LAGUNA PLAYHOUSE WINS FIVE NAACP THEATRE AWARDS!
Production of CONSTANT STAR receives more awards than any other production including Best Producer, Best Director of a Musical, Best Musical Director, Best Ensemble and Best Costumes!
February 21, 2006, Laguna Beach, CA -- The Laguna Playhouse has been honored by the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) with five NAACP Theatre Awards for the company’s much-acclaimed production of Constant Star - more than ANY other production - with wins for Best Producer (Laguna Playhouse), Best Director of a Musical (Tazewell Thompson), Best Ensemble Cast (Nadiyah S. Dorsey, Quanda Johnson, Tracey Conyer Lee, Laiona Michell, Gayle Turner), Best Music Director (Dianne Adams McDowell) and Best Costumes (Merrily Murray-Walsh). The awards were presented at a ceremony last night (February 20) at the DGA Theatre in West Hollywood.
“This is a truly wonderful and amazing acknowledgment of a marvelous theatre piece we were thrilled and proud to produce last season at The Laguna Playhouse. We thank the NAACP and the voters who came to Laguna Beach to see this show, and express our deepest gratitude to them on behalf of our board, subscribers and audiences,” comments Richard Stein, Executive Director of The Laguna Playhouse.
Constant Star received its West Coast Premiere at The Laguna Playhouse November 2-December 5, 2004. It is an extraordinary play with music conceived, written and directed by Tazewell Thompson, the newly appointed successor to Joanne Woodward as Artistic Director of the Westport Playhouse in Connecticut. In this unique theatrical piece of Americana, five multi-talented actresses take to the stage to portray the life and times of Ida B. Wells, a fearless turn of the 20th century civil rights activist and journalist who organized the first anti-lynching campaign in America. Twenty classic spirituals sung a cappella in five-part harmony are woven into the stirring story of Wells’ astonishing and brave life.
The NAACP Theatre Awards recognize distinction among theatre artists throughout Southern California in a number of artistic and technical categories. The theme for this year’s gala was “A Patchwork of Excellence in Black Theatre,” commemorating sixteen years of theatrical tradition.
The Beverly Hills/Hollywood NAACP founded the Theatre Awards as a means of commitment to the promotion of theatre in Southern California, providing acknowledgment and honor to those pioneers who laid the foundation, to those trailblazers who continue to recreate and invigorate theatre and those performers who bring theatre to life. The NAACP, organized in l904 to respond to racial discrimination and injustice, is known worldwide as an advocacy group for the civil rights of African Americans. The Beverly Hills/Hollywood NAACP has long supported the arts and their importance in addressing educational, economic development, and social issues.
Now playing at The Laguna Playhouse is the West Coast premiere production of THE SLEEPER, written by Catherine Butterfield and directed by Andrew Barnicle which continues at the Playhouse through Sunday, March 19.
For press information, contact David Elzer/DEMAND PR at 818/508-1754 or at ElzerD@aol.com.
