Saturday Night, June
16th, Little Theatre on the Bay held its 59th Annual Masque
Awards ceremony in the Salmon Room of the Mill Casino in North Bend.
The room was filled to its capacity. The Masque Awards were
held to celebrate the completion of the 2006--2007 Season.
The season featured three outstanding plays plus Little Ole Opry,
Country Christmas, and Little Ole Big Band.
Theresa Erskine, Vice
President of LTOB and Chairman of the Masque Awards Ceremonies began the
evening by explaining the LTOB in the schools to the audience.
Next, she introduced Connie Nipgen as the Mistress of Ceremonies.
Leading off the awards
was the presentation of the “Newcomer Award”, given to a first-time
actor or actress in an LTOB production, presented by Ken Croes.
Last year, Ken won the award for his portrayal as Salem Trumbull in
Paint Your Wagon. The winner of the award was Jeannie
Walsh who played Peep-Bo in The Mikado.
Next on the agenda,
Josie Reid was introduced to announce her Spring 2008 production, a
tribute to the late Patti West. The tribute will feature
outstanding moments from many of the great musicals Patti West directed
during her three decades at LTOB. For the evening, Luanne May did
a reprise of her portrayal of “Miss Adelaide” from the LTOB production
of Guys and Dolls, singing “Adelaide’s Lament”.
The cameo award was
presented by Theresa Erskine. Ed Martin won the award for his
outstanding characterization of “the Mikado” in The Mikado.
The third award, the
Juvenile Award, is presented annually to an actor under the age of 18.
The presenter this year was last year’s winner, Josh Jennings.
The winner was Mindy Freeman as The Angel Virtue and who was also the
assistant Choreographer of Anything Goes.
After the foregoing
awards, the program was turned over to Jim Thornton and Josie Morrison,
Directors of next winter’s Damn Yankees. They presented two
selected scenes from the upcoming production, featuring Theresa Erskine
as Lola and Byrell Justice as Mr. Applegate.
The Best Supporting
Actress was presented by George Nixon, last year’s winner from Paint
Your Wagon. Anna Weidemiller as “Bonnie” in Anything Goes
won this year’s award. Cassie Justice presented the Best
Supporting Actor Award. At last year's Masque Awards, Cassie
was Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Paint Your Wagon.
The winner this year was Tim Novotny who played Sir Evelyn Oakleigh, in
Anything Goes. Tim was not able to attend but did provide a
taped acceptance for the award.
The next item on the
agenda was comedy relief, provided by The Little Ole Opry Comedy team
featuring Dr. Jill Hanson, DVM, and Joe Stoffel, retired school teacher.
They provided a skit from the upcoming season of Little Ole Opry.
Jason Denton,
President of LTOB, then spoke for a few minutes about the LTOB Building
Fund, explaining to the audience the hopes of the theater’s Board of
Directors for future renovations and expansion to the Liberty Theater
Building. Current plans are for new construction to the south side
of the theater building, to provide for expanded lavatory space, a multi
purpose room and an accessible green room. The expansion would
also allow handicapped access to the balcony. Mr. Denton explained
that the theater hopes to raise between $350,000 and $500,000 from the
community and to raise the balance by grants from public foundations
serving the arts in Oregon.
Mr. Denton then
awarded the 2007 Little Theatre on the Bay Love Award. The Love
Award is recognition of service to LTOB by the Board of Directors, this
year being presented to Don Williston.
Steve Simpkins and the
Little Ole Big Band provided another entertainment, once again showing
LTOB’s broad spectrum of entertainments. The ensemble included not
only Mr. Simpkins on Trombone but also Trevor Edd on Drums, Dustin
Dillon and Judy Snyder playing Woodwinds, Steve Krajcir and his Trumpet,
Linda Sweatt on the Piano, and Ted Terry and his Tuba.
Jim Thornton, who is
the co-director of Damn Yankees, presented “The Ralph Moe Best
Director Award”. The award went to Byrell Justice for Anything
Goes.
Don Williston then
gave a brief explanation of Always, Patsy Cline, which will be
the first production of the new season, LTOB’s 60th season of
Community Theater in North Bend and Coos Bay. Sara Martin, who won the
2004 Bay Area Teen Idol contest, sang “Crazy” to the delight of the
audience. Mr. Williston announced that tryouts for Always, Patsy
Cline will be Monday and Tuesday, June 25 and June 26, at the theater,
2100 Sherman Avenue, in North Bend, beginning at 7 P.M.
Jeff Cragun, last
year's Best Actor for “Lenny” in Of Mice and Men, presented the
Best Actress Award to Josie Reid for her portrayal of “Katisha” in
The Mikado. Anna Weidemiller, last year’s Best Actress for
“Jennifer Rumson” in Paint Your Wagon presented the Best Actor
award to Alexander Rich as “Billy Crocker”, Anything Goes.
Josie Reid then
presented a song from the upcoming Little Ole Opry on the Bay.
Josie directed Little Ole Opry for 11 years and is returning to be its
director after a 14 year hiatus.
“The Ed Publicover
Technical Achievement” award was presented by Theresa Erskine.
Theresa announced that the Board of Directors did some unusual actions
with the award. The first part of the award went to Byrell
Justice, Jason Denton and Jeff Cragun for the set design and
construction for Anything Goes. The Board of Directors then
recognized Jeanne Woods for her outstanding work in costuming for the
season, including the spectacular costumes of
The Mikado and for Anything Goes. Not to be outdone,
The Board of Directors also recognized Gordon Freid for his outstanding
work with makeup throughout the season.
Luanne May then
presented the LTOB Man of the Year award to Don Williston. Ken
Erskine presented the LTOB Woman of the Year award to Jeanne Woods.
The final award of the evening was the Robert Yantis Community Service
Award, presented by Dorothea Yantis, widow of Robert Yantis and
Treasurer of LTOB. The award went to The Oregon Coast Lab Band in
recognition of its outstanding service to the youth of the area.
The evening concluded
with dancing until ?
