I was out of town in Louisville so unable to present but my fellow critics – Paul Batterson from Broadwayworld, Margaret Quamme and Michael Grossberg from the Columbus Dispatch, and Jay Weitz from Columbus Jewish News – and I agreed on two citations for 2019 work and a Roy Bowen Lifetime Achievement Award. Press release below:
The Central Ohio Theatre Critics Circle, representing critics who write in print and online for area publications, presented its 26th annual citations Sunday Feb. 16 at the Northland Performing Arts Center, as part of the Central Ohio Theatre Roundtable’s 20th annual Theater Awards Night.
Rather than focusing on competitive annual “best” categories, the circle annually honors local individuals or groups whose work “promotes the higher values of theater” or “expands the possibilities of theater.” Reflecting excellence in 2019, the critics circle approved three citations unanimously:
To Short North Stage and Columbus Children’s Theatre, for their fruitful first collaboration in 2019 on “West Side Story,” which intensified the heartbreaking tragedy with a greater focus on the reckless impulses and idealistic hopes of youth, reinforced by the youth-oriented casting of the rival street gangs.
To Red Herring Theatre Company, which has moved in 2020 to a new performing space, for taking risks and offering provocative works in its third and final year at the Franklinton Playhouse with an ambitious 10 productions of Broadway, off-Broadway and locally written works, including the impressive area premiere of the Tony-winning play “The Humans.”
A Roy Bowen Award for Lifetime Achievement to T.J. Gerckens, chair and Producing Artistic Director of Otterbein University’s theater and dance department, whose burnished lighting helped energize Otterbein’s fall revival of “Chicago,” for decades of outstanding work as an acclaimed lighting designer and local theater leader, including 17 years in production and executive management at CATCO; 26 years on the design team of the Tony-winning theater/opera director Mary Zimmerman; and for acclaimed and/or award-winning work on Broadway, at the Metropolitan Opera, in Australia, China and Europe.
Screen of Distance 