A year without equity 

Back in 1987, when we first began covering the Charlotte theater scene, I never imagined the sort of unfertilized wasteland that prevailed for much of last year. Maybe I should have.

After all, the merger/takeover mindset was already in place in the heart of Banktown when the Loaf opened its humble door on Cecil Street. Historical reverence has never been a reliable hedge against the onset of bulldozers in our fair Mecklenburg. Preservation? Never heard of it!

Nor do we readily replace lost artifacts or enterprises with institutions of equal value and worth. Scavenging and development are the fashion.

Ah, the irony. For on its path to regional and national prominence, Charlotte Repertory Theatre engorged Golden Circle Theatre and PlayWorks before succumbing to the hubris of beancounters who presumed they could operate the Rep better than its founder. The takeover artists were taken over.

When that happened, Charlotte's full-time professional Equity theatre became as expendable as any other banking asset -- if the numbers didn't tally right. Artistic vision? Those are luxuries for such teeming urban centers as Greensboro and Fort Mill.

Yes, while Booth Playhouse remained without a Regional Equity theater for the first full calendar year in its history, Triad Stage -- a company that had established its own theater in the heart of Greensboro with a $5 million capital campaign -- retired a debt of $900,000. That's about 50 percent higher than the debt that prompted Rep's cut-and-run club to declare the sky had fallen.

No hand-wringing accompanied the opening of a new theater for the "Broadway of Christian Entertainment" on Carowinds Boulevard last July 8. In fact, the size of the loan that NarroWay Productions took upon itself for its only truly begotten HQ was never a revelation in 2006.

It was only when NarroWay proclaimed that March 2007 was Miracle Month that the world learned there was this $632K debt that needed cleansing -- with a modest $32K goal for the monthlong effort. Guess there's still somebody who has faith in us when the red ink reaches $600K.

Building back the vacated Booth's equity hasn't become a priority at the Char-Meck Arts & Science Council, sad to say. Rep's 2005 demise can be said to have caught the ASC off-stride when it occurred during their annual fund drive. There was "a hole in the product line," ASC prez Lee Keesler admitted back then.

But no effort ensued from Charlotte's less-than-robust donor community to plug the hole up.

Surely, adjustments could have been made in midstream to redistribute funding earmarked for the Rep to other theatre companies. Didn't happen. Such adjustments should have been made last year. Didn't happen ... again.

So the percentage of ASC funding channeled toward adult theater, previously pitiful, is now downright embarrassing. And that hole is still there, leaking -- hemorrhaging -- some of the greatest theater professionals who have ever called Charlotte their home.

Fortunately, the Booth and the Center City scene haven't gone totally to seed. The N.C. Blumenthal Performing Arts Center continued its efforts, with impressive success, to bring the buzz back to the Booth. First they fired up the lights with Tony Award chanteuse Gretha Boston starring as Alberta Hunter in Cookin' at the Cookery. Then they overhauled the Booth's front orchestra, turning it into a sleek cabaret spot, and brought in a topnotch production of Shear Madness.

The comedy murder mystery, with a local-national mix of talent akin to the Rep's at its zenith, became the most crowd-pleasing homegrown theater production in Charlotte history. Before bowing out with a champagne toast to its cast on Dec. 31, Shear Madness logged a record-smashing 210 performances.

Other encouraging incursions were occurring on Tryon Street. Breaking away from SouthEnd, BareBones Theatre Group made the Duke Power Theatre its new home at Spirit Square. Having played an integral role in the City Stage Fringe Festival at the Duke during the previous two summers, BBTG was able to bring their old audience along with them. Mounting two of CL's top 10 shows of the year, including Best Comedy Five Women Wearing the Same Dress, dem Bones increased their attendance by 70 percent.

Collaborative Arts was even more of a grassroots phenomenon. Led by CL's Theatreperson of the Year, Elise Wilkinson, Collaborative lit up the Uptown with Shakespeare on The Green. There was a maypole merriment to their production of A Midsummer Night's Dream last spring. An amazing rally-round-the-cause collection of talent cemented its claim to our Theatre Event of the Year laurels.

Children's Theatre of Charlotte capped off their first season at ImaginOn with a superb Charlotte's Web and an awesome staging of The Shakespeare Stealer. Then they reprised their ultra-spectacular The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. With their link to Char-Meck Public Children's Library and their strong educational and teen programs, Children's Theatre is turning ImaginOn into synergy central on the local arts scene, particularly with the troubles yet to be solved at Spirit Square.

Artistic differences between BareBones and the PAC scuttled a third edition of City Stage at Spirit Square, but there was still plenty of theater electricity during the summer. CPCC Summer Theatre staged their first season at the stately Halton -- best sampled in The Wizard of Oz and CL's Best Musical, 42nd Street.

