McCormick and Kelly Todd for their fight direction of West Side Story at the Chance Theatre in Anaheim.

In addition, a special plaque will be awarded to Center Theatre Group for an excellent season.

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MEMBERSHIP:

The Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle was founded in 1969. It is dedicated to excellence in theatrical criticism, and to the encouragement and improvement of theatre in Greater Los Angeles.

The 2012 membership consisted of:

Pauline Adamek, LA Weekly; ArtsBeatLA.com

F. Kathleen Foley, Los Angeles Times

Shirle Gottlieb, Gazette Newspapers; stagehappenings.com

Hoyt Hilsman, Back Stage, The Huffington Post

Mayank Keshaviah, LA Weekly

Amy Lyons, Back Stage, LA Weekly

Dany Margolies, ArtsinLA.com

Terry Morgan, LAist.com; Daily Variety

Steven Leigh Morris. LA Weekly

David C. Nichols, Los Angeles Times, Back Stage

Sharon Perlmutter, TalkinBroadway.com

Melinda Schupmann, Back Stage; ShowMag.com; ArtsinLA.com

Madeleine Shaner, Park La Brea News/Beverly Press; Back Stage

Les Spindle, Frontiers; Theatremania; EDGE LA

Bob Verini, Daily Variety; ArtsinLA.com

Neal Weaver, LA Weekly; Back Stage

The LADCC is pleased to welcome FootLights Publishing, Inc. as consultants on this year’s awards events. The mission of FootLights is to illuminate the theatre community, providing greater access to a more diverse public while at the same time offering insight into the production and process of theatre.

The LADCC expresses its gratitude to Los Angeles Theatre Center and Latino Theatre Company for their warm welcome and many courtesies.

… (or your show has been) –

HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW.

Congratulations! First thing, we of the LADCC will be hosting our fourth annual Nominees Reception two weeks prior to the Awards Show. Please watch this website (and your e-mail; and heck, watch your SPAM filter too) for more particulars really soon. If you’re a nominee, you’re invited. We hope you’ll keep this in mind: It will really help if you RSVP. We’re a small (if fierce) organization with limited resources. RSVPs help us order enough beverages and hors d’oeuvres to go around, and reduce the worry that we under-ordered. More about that anon.

What about Awards Night, Monday, March 18, 2013 you ask?

All nominations and purchases will be handled through this e-mail address: crixawards2013@gmail.com.  You may ask questions there, reserve tickets, ask for a PayPal invoice (we love those), and make changes (we hate those but we know they happen).

Here’s what you need to know, and please keep reading to the end:

One (1) complimentary ticket is allotted to each individual nominee and Special Award recipient.

In other words, if you are a person named as a nominee, or have been told that you’re getting a Special Award, you’re entitled to a single comp ticket. We need you to claim it, by e-mailing crixawards2013@gmail.com. Make the reservation; it’s easy. If you don’t reserve, we regret we cannot guarantee admission.

An individual comp is allotted to each of the 8 Production nominees and 3 McCulloh nominated revivals, but the producers of those shows will pick who is to claim them. (Probably themselves.) Anyway, please don’t call or e-mail saying “I get the comp for West Side Story” or whatever, because that’s not the way that works. You’re welcome to go to your producer and wheedle to be the person who gets it, and s/he will confirm with us.

If you wish to invite one or more guests, it helps us enormously if you book both the comp and the paid tickets at the same time, in the same e-mail.

You’ll be sent a PayPal invoice within 48 hours of your reservation; it’s quick, safe, and easy to pay that way. We will endeavor to hold reservations up until 6:00 pm on show night, but the best way to ensure a seat is to pay right away.

All tickets will be held at the door. None will be mailed.

Cash, checks, and credit cards will be accepted at the door.

All seating is general seating.
We want to emphasize that we lowered this year’s price by 25%, to $30. We listened last year when you told us that the $40 ticket price was steep, and we hope that the lowered price will enable more folks to come to the Awards Show, whether or not they have a “dog in the hunt” as it were.

The nominated Ensembles work a little differently.

According to LADCC bylaws, a limited number of tickets are to be allotted to nominees in our Ensemble Performance category. This year, the casts of Waiting for Godot, The New Electric Ballroom, and The Savannah Disputation were so small that we have been able to set aside comps for all their actors by name; feel free to book yours at the gmail address. (Remember, you have to confirm; we can’t just hold them without any word from you.)

We wish we could invite everyone in the other nominated Ensembles – those for 42nd Street, In the Red and Brown Water, The Color Purple, and The Treatment – but those total 72 and we just can’t do it. Four (4) comps will be allotted to each ensemble, and the producers and publicists will assign them. If you were one of the cast members of those shows, kindly contact the producer or publicist to be considered for these comps. We regret we cannot allot those seats directly.

All nominees receive a nice certificate, suitable for framing.

Yep, all 85 actors in the nominated Ensembles, too. We’ll have the certificates on hand at the Nominees Reception; those not picked up will be available after March 18 through the LADCC or your show’s producers or publicist.

We will have some need of volunteers.

If you’d like to be considered as a volunteer usher or runner or some such for March 18, please contact – you guessed it – crixawards2013@gmail.com.

Dinner will NOT be served.

Lowering our ticket price is a gamble in terms of our reaching breakeven. We’re willing to take it but something had to give, and it was the dinner served at past years’ events. There will be tasty hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar, but you are advised to consider consuming a full dinner prior to arriving at the LATC.

Speaking of which, the LATC’s address is 514 S. Spring Street, Downtown Los Angeles.

The historic, beautiful Los Angeles Theatre Center will be hosting us, and here, for neither the first nor the last time, we want to express our deep appreciation to them and to the Latino Theatre Company. Click here to be directed to the LATC website, where you can learn about parking and whatnot. If you don’t know them or their work, you should, so a visit to their website will pay off doubly.

Dress is….well, call it “business casual” or “whatever you’d feel comfortable wearing to an L.A. opening night.” It’s a rare necktie or evening gown that decides to attend our event, though people do tend to make an effort to look nice.

Doors will open at 6:30, and the show is scheduled to begin at 7:30.

There’s going to be a Silent Auction that night.

Lots of really cool theatre stuff and film stuff. Cash or checks only, please. Bidding will end when intermission ends, on March 18.

Any other questions?

You know the e-mail address by now. Seriously, we are privileged and thrilled to honor the LA theatre community this way every year, and we hope you’ll join us.

Bob Verini

Awards Event Chair

Two-time winner (2011) Anne Gee Byrd.
Photo by Ed Krieger.