Cantata #40 Wins 1st Place Honors at 29th Fringe of Marin Awards Ceremony

With grateful thanks to Dr. Annette Lust, Artistic Director and Festival Coordinator, the Dominican University Community Players and Fringe of Marin just completed their 29th Anniversary Season.

Four special awards were announced at the beginning of the Awards Ceremony.  Nancy Benson and Velvet Harlow were given special awards for last minute substitution for an actress who became ill and Jessica Windberg and Mark Gutierrez were given special awards as Production Assistants.  

Bay Area Theatre Critic's Awards for Best Play, Director and Actors were just announced Sunday, April 29 at Meadowlands Assembly Hall at Dominican University.  

The first Critic's Circle Award was for Best Play. The pride of 1st Place went to Cantata #40 by Linda Ayres-Frederick.  2nd Place honors went to The Gatekeeper by Patricia L. Marin.  Getting the Message by Rod McFadden won 3rd Place. There was a tie for 4th Place between Noah, The Play by Charlie Lerrigo and Wallis & Finnie in Cloud Cuckooland by Gaetana Caldwell-Smith.  5th Place went to All Gone-A Comedy Sketch by Pamela Rand and 6th Place went to There Are No Elephants at Costco (Yes there are!) by Michael Ferguson.  There was a 7th Place tie between Point of View by Suzanne Birrell and How the Onion was Nearly Scorched by Annette Lust.  

Next up were Awards for Best Director. Suzanne Lorraine won 1st Place for The Gatekeeper. 2nd Place honors went to Jim Colgan for A Chance Encounter.  There was a 3 way tie for 3rd Place between Suzanne Birrell for Point of View and How the Onion was Nearly Scorched; Charlie Lerrigo for Noah, The Play; and Pamela Rand for All Gone-A Comedy Sketch.  There was also a tie for 4th Place between Eileen Tull for Wallis & Finnie in Cloud Cuckooland and Michael Ferguson for There Are No Elephants at Costco (Yes there are!) Finally, 5th Place honors went to Linda Ayres-Frederick for Cantata #40.  

There was a tie for 1st Place for Best Actor between Ken Sollazzo in The Gatekeeper and Byron Lambie for Noah, The Play.  There was also a tie for 2nd Place between Rick Roitinger in Getting the Message and Burl Lampert in All Gone-A Comedy Sketch.  C. Conrad Cady won 3rd Place as Best Actor for Identity Theft. 4th Place honors went to Steve North in Wallis & Finnie in Cloud Cuckooland and 5th Place for Best Actor went to Bill Chessman III in There Are No Elephants at Costco (Yes there are!)  

The last of the Critic's Circle awards went to Best Actress won by Pamela Rand in All Gone-A Comedy Sketch.  Miyoko Schinner won 2nd Place in Noah, The Play.  3rd Place honors went to Christina Melochik in Getting the Message.  Crystal Nezgoda, who was in three plays won 4th Place for How the Onion was Nearly Scorched, A Chance Encounter and Point of View.  Trungta (Kae) Kositchaimongkol won 5th Place for How the Onion was Nearly Scorched and Annette Oliveira won 6th Place for Wallis & Finnie in Cloud Cuckooland.  Finally, there was a tie for 7th Place for Best Actress between Velvet Harlow in There Are No Elephants at Costco (Yes there are!) and Lynda Sheridan in Noah, The Play.  

For the 10th consecutive time, the Audience Awards took place. Here are the results.  The Gatekeeper by Patricia Marin won 1st Place. There was a tie for 2nd Place between A Chance Encounter by David Hirzel and MONOLOGUES: Three Old Ladies Talk About Sex by Carol Sheldon.  Identity Theft won 3rd Place as Best Play.  There was a 4-way tie for 4th Place between Noah, The Play by Charlie Lerrigo, How the Onion was Nearly Scorched by Annette Lust, All Gone-A Comedy Sketch by Pamela Rand, Cantata #40 by Linda Ayres-Frederick and Hitting the High Notes by Valentina Osinski.  5th Place for Best Play went to Wallis & Finnie in Cloud Cuckooland by Gaetana Caldwell-Smith.  There was a tie for 6th Place between Dirty Questions by George Dykstra and Point of View by Suzanne Birrell.  Nominations for Best Play went to Melinda E. Lopez for Recipe for Life, Michael Ferguson for There Are No Elephants at Costco (Yes there are!) and Getting the Message by Rod McFadden.  

Suzanne Lorraine won again the award for Best Director with The Gatekeeper.  Pamela Rand won 2nd Place for All Gone-A Comedy Sketch. There was a tie for 3rd Place between Charlie Lerrigo for Noah, The Play and Lauren Lundgren for Hitting the High Notes.  There was a 3-way tie for 4th Place for Best Director between Eileen Tull for Wallis & Finnie in Cloud Cuckooland, George Dykstra for Dirty Questions and Linda Ayres-Frederick for Cantata #40.  Michael Ferguson won 5th Place for There Are No Elephants at Costco (Yes there are!)  Nominations for Best Director went to Suzanne Birrell for Point of View, Melinda E. Lopez for Recipe for Life, Pamela Rand for MONOLOGUES: Three Old Ladies Talk About Sex and Jim Colgan for A Chance Encounter.  

Ken Sollazzo again won the Audience Award for Best Actor in The Gatekeeper.  C. Conrad Cady won 2nd Place as Best Actor in Identity Theft and A Chance Encounter  Byron Lambie won 3rd Place for Noah, The Play. Steve North came in 4th for Wallis & Finnie in Cloud Cuckooland.  5th Place went to Harold Delinsky for Dirty Questions. Burl Lampert won 6th Place for All Gone-A Comedy Sketch and Bill Chessman III won 8th Place as the Elephant in There Are No Elephants at Costco (Yes there are!)   Nominations for Best Actor went to David Moltzen for Recipe for Life and Jim Colgan for Identity Theft.  

Terri Barker won 1st Place as Best Actress for The Gatekeeper. Carol Sheldon won 2nd Place as Best Actress for  MONOLOGUES: Three Old Ladies Talk About Sex.  3rd Place went to Crystal Nezgoda for three plays--A Chance Encounter, Point of View and How the Onion was Nearly Scorched.  Lauren Arrow won 4th Place for two plays-Point of View and How the Onion was Nearly Scorched.  Valentina Osinski came in 5th Place for her one-woman show, Hitting the High Notes.  Flora Lynn Isaacson came in 6th Place for Dirty Questions.  Miyoko Schinner won 7th Place for Noah, The Play. There was a tie for 8th Place between Paula Suyehiro for All Gone-A Comedy Sketch and Linda Ayres-Frederick for Cantata #40.  Lynda Sheridan won 9th Place for Noah, The Play.  Nominations for Best Actress went to Trungta (Kae) Kositchaimongkol for Point of View and How the Onion was Nearly Scorched, Velvet Harlow for  There Are No Elephants at Costco (Yes there are!), Maureen Coyne for There Are No Elephants at Costco (Yes there are!), Melinda E. Lopez for Recipe for Life, Anne Collins for Identity Theft and Annette Oliveira for Wallis & Finnie in Cloud Cuckooland.  

Bravo to Dr. Annette Lust for maintaining the Fringe of Marin for 29 seasons.

Flora Lynn Isaacson