Meanwhile, BareBones eased on down the road to Theatre Charlotte and served up a wondrously varied slate of events called What the F#&%$TIVAL?! Golden oldies (The Last 5 Years), timely readings (Wendy Wasserstein), and effervescent fun (Attack of the 24-Hour Play Project) were all stirred into the stew. The spicy summertime flavoring at the Queen Road barn certainly helped soften the transition when Charlotte's venerable community theater introduced Stage 501 in the fall -- and such edgy fare as Yellowman and Waiting for Godot.

Opening its groovy doors to Pi Productions and Epic Arts Repertory, Actor's Theatre quietly played a significant role in cultivating fringe theater amid a hostile corporate/political environment. Artistically, they returned to the top of the heap with CL's pick for Best Drama, The Goat, and our Show of the Year, I Am My Own Wife.

So while professional theater in Charlotte continues to gasp for air -- losing many of the people and much of the funding that sustained it just two short years ago -- the quality endures, still worthy of exponentially larger support from a donor community way too proud of its generosity.

Now, without further ado, here are CL's 20th Annual Charlotte Theatre Awards:

THEATREPERSONS OF THE YEAR

Onstage or behind the scenes, Elise Wilkinson brought excellence to everything she touched -- if not infallible judgment. No, the Tavern Shakespeare at Ri-Ra's, soaked in suds and buried in noise, was not always as enjoyable as it was audacious. But the talent behind the guerilla daring began to emerge in a brilliantly modulated portrayal of the wronged wife in Orange Flower Water, BareBones opening salvo at Spirit Square. Now established in the local firmament, Wilkinson and her Collaborative Arts proceeded to engineer two of the year's pre-eminent happenings: the jubilant reinvention of The Green, our Theatre Event of the Year, and a wonderfully concepted and directed production of Bad Dates -- in a condo suite in the heart of Dilworth. Brava!

After grabbing our attention late in 2005 with his Charlotte debut in Bug at Actor's Theatre, Scott Ripley drifted off to the edge of our radar screen until late last summer when the visiting professor at Davidson College led a company of student actors on a trip of a lifetime. They performed 15 shows at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the world's most massive theater orgy. Closer to home, Ripley returned to Stonewall Street and starred in a one-man production of I Am My Own Wife that -- believe it or not -- eclipsed the Tony Award version I'd seen on Broadway. Ripley finished off the year with a fine directorial flourish, directing the revitalized revival of The Santaland Diaries. That fortified Ripley's creds, but when you're the show in CL's Show of the Year, you've already made a solid claim on our Theatreperson title.

DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR

Ditto for Dennis Delamar. If Ripley was leaving Jefferson Mays' celebrated My Own Wife performance in the dust, it was largely because Delamar was outdoing Broadway director Moisés Kaufman. Delamar was surely instrumental in Ripley's ability to understand the complexities of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf's outlaw life and character -- and effectively communicate them to us without sugarcoating. Delamar was equally deft in one of the most monumental, technically sophisticated productions of the year, The Wizard of Oz at Halton Theatre. Problems that plagued later CP efforts at Halton only served to underscore Delamar's mastery.

ACTRESS OF THE YEAR

The thousands who saw Zillah Glory as Barbara de Marco in Shear Madness no doubt have a good grasp of the vitality, allure, and quick-wittedness that drive up the voltage when she's onstage. But the full package was even more evident earlier in the year at Carolina Actors Studio Theatre when Glory was the pure luminescence at the heart of Generations Theatre Group's On the Verge. Those same qualities of energy and spontaneity abounded when she tackled Alexandra Cafuffle -- in a brainy Eric Overmyer script teeming with verbal minefields.

ACTOR OF THE YEAR

Billy Ensley takes the title for the second time on the strength of two polar-opposite musical exploits. First, he absolutely scorched the Halton stage with his portrayal of Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar. Then the victimizer turned victim as he gave us the wrongly convicted, pardoned, and ultimately lynched Leo Frank in CPCC Summer Theatre's production of Parade. Sadly, Ensley was victimized by the production itself, flimsily designed with a wayward sound system to match. His quiet dignity under these doubly trying circumstances was a marvel, helping to make the sorry evening bearable.

SHOW OF THE YEAR

The protagonist of I Am My Own Wife is essentially an obsessive collector of old Victrolas who manages to establish an enduring museum in Communist East Germany while presenting herself shamelessly to the world as a transvestite. We got abundant doses of Charlotte the charmer in the Broadway version. Fair enough, but the Actor's Theatre version peeped beneath the façade, offering us glimpses of the obsessiveness, the mania, and even the cold-bloodedness that enabled von Mahlsdorf to survive the Communists and the Nazis who preceded them. Not always a pretty picture.

