Patio Dreams Wins 1st Place Honors at 27th Anniversary of Fringe of Marin Ceremony

With grateful thanks to Dr. Annette Lust, Artistic Director and Festival Coordinator, The Dominican University Community Players and Fringe of Marin just celebrated their 27th Anniversary Season.  Bay Area Theatre Critic's Circle Awards for Best Play, Best Director and Best Actors were announced Sunday, May 8, 2011 at Meadowlands Assembly Hall at Dominican University.

The first awards presented were for Best Play. The pride of 1st place went to "Patio Dreams" by Don Samson.  There was a tie for 2nd place between "Jesus, She Said," by Charley Lerrigo and "Juice; Scenes from a Life" by Charselle.  3rd place honors were a three-way tie between "Convention of Spies" by Bill Chessman, "The Girl on BART" by Linda Ayres-Frederick and Claudia V. Rosa, and "Stanislavski" by Kevin Brookes.  "Bindings" by Gaetana Caldwell-Smith won 4th place.  

Next were the awards for Best Director.  Kate Jopson won 1st place for "Jesus, She Said."  2nd place for Best Director went to Carol Eggers for "Patio Dreams."  Buzz Halsing and Emily Surface won 3rd place for "Stanislavski."  There was a four-way tie for 4th place between Linda Ayres-Frederick for "The Girl on BART," Steve North for "Candle Rose," Carol Sheldon for "The Taxpayer's Nightmare" and Charselle for "Juice." 

Claudia V. Rosa won 1st place honors for Best Actress for "Patio Dreams" and "The Girl on BART."  Charselle won 2nd place for "Juice." There was a tie for 3rd place between Suzanne Birrell for "Daniel" and Andy Major for "It's Very Crowded."  4th place honors went to Sarita Ocon for "Jesus, She Said."  

The last of the Critic's Circle Awards went to Best Actor which was won by Rick Roitinger for "Patio Dreams."  There was a tie for 2nd place between Professor Henry Shreibman for "A Taste of the Silent Art" and Tyler Hewitt for "Bindings."  Chris Morrell won 3rd place for Best Actor for "Jesus, She Said."  There was a tie for 4th place between Johnny DeBernard and Ron Dailey, both for "Stanislavski." 

The Critic's Circle also gave a Nomination Award to Byron Lambie for "Candle Rose."

For the 8th consecutive time, the People's Choice Awards took place which are the results of audience votes.  Here are those results.  The 1st place award for Best Play went to "Juice; Scenes from a Life" by Charselle.  2nd Place went to "Stanislavski" by Kevin Brookes and "Jesus, She Said" by Charley Lerrigo won 3rd place.   "Patio Dreams" by Don Samson took 4th place for Best Play. "The Taxpayer's Nightmare" by Carol Sheldon won 5th place.  "Jessica" by Joe Tomalin won 6th place and "Bindings" by Gaetana Caldwell-Smith took 7th place.  "Candle Rose" by David Hirzell won 8th place for Best Play and there was a tie for 9th place between "Convention of Spies" by Bill Chessman and "It's Very Crowded" by Suzanne Birrell.  "A Puppet Is Down" by Jeffrey Smith won 10th place and there was a tie for 11th place between "A Taste of the Silent Art" by Professor Henry Shreibman and "Daniel" by Bob Weiss.  

The 1st place People's Choice Award for Best Director was a tie between Carol Eggers for "Patio Dreams" and Carol Sheldon for "The Taxpayer's Nightmare." Buzz Halsing won 2nd place as Best Director for "Stanislavski" and 3rd place honors went to Kate Jopson for "Jesus, She Said."  4th place went to Joe Tomalin for "Jessica" and 5th place tied between Bill Chessman for "Convention of Spies" and Gaetana Caldwell-Smith for "Bindings."  6th place for Best Director was won by Steve North for "Candle Rose" and 7th place went to Crystal Nezgoda for "It's Very Crowded."  Suzan Lorraine won 8th place for "A Puppet is Down" and 9th place went to Emily Surface for "Stanislavski."  10th place was won by Linda Ayres-Frederick for "The Girl on BART" and 11th place went to Henry Shreibman for "A Taste of the Silent Art."

The People's Choice Award for Best Actress went to Charselle in "Juice; Scenes from a Life"  Claudia V. Rosa won 2nd place for "It's Very Crowded," "Bindings," "The Girl on BART" and "Patio Dreams."  3rd place honors for Best Actress went to Sarita Ocon for "Jesus, She Said" and Crystal Nezgoda won 4th place for "Jessica."  There was a tie for 5th place between Carolyn Grenier and Kathryn Daskal for "Jessica."  There was a 3-way tie for 6th place between Patricia Inabnet for "Convention of Spies," Andy Major for "It's Very Crowded" and Suzanne Birrell for "Daniel."  Victoria Williams won 7th place as Best Actress for "Stanislavski" and Stephanie Stratman took 8th place for "A Puppet Is Down."  There was a tie for 9th place between Patcharee Boyd for "Stanislavski" and Sarah Doherty for "Jessica."  

Last up for the People's Choice Awards was for Best Actor.  There was a tie for 1st place between C. Conrad Cady for "A Taxpayer's Nightmare" and "Convention of Spies" and Rick Roitinger for "Patio Dreams."  2nd place for Best Actor went to Tyler Hewitt for "Bindings" and 3rd place was won by Chris Morrell for "Jesus, She Said."  Ron Dailey won 4th place as Best Actor for "Stanislavski."  Henry Shreibman won 5th place for "A Taste of the Silent Art" and Johnny DeBernard won 6th place for "Stanislavski."  Charles Grant won 7th place for "Candle Rose."  There was a tie for 8th place Best Actor between John Vincent Burke for "Convention of Spies" and Byron Lambie for "Candle Rose."  9th place tied between Tom Dembski for "Stanislavski" and Charlie Guitron for "A Puppet Is Down."  There was a 4-way tie for 10th place between Javier Alarcon for "Stanislavski," Alan Jensen for "The Taxpayer's Nightmare," Steve North for "The Taxpayer's Nightmare" and Jim Colgan for "Convention of Spies."  

Bravo to Dr. Annette Lust for maintaining the Fringe of Marin for 27 seasons!

Flora Lynn Isaacson