<bt>Two of this year's Washington Area Theater Community Honors (WATCH) awards for acting recognized performances on Arlington stages. Brent Stone was honored in the category Outstanding Performance in a Cameo Role in a Play for his work in The Arlington Players production of "The Man Who Came to Dinner" and Lisa Anne Bailey walked away from the awards gala last Sunday night with the trophy of Outstanding Performance as a Lead Actress in a Musical for her performance in Dominion Stage's production of "Ruthless!"
This is the sixth annual round of WATCH Awards which were established to recognize outstanding work in community theaters throughout the metropolitan region. Twenty-five theater companies from Virginia, Maryland and Washington participate with each providing judges who see the work of other theaters and cast their ballots which are tabulated at the end of the calendar year.
The awards are presented at a gala ceremony at the Birchmere in
Alexandria, an event that sees cast and creative team members from all the theaters, often dressed up to the nines, cheering on their colleagues. The event includes performances from the nominated musicals and master of ceremonies Mike Baker, Jr. keeps things moving along briskly.
BAILEY STARRED IN a jaunty musical that combined back stage intrigue
and a parody of the classic stage mother (think "Gypsy") with a precocious child-star daughter (think a young Shirley Temple). She's "Tina's Mother" which is the title of her big number. The production played at Arlington's Theater on the Run on South Four Mile Run Drive in January and February last year.
Stone's award was for the small cameo role of "Beverly Carlton" in the classic comedy about an egotistic columnist who breaks his leg when visitingthe home of an average American family and whose doctor refuses to let him be moved. He disrupts the family's life for a week, even broadcasting his Christmas radio program from their living room. It is especially notable that Stone was recognized, for this comedy is so frequently staged that it is difficult to distinguish between productions. Indeed, three of the five nominees for the award were from two different productions of the play and there are three more productions of the play scheduled at community theaters in the area in the next three months.
The next production of The Arlington Players will be the musical
"Fiddler On The Roof" which opens April 21 at the Thomas Jefferson Theatre on South Old Glebe Road while the next offering of Dominion Stage will be "Tom Sawyer -The Musical" which opens March 31 at Theatre I at the Gunston Arts Center on South Lang Street.