|
Perseus Bayou, pictured above, was nominated for five Helen
Hayes awards. Winners will be announced May 6.
|
 |
Theater of the First Amendment Gets Six Helen Hayes Nominations
By Colleen Kearney Rich
Theater of the First Amendment (TFA), George Mason's resident professional
company, received five Helen Hayes Award nominations for its musical production
Perseus Bayou. Robinson Professor and playwright Paul D'Andrea garnered
a sixth nomination, the Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Play, for
his adaptation of Nathan the Wise. Awards will be presented on Monday,
May 6, at the Kennedy Center.
Perseus Bayou was nominated for the following awards: Outstanding Resident
Musical, the Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Play, Outstanding Director
of a Resident Musical (Mary Hall Surface), Outstanding Costume Design (Jelena
Vukmirovic), and Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Resident Musical (Paul Takacs).
Perseus Bayou, by Surface and David Maddox, transplants the Greek myth
of the Medusa-slaying hero to post-Civil War Louisiana while interweaving a complex
patchwork of dialogue, music, and storytelling. D'Andrea's Nathan the Wise,
a new adaptation of G.E. Lessing's classic play about religious tolerance, opened
to such critical acclaim that it was developed into a television production, which
aired on WETA, April 6 and April 7.
TFA has won 11 Helen Hayes Awards in the past, including the Charles MacArthur
Award for Outstanding New Play for The Sins of Sor Juana. The 1995 production
of Dream of a Common Language won Outstanding Resident Production, Outstanding
Supporting Actress, Outstanding Set Design, and Outstanding Costume Design.
|
