The 2010 Artie Award Winners

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Artvoice Weekly Edition » Issue v9n23 (06/09/2010) » Theater

The 2010 Artie Award Winners

by Anthony Chase

Arties 2010

With approximately 500 people present, the 20th annual Artie Awards ceremonies at the Town Ballroom on Monday night, June 7, were the most highly attended in the history of the event. Funds raised for Benedict House are still being counted but seem likely to have topped $10,000.

For me, the Artie night is the night of a thousand thank yous!

Many thanks to Deb Ellis, Rose Mattrey, Amanda Ferreira and the rest of the Artvoice staff for doing all the behind-the-scenes work to get the show up, as well as to hosts Lisa Ludwig, Norm Sham, and Doug Weyand (who also rounded up headshots of the nominees); to musical director Michael Hake; and to Peggy Farrell (who performed for the 20th time) and Mike T. Jones. Thanks to Jimmy Janowski and his able assistant Noel O’Day for handling the red carpet. Thanks to the wonderfully friendly, patient, and professional staff at the Town Ballroom. Thanks to all the presenters and to the actors and musicians from nominated shows who performed. Thanks to our annual stage managers Bernadette O’Donahue and Karen Nemeth. Thanks as well to Greg Stuhr who helped write much of the parody material, on the phone with Norm from New York City.

Thanks to the Artie Committee for dedicating themselves to more than a hundred nights of theater-going each, and for helping with the logistics on Artie night; and to the participating theaters that sold red ribbons—when the totals are in, we’ll give a tally, but MusicalFare seems to have brought in over $5,000 alone! (A hint to the other theaters—when the actors themselves sell the red ribbons, everybody is glad to give a buck and the campaign goes like gangbusters!)

Much appreciation to Tom Dooney for taking on the truly thankless year-long task of collating thousands of entries about hundreds of performances for well over a hundred shows into the ballot.

In addition to the awardees mentioned below, and to the Career Achievement Award to Vincent O’Neill, Katharine Cornell awards were given to Jeffrey Rockwell for his performance in Two Pianos, Four Hands, at MusicalFare; to producer Albert Nocciolino “for ensuring the delivery of Broadway touring shows to Shea’s Performing Arts Center of increasingly quality with each passing season”; and to Broadway actress Mary Stout, “one of the great character actresses of our time for her memorable performance as ‘Yente the Matchmaker’ in the national touring production of Fiddler on the Roof at Shea’s Performing Arts Center.” Both Nocciolino and Miss Stout were present to receive their awards.

I was entirely surprised to be given an Artie trophy myself, presented by Saul Elkin and Lorna C. Hill, for my own dedication to the theater, and am proud that I did not turn to mush when they took me unaware. Thank you to whomever orchestrated that. Thanks as well to Artvoice publisher Jamie Moses for his vision and 20 years of friendship.

By all reports, it was a glorious evening! Congratulations to the nominees, to the winners, and to every theater practitioner in Buffalo for another year of excellence!