Well, I’m fairly bursting to write about last night’s Perry Award presentation. As any of my regular readers know, I’m certainly not one to censor my - how shall I put it? - strong opinions. But since what I write may have a trickle down effect on one of our partners, the CDC theatre, I’ll simply leave the cattiness to my private blog (email me if you’d like to be added to the guest list).
For all you casual readers, let me just say that it was an excruciatingly long evening. I left after 10 pm and they had only just started the “second act” of the ceremony. Without commenting on any award winner or specific presentation, some of my observations:
The cost versus food ratio: Jeez, for $60 a pop, you could at least have an open bar or maybe free beer and cash bar for liquor. And crackers and cheese are not that expensive. Those cheese platters were virtually licked clean 15 minutes into the cocktail “hour.” The main entrée was just sad. 400 chickens died for naught. But you better believe that for $60 I forced that dry chunk of poultry down my throat. To be fair, the mashed potatoes and pasta were quite good. But how much does a sack of potatoes and a carton of dried pasta cost?
The host: Oy vey! I understand that he’s the president of NJACT, but really? His most tacky moment (in a string of tacky moments and bad jokes) was encouraging the audience to “boo” an award winner that wasn’t in attendance. I mean, I’m sure he was probably trashed, but that’s not a good enough excuse.
The cruise video: They showed a five-minute video-commercial for a Caribbean cruise where the passengers will be made up entirely of community theatre people. That’s the selling point?! I cannot think of anything less appealing than being trapped out at sea in a boat filled with thousands of theatre queens, fag hags, wannabees and their admirers - in other words a floating Sodom and Gomorrah accompanied by show tunes. Um, count me out.
The performances: Eight minutes to present scenes from your nominated show is just too long. Considering the nominated performances have all closed and we can’t see them anyway, why bother? How about letting nominees perform no more than two selections from their show not to exceed 3 minutes and then showing a couple of production photos. And since it’s just ridiculous to compare community theatre choreographers to Michael Bennett, NJACT can get off its high horse and give the outstanding choreography nominees at least a minute to showcase their work. And trust me, some of those nominees would have been better represented were they given less time. I’d have given my left nut to see the thought bubbles popping up around the room during some of the performances. Although the amount of raised-eyebrow looks across tables was nearly as amusing.
The Best Stage Manager category: I think my thoughts were best summed up by the winner herself, and I paraphrase, “I’m not sure what criteria you used to judge this category, but thanks.”
By the way, I didn't win for "Outstanding Choreography" but am still immensely proud of my cast, who managed to bring the restless, noisy crowd to complete silence during their 40 seconds of stage time. Congratulations! No award can equal the satisfaction of completely captivating an audience.
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