SF North Bay Theatres & Artists Recognized At 2018 TBA Awards

San Francisco North Bay theatre companies did well at the 2018 Theatre Bay Area Awards, which were held on Monday, November 5 at the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco.

The TBA Awards are designed to honor excellence in professionally oriented theatre through a peer-based, Bay Area-wide adjudication process of artists and productions from companies who are members of Theatre Bay Area and pay an awards registration fee. Participating North Bay companies include 6th Street Playhouse, AlterTheater Ensemble, Cinnabar Theater, Left Edge Theatre, Lucky Penny Productions, Marin Musical Theatre Company, Marin Shakespeare Company, Marin Theatre Company, Mountain Play Association, Novato Theater Company, Ross Valley Players, Sonoma Arts Live and Spreckels Theatre Company.

TBA divides their awards into three tiers with the intent to create an equitable system of evaluation for production aspects that can be influenced by levels of professional development and/or available resources.

In the Tier 2 division, Rohnert Park's Spreckels Theatre Company production of Peter Pan was recognized for Jessica Johnson's Outstanding Sound Design and for Marty Pistone's Outstanding Fight Choreography.

In the same division, Petaluma's Cinnabar Theater production of Good People was recognized for Outstanding Ensemble of a Play and Liz Jahren was recognized for Outstanding Performer in a Featured Role in a Play.

San Rafael's AlterTheater Ensemble's Gwen Loeb was also recognized for Outstanding Performer in a Featured Role in a Play for Cow Pie Bingo.

In Tier 3, Napa's Lucky Penny Productions took home four awards for their production of Chicago, including Staci Arriaga for Outstanding Choreography, Tielle Baker for Outstanding Performer in a Principal Role in a Musical, Outstanding Ensemble of a Musical, and Outstanding Musical Production.

Also in Tier 3, David F. Abrams was recognized as an Outstanding Performer in a Featured Role in a play for San Rafael's Birdbath Theatres production of Richard II, and Danielle Debow was recognized for Outstanding Performer in a Principal Role in a Musical for her work in Sonoma Art's Live's Always... Patsy Cline.

This is the first year that TBA eliminated gender distinction in their performance awards and recognized two individuals per performance category.