CAROLINE, OR CHANGE's Greta Ogelsby and Theatre Latté Da's OLD WICKED SONGS honored with Ivey Awards

Posted on Sep 22, 2009 at 9:25 a.m. by LeeH

Excerpts from Graydon Royce's Star Tribune report on the Ivey Awards ...

Dudley Riggs (To Fool the Eye), whose name has become synonymous with improv comedy, was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at Monday night's Ivey Awards in Minneapolis. 

On Monday, three productions and eight theater artists also were honored during the Iveys show at the State Theatre. The annual event recognizes excellence in Twin Cities theater.

Tyrone & Ralph, Jeffrey Hatcher's (Ella, The Govenment Inspector) play about the two men who built the Guthrie Theater, won for its production at History Theatre in St. Paul. Youth Performance Company was recognized for its staging of the civil-rights drama Little Rock, 1957. Theatre Latté Da received notice for Old Wicked Songs, a powerful psychological portrait of a German Jewish music teacher. (Directed by Peter Rothstein, who helmed Private Lives and will stage the Guthrie's forthcoming M. Butterfly)

Five actors received Iveys: Greta Oglesby won for her portrayal of the title character in Caroline, or Change, the Tony Kushner-Jeanine Tesoro musical staged at the Guthrie Theater; Luverne Seifert (The Govenment Inspector, The Ugly One) was recognized for playing science-fiction author Philip K. Dick in The Transmigration of Philip Dick by Victoria Stewart and produced by Workhaus Theatre Collective; Christina Baldwin (The Great Gatsby, She Loves Me, A Christmas Carol, The Pirates of Penzance) and Jennifer Baldwin Peden (A Christmas Carol, The Pirates of Penzance) were honored for Sister Stories, a series of short musicals staged by Nautilus Music-Theater, and Sonja Parks received her Ivey for a solo role as a high-school teacher in Nilaja Sun's No Child, which was produced at Pillsbury House Theatre

Three other individual awards went to director Greg Banks for his Romeo and Juliet at Children's Theatre Company, sound designer Sean Healey for the Jungle Theater's production of Shipwrecked, and puppet designer Chris Griffith for his work in Herschel and the Hanukkah Goblins at Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company.

In addition to the Lifetime Achievement Award, the other standing category in the Iveys is Emerging Artist. Actor Emily Gunyou Halaas (Third) was honored Monday for her deeply dimensional portrayal of an activist in My Name is Rachel Corrie for Emigrant Theatre.

More than 2,000 people attended the ceremony Monday, hosted by actors Richard Ooms (Happy Days, A Christmas Carol, Peer Gynt) and Claudia Wilkens (Wintertime).