It's an Honor Just to Be . . .

Tonight was the New York Innovative Theater Awards "Nominee Announcement Party," held in the spacious basement (Demo Hall) of Our Lady of Pompeii, in Greenwich Village, near NYU and all the places I lived in and hung out at from 1986-1990 or so.

I once saw a Fringe play in this hall about the Bronte clan done by an L.A. theatre company, featuring my old friend David LM Mcintyre; they weren't too happy about their show being put in a church basement with no AC and no real tech facilities.

The area has changed a lot, but certain recession-related artifacts are beginning to result in a slight resurgence of seediness that seemed to have been wiped away in the last decade.

I was amused to see that the IFC Center movie theater is showing Blood Simple as a midnight show currently, as on my first solo trip into NYC in the Summer of 1985 I saw that very movie, still on its first run, in that same theatre when it was still The Waverly.

I had been asked to come by early to be interviewed by local cable TV (actually, one of the best interviews I've done in terms of saying what I wanted to say without tripping over my tongue, swearing, or omitting something important, and remembering to get a plug in for my upcoming shows, which won't air, of course, but still . . .), and then I had time to kill so I got a sandwich and hung out in the little park on Father Demo Square (once, for an NYU location sound recording assignment, I recorded the sound of this little park, noting that I believed that "Father Demo" was the patron saint of 4-track recording, appropriately for the Village; my teacher was vaguely amused by this).

Having left the space after the interview meant not being let back in until the doors opened for the event, which happened later than planned, but once in, the joint got hopping quickly.

I didn't realize these nominee parties were such a scene, but as Brick Grand Pooh-Bah Robert Honeywell and Erez Ziv of Horse Trade (both visible below at front) said, "It's like being at a prom with the people you WANT to hang out with!"

It's a little sparse still in the above shot because everyone was still at the rear of the house getting the free drinks (I had quite a bit of sangria, myself):

By the time I went back for the third sangria, the whole place had filled quite a bit, and it was hard to move around. Unlike my last time there, the hall was definitely air conditioned, but it either stopped working or was just not up to handling the number of bodies that crowded into the room:

Gyda Arber, her mother Wendy, Robert Honeywell, and I were the first people in the door when the place opened, so we commandeered the table most front and center as soon as we got in, where we got to hang out and somewhat hold court as friends from all across the Indie Theatre community came by and said hello (and we also kept going away, mingling with other groups and friends at their "courts," and getting more drinks ourselves).

We were there to represent The Brick en masse, and six of the seven staff members wound up being there (Berit decided to stay home and have an actual day off from rehearsal) -- and yes, we all knew we had some nominations coming up. Here's (a lousy photo of) Hope and Jeff of The Brick and Piper McKenzie, who were most directly responsible for me being there tonight, instead of at the rehearsal I decided to cancel:

The tables had nice arrangements of candy on them, and other neat things. I made the mistake of trying to eat a Tootsie Roll with my dental plate in. Ouch.

The executive directors of the NYIT Awards, Nick, Shay and James, came out and spoke:

And then announced the people who would be reading the nominations -- I knew two of them, Aaron Riccio, writer//critic, and Stephanie Cox-Williams, stage manager/propmaker/actress (at center):

Then the nominations were read -- it took almost 40 minutes; there are quite a few, and everyone nominated for "Best Ensemble Performance" was listed -- and there were some big ensembles in that category.

Several favorite groups or people were listed and I joined in the cheering.

And eventually, some of the Brick-related nominations came up. Here's the second:

And here's Ivanna (who I got to direct as Aunt Fanny in my Ambersons) with her nomination certificate for her performance in Piper McKenzie's The Granduncle Quadrilogy: Tales from the Land of Ice:

To my pleased surprise, Gyda's nomination for Suspicious Package was for "Outstanding Production of a Play"! For her interactive Zune Player piece. This is cool:

And Gyda was happy . . .

And, yes, there was indeed a definite reason I had decided to show up this evening rather than have a rehearsal for a show this evening, and why I was there early to be interviewed by the cable TV people . . .

And this actually means an awful lot to me . . .

Despite the fact that I've actually done more lighting design for theatre than I have anything else, including acting, I'm still quite surprised and delighted by this validation that - sometimes at least - I'm doing something right as an LD. If you gave me an actual budget and needed a plot drawn up, I'm not sure if I could actually do it (I last drew a proper light plot when I was 17, when it was all by hand on paper with drafting tools and the little plastic stencils I had - and still have - with all the different light shapes that are now outdated), but if you show me the room, the script, and tell me what you want and show me the pile of equipment I have to work with, I'll make it look as good as it can within the limitations there are.

You can see some images of Granduncle, with my lighting, in two sets of photos by Ken Stein HERE and HERE. My own photos of the production aren't as technically good as Ken's, and were done at a dress rehearsal with incomplete costuming, unfortunately, but the color palette in them is a little closer to how it actually read in performance, I think, and they can be seen HERE.

It really is an honor just to be nominated.