The Finger Wins 1st Place Honors at 28th Fringe of Marin Award Ceremony
With grateful thanks to Dr. Annette Lust, Artistic Director and Festival Coordinator, the Dominican University Community Players and the Fringe of Marin just celebrated their 28th anniversary season.
Bay Area Theatre Critic's Awards for Best Play, Director and Actors were announced Sunday, November 20 at Meadowlands Assembly Hall at Dominican University.
The first awards presented were for Best Play. The pride of 1st Place went to The Finger by Kenneth J. Nugent. There was a 2nd Place tie between Who Is Who? by Bill Chessman and Lovebirds by Rod McFadden. 3rd Place honors went to The Psychic by Joseph J. O'Loughlin. There was a 4th Place tie between Stay with Me by Justine Kaltenbach and A [Tail] Tale of Two Dogs by Steve North.
Next up were the awards for Best Director. Bill Chessman won 1st Place for Who is Who? There was a 2nd Place tie between Tim Giugni for The Finger and Carol Eggers for Lovebirds. Tracy Ward won 3rd Place for Stay with Me and Suzanne Birrell won 4th Place for Saturday In the Park with Vic. Nominations for Best Director went to Crystal Nezgoda for Louisville and Michael Belitsos for Why We Travel; A Magical Mystery Tour.
Rick Roitinger won 1st Place as Best Actor for Louisville, The Psychic, Lovebirds and The Finger. 2nd Place honors went to C. Conrad Cady for Who Is Who?, Louisville and Can One Make Love Wrapped Up In the French Flag? Lonnie Haley won 3rd Place for Stay with Me and Burt Lampert won 4th Place honors for No Kidding, the Meaning of Life! Special nominations went to Tyler Costin for Stay with Me and Keshuv Prasad for No Kidding, the Meaning of Life!
The last of the Critic's Awards were for Best Actress. Claudia Rosa won 1st Place for Lovebirds and The Finger. Diane Rodigues won 2nd Place for It Don't Have to Hurt. 3rd Place honors went to Maureen Coyne for Waiting to Go and there was a tie for 4th Place between Patricia Inabnet for Who Is Who and Crystal Nezgoda for Can One Make Love Wrapped Up In the French Flag? For the 9th consecutive time, the Audience Awards took place. Here are the results. Stay with Me by Justine Kaltenbach won Best Play. No Kidding, the Meaning of Life! by George Dykstra won 2nd Place and Lovebirds by Rod McFadden came in 3rd Place. 4th Place honors went to It Don't Have to Hurt by Susan Little. 5th Place for Best Play went to The Finger by Kenneth J. Nugent. 6th Place went to Saturday In the Park with Vic by Suzanne Birrell, 7th Place to The Psychic by Joseph J. O'Loughlin. There was a tie for 8th Place between Louisville by Joe Amato and Waiting to Go by Michael Ferguson. There was also a 9th Place tie between Why We Travel: A Magical Mystery Tour by Michael Belitsos and Who Is Who? by Bill Chessman. There was another tie for 10th Place between A [Tail] Tale for of Two Dogs by Steve North and The Perfect Step by Melinda E. Lopez, David Moltzen and G. Randy Kasten. 11th Place went to Can One Make Love Wrapped Up In the French Flag?by Benoit Vitse.
Tracy Ward won 1st Place as Best Director for Stay with Me. Susan Little won 2nd Place honors for It Don't Have to Hurt. Suzanne Birrell, for Saturday In the Park with Vic and George Dykstra for No Kidding, the Meaning of Life tied for 3rd Place as Best Director. Carol Eggers won 4th Place as Best Director for Lovebirds. There was a 5th Place tie between Crystal Nezgoda for Louisville and Tim Giugni for The Finger. There was also a 6th Place tie between Michael Ferguson for Waiting to Go and Steve North for A [Tail] Tale of Two Dogs. There was a 3-way tie for 7th Place for Best Director between Bill Chessman for Who Is Who?, Jim Colgan for Can One Make Love Wrapped Up In the French Flag? and Melinda Lopez, David Moltzen and G. Randy Kasten for The Perfect Step. Michael Belitsos won 8th Place as Best Director for Why We Travel: A Magical Mystery Tour.
Rick Roitinger again won the Audience Award for Best Actor for Louisville, The Psychic, Lovebirds and The Finger. C. Conrad Cady won 2nd Place as Best Actor for Who Is Who?, Louisville and Can One Make Love Wrapped Up In the French Flag? There was a 3rd Place tie for Best Actor between Lonnie Haley for Stay with Me and Burl Lampert for No Kidding: the Meaning of Life! Tyler Costin won 4th Place as Best Actor for Stay with Me. 5th Place went to Tyler Hewitt for Saturday In the Park with Vic. There was 3-way tie for 6th Place for Best Actor between Gifford Teeple for The Perfect Step, David Moltzen for The Perfect Step and Jeffrey Orth for The Psychic. There was another 3-way tie for 7th Place between Michael Belitsos for Why We Travel: A Magical Mystery Tour; Alan Badger for Waiting to Go and Steve North for A [Tail] Tale of Two Dogs.
Diane Rodrigues won 1st Place as Best Actress for It Don't Have to Hurt. Claudia Rosa won 2nd Place for Lovebirds and the Finger; and Flora Lynn Isaacson came in 3rd Place as Best Actress for Saturday In the Park with Vic. Maureen Coyne won 4th Place for Saturday In the Park with Vic and Waiting to Go. There was a 5th Place tie for Best Actress between Crystal Nezgoda for Can One Make Love Wrapped Up In the French Flag? and Paula Suyehiro for The Perfect Step. There was also a 6th Place tie for Best Actress between Suzan Lorraine for Who Is Who and Judi Rich for The Perfect Step.
Bravo to Dr. Annette Lust for maintaining the Fringe of Marin for 28 seasons.
Flora Lynn Isaacson