Nashville Theater Parties Hardy for BroadwayWorld.com Nashville Awards

Despite portentous warnings of an approaching snowmageddon across the South, more than 150 members of the Nashville and Middle Tennessee theater community gathered at Street Theatre Company in Nashville Sunday night, January 9, for the announcement of the BroadwayWorld.com Nashville Theatre Award winners and the presentation of First Night's Top Ten of Twenty-Ten.

Two special First Night Awards were presented during the cocktail party, including Outstanding Theater Company of 2010, which went to Actors Bridge Ensemble (whose 2010 offerings included critically acclaimed productions of All My Sons, Vincent in Brixton, Reckless and Marcus Hummon's new musical The Piper) and Oustanding Original Work of 2010, which was presented to playwrights Nate Eppler and Dietz Osborne for their "comedy noir," Rear Widow, which was produced by Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre and directed by Lauren Shouse, featuring a cast that included nine-time First Night Award winner Martha Wilkinson, Jennifer Richmond, B.J. Rowell, and the playwrights themselves.

Hosted by Jeffrey Ellis, who covers Tennessee theater for BroadwayWorld.com and is executive producer and founder of The First Night Nashville Theatre Honors, Sunday night's party featured cabaret entertainment by Ann Street-Kavanaugh, JoAnn Coleman and Ben Van Diepen and was highlighted by performances from Bakari Jamal King, Laura Matula and Michael Kitts, who performed songs from upcoming Street Theatre Company productions. Jane Kelley Watt, longtime First Night musical director, accompanied Kavanaugh, Coleman and Van Diepen, while Rollin Mains, music director for STC's upcoming I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change and Chess in Concert, accompanied Matula, King and Kitts.

During the party, Ellis unveiled plans for 2011 First Night, the Nashville Theatre Honors, which will honor seven individuals in September and will include a whole slate of events in the coming months to celebrate live theater in Music City USA.

Winners of the BroadwayWorld.com Nashville Theatre Awards, voted by theater fans throughout the month of December (through January 8), following nominations submitted during the month of November 2010, included:

• Best Play (non-professional): The Best Chrsitmas Pageant Ever, Cumberland County Playhouse

• Best Play (professional): Duck Hunter Shoots Angel, Cumberland County Playhouse

• Best Musical (non-professional): 13, Cannon County Arts

• Best Musical (professional): Brigadoon, Cumberland County Playhouse

• Best New Work: Mark Allen's Tinyard Hill, Cumberland County Playhouse

• Best Director/Play (non-professional): Clay Hillwig, The Grapes of Wrath

• Best Director/Play (professional): Donald Fann, Duck Hunter Shoots Angel

• Best Director/Musical (non-professional): Kyle Rybczyk, Seussical, Pull-Tight Players

• Best Director/Musical (professional): Michele Colvin, Brigadoon

• Best Music Director (non-professional): John Kennerly, Titanic, Circle Players

• Best Music Director (professional): Ron Murphy, Brigadoon

• Best Actor/Musical (non-professional): Markus McClain, 13

• Best Actor/Musical (professional): Britt Hancock, Brigadoon

• Best Actor/Play (non-professional): Ed Amatrudo, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, ACT 1

• Best Actor/Play (professional): Jason Ross, Duck Hunter Shoots Angel

• Best Actress/Musical (non-professional): Stephanie Jones Benton, Jekyll & Hyde, Circle Players

• Best Actress/Musical (professional): Heather Dispensa, Into the Woods, Roxy Regional Theatre

• Best Actress/Play (non-professional): Heather Alexander, The Grapes of Wrath

• Best Actress/Play (professional): Denice Hicks, The Tempest, Nashville Shakespeare Festival

• Best Costume Design (non-professional): Cat Arnold, Titanic

• Best Costume Design (professional): Rebel Mickelson, A Little Night Music, Cumberland County Playhouse

• Best Lighting Design (non-professional): Paul Cook, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf

• Best Lighting Design (professional): Tony Lathroum, Duck Hunter Shoots Angel

• Best Set Design (non-professional): Jim Manning, The Grapes of Wrath

• Best Set Design (professional): John Fionte, Duck Hunter Shoots Ange

Pictured: Dietz Osborne and Nate Eppler

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