by contributor Donna Shor
Photo credit: Neshan H. Naltchayan
Video credit: Janet Donovan
“It was a marvelous evening” said Michael Kahn after last night’s 29th Annual Helen Hayes Awards at The Warner Theatre, “but the thing I found most exciting was the great number of young talents up for awards, and winning them.”
Kahn, artistic director of the D.C based Shakespeare Theatre Company, caught exactly the vibrancy of the present Washington theatre scene. The original role of the event’s presenter, theatreWashington, when it was founded thirty years ago was limited to presenting the Helen Hayes Awards for theatrical excellence to Washington’s then-meager theatre community.
Now it has expanded to provide support for the 80 theaters and acting companies that have mushroomed up here, making Washington the nation’s most theatre-going city after New York. And also, and not inconsiderably, pouring one and a half billion dollars a year into our local economy, as theatreWashington’s CEO Linda Levy Grossman noted in her opening remarks.
“Holy HEL…en Hayes” Cedric Neal shouted in happy disbelief when handed a trophy for his role in “Dreamgirls.“ He was caught up in the exuberance of an evening -―replete with shout-outs, noisy cheers and woo-woo yelps from the 2000 audience members―that continued through the 2 a.m curfew at the J.W.Marriott after-party dance-floor.
But there were 27 other awards bestowed during the night to winners in 201 productions, and there was sadness, too. After the screened tribute to those who Have Gone Before, heartfelt and long applause was heard when washingtonTheatre chairman Victor Shargai―everyone’s favorite emcee―invoked the name of beloved Jaylee Mead. Self-effacing, during her lifetime, along with her late husband Gilbert she gave millions upon millions to save theatre life in Washington: theatre-going fans remembered.
Victor Shargai, David Grasso (center) with his wife Serra Sippel and Craig Pascal
The Washington Post, a generous HH Awards co-sponsor, bestowed the award named for the newspaper on the pioneering Capital Fringe for its innovative leadership in expanding performance opportunities
Actor’s Equity Association received The Helen Hayes Tribute award, given in the name of the Washington-born Hayes, the “First Lady of the American Theatre,” who saw her first play here at age five, and made her acting debut at nine years of age,
Equity’s president Nicholas Wyman accepted the award on this centennial year of the association’s founding. A short film showed the abominable conditions actors suffered before Equity protection: working with no minimum wage, weeks of unpaid rehearsals, forced into several shows a day seven days a week and often being bilked out of salaries, and risking being stranded on the road.
Victor Shargai, harking back wistfully to his own acting days,”confessed” that he must have years of Equity dues unpaid since he last worked as an actor, and asked presenter Naomi Jacobson to beg Wyman to cancel them; laughing, Wyman agreed.:
Irrepressible Victor complimenting actress Jacobson on her talent said, “She makes me laugh, she makes me cry, and she is the only woman that could make me change my sexual orientation.”
“A-a-awhk, I never would have thought I’d have the nerve to say that,” Shargai then exclaimed, in a self-surprised half-whisper.
He reminded the audience that despite all Equity has done for American actors, they should remember Tallulah Bankhead’s admonition: “If you really want to help the theatre, don’t become an actor, join the audience!”
Linda Levy Grossman, Ellen Burstyn and Nicholas Wyman
Audience member Dorothea Hammond, on the scene but introduced via video, proudly said “I’ve been an Equity member since I came to Washington in 1938!.” The next presenter on stage, Ellen Burstyn, who has garnered an Oscar, a Tony and an Emmy added “I’ve been an equity member since 1956!”
She presented the John Aniello Award, named for the long-time theatre supporter and awarded to the judge’s choice as the Outstanding Emerging Theatre Group, The Dizzy Miss Lizzie Theatre Company.
Reminiscing about Helen Hayes, Burstyn said that a caller to Helen at home found her playwright husband Charles MacArthur on the end of the line. “For Helen?”
he said, “Oh she is out doing good.”
Their son Jamie told Ellen Burstyn that when he was at his 93 year-old mother’s bedside just before she died, she awoke from a three-day coma to smile and point her index finger up to heaven.
“And,” concluded Ellen pointing up to heaven, “Though she might be up there, for me her spirit is still down here at these awards, doing good.”
The Scene:
