2010
2012
Production and Director
The Best Production award for 2011 goes to a brilliant Twelfth Night at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario, a musically lush take on the separated twins comedy with inspired on-stage musicianship ranging from folk ballads to Beatles-style rock-n-roll to heavy modern grunge. Honorable mention to a charmingly exuberant frat-boy Love's Labour's Lost at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
The Best Director award for 2011 goes to Des McAnuff for the Stratford Shakespeare Festival's Twelfth Night, a beautifully-mounted musical, a clever and expertly timed comedy, and an elegant reflection on vanity and love, all interwoven by McAnuff into one memorable production. Honorable mention to Shana Cooper for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's Love's Labour's Lost, a buddy-movie version that features an impromptu rock video and a cream-pie fight ... in the same scene.
Performance
The Best Actress award for 2011 goes to Seana McKenna in the title role of Richard III at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, a stunning insight into a sexually ambiguous villain, creepy and evil and deliciously entertaining.
The Best Actor award for 2011 goes to F. Murray Abraham as Shylock in a touring production of The Merchant of Venice produced by the Theatre for a New Audience. Abraham's memorable performance elevated the entire production, by turns angry and bitter, then wounded and morose, always fascinating to behold.
In an extremely close race for the Best Supporting Actor award for 2011, the award goes to Danforth Comins as a heroic Mark Antony in Julius Caesar at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Comins' action-star Antony was confident and eloquent, expertly rallying the rabble against Brutus and the assassins. Honorable mention to Ben Carlson as Feste, a delightfully rocking composite of the Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia with a 1990s-era Seattle grunge star, in Twelfth Night at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival.
The Best Supporting Actress award for 2011 goes to Claire Lautier as the vengeful but sexy Tamora in Titus Andronicus at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, the driving force in a twisting and turning tale of revenge. Honorable mention to Melissa Graves for her tragically-accused Hermione in The Winter's Tale at the Illinois Shakespeare Festival.
Technicals
The Best Scenic Design award for 2011 goes to Debra Hanson for her glittering blue-and-purple stage and enormous broken vanity mirror that framed the Stratford Shakespeare Festival's Twelfth Night.
The Best Costume Design award for 2011 goes to Mara Blumenfeld for the elegant post- Revolutionary War costumes in Chicago Shakespeare Theater's As You Like It.
The Best Lighting Design award for 2011 goes to Kevin Fraser for the ghostly and ethereal effects that enhanced Richard III at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival.
The Best Sound and Music Design award for 2011 goes to Susie Garza for the superb all-female chorus - guitar, saxophone, trumpet, bass, fiddles, and piano - in Measure for Measure at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland.