17th Annual CL Charlotte Theatre Awards 

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The vision draws the people.

ACTOR OF THE YEAR
After winning our Newcomer of the Year title last year, Joseph Baez still remained largely unappreciated outside Charlotte's fringe theatre scene. But he gave two prodigious performances that should put him on everybody's radar. First he won Best Dramatic Actor honors against a strong field as brainy psychopath Nathan Leopold in Never the Sinner. Baez was so slimy and chilling opposite Bradley Moore's portrait of Richard Loeb that Off-Tryon Theatre Company logged its first win ever in the Best Drama category.

Then despite all kinds of technical problems plaguing the production -- and headliners who couldn't sing on-key -- Baez was simply sensational in The Rocky Horror Show. In the last innerVoices production to date, Baez breathed fresh life into the hooded narrator, the servile Riff Raff, and the other-worldly Leader of the Transylvanians. When he sang, the wicked arrogance of Nathan Leopold was reborn. Nobody else in the cast came close to his melodious command.

ACTRESS OF THE YEAR
OK, I'll admit that it's hard for me to warm up to everything Beth Pierce does onstage. Her unflagging intensity sometimes leads to excess -- or to a lack of subtle shading and modulation. But anytime she's there, it's hard to look anywhere else. Pierce always seems to be imploding or exploding, and I don't want to miss the fireworks.

Whether or not you agreed with her take on Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof or the latter-day Medea in Bash, you couldn't miss how deeply she was into these troubled, vulnerable women. Superficial acting isn't what Pierce is about.

More in tune with her temperament was Yitzhak, the cruelly rebuffed adulator of Hedwig in the scorching Actor's Theatre production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Yes, she glowed with seething resentment. And yes, she was way loud for the sound system at Duke Power Playhouse. But let's face it, rock & roll is home field for anger, excess, and ear-shattering decibels.

I still remember Pierce in her short skirt at the Hotel Project, bouncing up and down on the bed when "The Businessman and the Cheerleader" climaxed. A couple of times, she came perilously close to the ceiling of the Presidential Suite. That peril never affected the high spirits and jubilation of our pompom heroine. Pure Pierce.

SHOW OF THE YEAR
For rip-roaring, laugh-out-loud fun, Flaming Guns of the Purple Sage stands above anything seen on a Charlotte stage since Ruthless! invaded Pease Auditorium back in 1995 -- and that was a musical. You'd have to go back to Charlotte Rep's Breaking Legs of 1993 to find a comedy that scored as high on the laugh meter as this Actor's Theatre of Charlotte gem.

Outrageous characters blow in like a cyclone convention at Big 8's absurd Wyoming retreat for convalescing broncobusters. Shedevil, mighty fearsome in her own right, arrives on the lam from a gargantuan Ukrainian biker, 8's own Lucifer. By the time the smoke clears, we've seen ridiculous antics from all of the above, plus a merry lady meat-cutter, a virginal Cowboy of the Year, and a bumbling deputy.

This is the show whose crowning gross-out put me off my Cheerios while garnering a shovelful of award nominations. It was a catfight for Best Actress, but Pam Hunt-Spradley's Big 8 edged out Johanna Jowett's Shedevil. Jane Martin's frolicsome skewering of Americans' insatiable appetite for blood and guts came to Spirit Square at the same time our armies were steamrolling Iraq and bombing Baghdad -- without a clue about what we'd do next. Perfect comedy timing.

COMPANY OF THE YEAR
With two of last year's top three shows, there's no mystery why Actor's Theatre of Charlotte is our choice -- even in a transitional year when the company was repeatedly obliged to alter its schedule. Striking out on their own as they abandoned Spirit Square for a home of their own, ATC continued to overachieve on quality, relevance, and edgy audience appeal.

Keeping their eye on their artistic product, they successfully eased in Mark Scarboro to replace Billy Ensley in The Santaland Diaries when Ensley decided to concentrate his energies on Bat Boy. When it became evident that the company's new home wouldn't pass muster, they didn't rush the building to completion or alter their announced season.

Instead, they switched Santaland to Theatre Charlotte, avoided riling their subscribers, and walked off with another Loaf award for Best One-Person Show. I can think of at least one company that could learn from Actor's Theatre's example. After winning Company of the Year honors for the third time in the past five years -- and doing an admirable renovation at their new Stonewall Street location -- other Metrolina theater companies will certainly be following ATC's leadership.