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Best androgynous turn

Brian Houtz in The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me

Even though Larry Kramer is a pugnacious sort who regularly vilifies newspaper editors and intimidates talk-show hosts, his brand of political crusading is ultimately a compassionate one. At least that's the effect his polemic had on actor Brian Houtz, who played all of the characters in the Theatre Group's production of The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me. Helped in no small measure by director Nicholas Sugar's astute guidance, Houtz performed David Drake's one-man show as if it were a forthright conversation with a good friend. He also became more androgynous as the show progressed, speaking for an entire generation of men and women who have never known a world without AIDS and are struggling, somehow, to claim their place in it. Which, all things considered, was the greatest tribute that Houtz and Sugar could pay to Kramer's persistent head-banging.

Best dysfunctional-family play

Pig

Like the rotting entrails of the butchered animal that someone dumps in the backyard, a Queens family's darkest secrets ooze with stultifying frankness in Pig. But while Tammy Ryan's unflinching drama shines a harsh light on domestic discord, Tracer Productions' close-quarters approach gave artful restraint to the sometimes-gruesome goings-on. That's mostly because Raymond Fernandez's stark setting transformed the now-defunct Shop Theatre into an urban pressure cooker brimming with fear, love and failure. And Christopher Leo's largely hands-off direction imbued the action with intensity without turning the play into a Chekhovian shouting match. Led by a swaggering James Ryan, who summoned an impressive range of emotions as the clan's embittered patriarch, the top-notch performers spoke to the power of parental caprice to make itself felt for generations.

Best dysfunctional-family play

Pig

Like the rotting entrails of the butchered animal that someone dumps in the backyard, a Queens family's darkest secrets ooze with stultifying frankness in Pig. But while Tammy Ryan's unflinching drama shines a harsh light on domestic discord, Tracer Productions' close-quarters approach gave artful restraint to the sometimes-gruesome goings-on. That's mostly because Raymond Fernandez's stark setting transformed the now-defunct Shop Theatre into an urban pressure cooker brimming with fear, love and failure. And Christopher Leo's largely hands-off direction imbued the action with intensity without turning the play into a Chekhovian shouting match. Led by a swaggering James Ryan, who summoned an impressive range of emotions as the clan's embittered patriarch, the top-notch performers spoke to the power of parental caprice to make itself felt for generations.

Best children's production

Babe, the Sheep-Pig

The thunderous applause that typically greets a successful Broadway opening could hardly compare to the joyful noise made by children clapping in anticipation of Babe, the Sheep-Pig. And once the Arvada Center's production began, the peals of delight that filled the auditorium served as further indicators that a well-mounted children's show can stimulate the imagination even better than the Great White Way's techno-musical creations. In addition to a bevy of performances that blended old-fashioned sentiment with off-the-wall wit, Jane Shafer's fanciful costumes, Gail Gober's rich lighting effects and Crow Productions' colorful pastel setting augmented David Wood's work. Nicely seasoned by director Christopher Willard's sure hand, the kindhearted effort made one wish for an even steadier diet of children's fare.

Best children's production

Babe, the Sheep-Pig

The thunderous applause that typically greets a successful Broadway opening could hardly compare to the joyful noise made by children clapping in anticipation of Babe, the Sheep-Pig. And once the Arvada Center's production began, the peals of delight that filled the auditorium served as further indicators that a well-mounted children's show can stimulate the imagination even better than the Great White Way's techno-musical creations. In addition to a bevy of performances that blended old-fashioned sentiment with off-the-wall wit, Jane Shafer's fanciful costumes, Gail Gober's rich lighting effects and Crow Productions' colorful pastel setting augmented David Wood's work. Nicely seasoned by director Christopher Willard's sure hand, the kindhearted effort made one wish for an even steadier diet of children's fare.

Best community-theater production

Of Mice and Men

The committee that awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize for literature cited John Steinbeck for his "sympathetic humor and sociological perception." While the Morrison Theatre Company's "Of Mice and Men" didn't always glisten with professional luster, director Alan Osburn nonetheless evoked Steinbeck's paean to companionship by encouraging portrayals that were as down-to-earth as a Frederic Remington painting. Thanks to the symbiotic bond that developed between Michael Wilson's George and Rick Bernstein's Lennie, the company's plainspoken ode to friendship resonated with two-fisted -- and quintessentially American -- candor.

Best community-theater production

Of Mice and Men

The committee that awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize for literature cited John Steinbeck for his "sympathetic humor and sociological perception." While the Morrison Theatre Company's "Of Mice and Men" didn't always glisten with professional luster, director Alan Osburn nonetheless evoked Steinbeck's paean to companionship by encouraging portrayals that were as down-to-earth as a Frederic Remington painting. Thanks to the symbiotic bond that developed between Michael Wilson's George and Rick Bernstein's Lennie, the company's plainspoken ode to friendship resonated with two-fisted -- and quintessentially American -- candor.

Best environmental/experimental production

Picasso at the Lapin Agile

Smaller in scope and more conversational in tone than most mainstage versions, the Avenue Theatre's production of Steve Martin's Picasso at the Lapin Agile was nearly as amusing and, at times, more affecting. More than anything else, though, director John Ashton's environmental show, which was presented in a vacant bar/restaurant space (the former Mike Berardi's), personalized the comedian/movie star's debate about art and science by eliminating most of the barriers that typically separate artist from audience. On the strength of Joan and Nick Cimyotte's handsome setting, Charles Dean Packard's moody lighting scheme and some clever special effects, the site-specific version hardly resembled an intellectual exercise. And even though they weren't Stoppardian ideologues, the performers' earthy portraits proved the pièce de résistance in Ashton's intimate, if not always immaculate, conception.

Best environmental/experimental production

Picasso at the Lapin Agile

Smaller in scope and more conversational in tone than most mainstage versions, the Avenue Theatre's production of Steve Martin's Picasso at the Lapin Agile was nearly as amusing and, at times, more affecting. More than anything else, though, director John Ashton's environmental show, which was presented in a vacant bar/restaurant space (the former Mike Berardi's), personalized the comedian/movie star's debate about art and science by eliminating most of the barriers that typically separate artist from audience. On the strength of Joan and Nick Cimyotte's handsome setting, Charles Dean Packard's moody lighting scheme and some clever special effects, the site-specific version hardly resembled an intellectual exercise. And even though they weren't Stoppardian ideologues, the performers' earthy portraits proved the pièce de résistance in Ashton's intimate, if not always immaculate, conception.

Best new play

Waiting to Be Invited

The sometimes bloody sit-ins that took place at "whites only" lunch counters throughout the South inspired dramatist S.M. Shephard-Massat to write Waiting to Be Invited, a tale of four unlikely heroes who put the Supreme Court's anti-segregationist rulings into practice. Largely conversational in tone, yet naggingly urgent in feel, the Denver Center Theatre Company's world-premiere production demonstrated that the everyday actions of ordinary folk are just as crucial to the fight for social justice as the vaunted declarations of philosophers, clerics and statesmen. And even though the play didn't culminate in a gripping, over-the-lunch-counter confrontation, Shephard-Massat emphatically made the point that standing up for equal rights means being willing to risk physical harm for the sake of mere belief. As DCTC patrons discovered nightly, that's an idea worth standing up for and cheering about.

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