COMPANY OF THE YEAR

Actor's Theatre of Charlotte takes the title for the fifth time in the past eight years. Hard to miss when you're producing the top two shows of the year and taking up some of the slack for the ASC and their chronic failure to respect theater professionals and nurture new companies. The familiar Stonewall Street location continues to be a vital incubator. Already in 2007, they have hosted the Coco Peru fundraiser for the new Queen City Theatre Company -- a sell-out, thank you -- as well as the press launch of Winthrop University's Create Carolina Festival. A set of "Homemade Pi" readings of new plays that Pi Productions is readying for take-off next month, and Epic Arts looms further down the runway with Goddess and the Magdalene in July. Toss in revivals of past faves like Santaland, Crowns and Hedwig on its calendar, and you realize that Actor's Theatre has created its own year-round buzz despite paltry support. Truly inspirational.

MUSICALS

Best Musical: 42nd Street -- CPCC Summer Theatre

Best Actress: Lisa Smith -- The Spitfire Grill (Percy Talbott)

Best Actor: Billy Ensley -- Jesus Christ Superstar (Judas)

Best Director: Dennis Delamar -- The Wizard of Oz

Best Conductor/Music Director: Drina Keen -- 42nd Street

Best Choreographer: Eddie Mabry -- 42nd Street

Best Supporting Actor: Stan Peal -- The Expanding Sky (Edwin Hubble, Others)

Best Supporting Actress: Janice Lorraine -- Cookin' at the Cookery (Young Alberta Hunter)

COMEDIES

Best Comedy: Five Women Wearing the Same Dress -- BareBones Theatre Group

Best Actress: Zillah Glory -- On the Verge (Alexandra Cafuffle)

Best Actor: Brian Lafontaine -- I Hate Hamlet (Andrew Rally); Tom Scott -- Rembrandt's Gift (Rembrandt Van Rijn)

Best Director: Anne Lambert -- Five Women Wearing the Same Dress

Best Supporting Actor: Mark Scarboro -- I Hate Hamlet (Gary)

Best Supporting Actress: Donna Scott -- Carrie Ann's Kiss (Jacklyn Dabadie)

Best Cameo Appearance, Female: Darlene Black -- Carrie Ann's Kiss (Michelle, Zarzuela)

DRAMAS

Best Drama: The Goat or Who is Sylvia? -- Actor's Theatre of Charlotte

Best Actress: Kim Cozort -- The Goat or Who is Sylvia? (Stevie)

Best Actor: Jerry Colbert -- The Goat or Who is Sylvia? (Martin)

Best Director: Alan Poindexter -- The Shakespeare Stealer

Best Supporting Actor: Scott Helm -- The Shakespeare Stealer (Dr. Bright, Thomas Pope)

Best Supporting Actress: Gina Stewart -- The Shakespeare Stealer (Libby, Queen Elizabeth)

Best Cameo Appearance, Male: Glenn T. Griffin -- Amadeus (Emperor Joseph II)

THEATERCRAFTS

Best Sound Designer: Michael R. Simmons and Natasha Parnian -- Rembrandt's Gift

Best Costume Designer: Suzy Hartness -- Amadeus

Best Lighting Designer: Fereshteh Rostampour -- Jesus Christ Superstar

Best Set Designer: Biff Edge -- I Hate Hamlet

Best Special Effects: ZFX -- The Wizard of Oz (Aerial/flying effects)

BEST ORIGINAL SHOW

Carrie Ann's Kiss by Tonya Shuffler

BEST ONE-PERSON SHOW

Scott Ripley in I Am My Own Wife

NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR

Laura Hix -- The Wizard of Oz (Dorothy Gale)

SPECIAL AWARD

Theatre Charlotte for Excellence in Programming (Stage 501) and Hospitality (What the F#&%$TIVAL?! and Carrie Ann's Kiss)

THEATRE EVENT OF THE YEAR

Shakespeare on The Green -- Collaborative Arts

SWEET 16 FOR 2006

1. I Am My Own Wife -- Actor's Theatre of Charlotte

2. The Goat or Who is Sylvia? -- Actor's Theatre of Charlotte

3. The Shakespeare Stealer -- Children's Theatre of Charlotte

4. Five Women Wearing the Same Dress -- BareBones Theatre Group

5. 42nd Street -- CPCC Summer Theatre

6. Cookin' at the Cookery -- Blumenthal Performing Arts Center

7. Orange Flower Water -- BareBones Theatre Group

8. Bad Dates -- Collaborative Arts

9. I Hate Hamlet -- Davidson Community Players

10. Carrie Ann's Kiss -- Civilized Films

11. The Wizard of Oz -- CPCC Summer Theatre

12. The Late Henry Moss -- Carolina Actors Studio Theatre

13. A Midsummer Night's Dream -- Collaborative Arts

14. On the Verge -- Generations Theatre

15. Charlotte's Web -- Children's Theatre of Charlotte

16. The Oldest Profession -- Actor's Theatre of Charlotte

DA BOMBS

1. Inherit the Wind -- CPCC Theatre

2. I Wish to Live -- Jai Lavette

3. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day -- Children's Theatre

4. The Eyes of God -- Pi Productions

5. To Kill a Mockingbird -- Theatre Charlotte

6. Musical Comedy Murders of 1940 -- CPCC Summer Theatre