Culture Junkie: On the ‘Circle Awards,’ and why prizes don’t matter (until they do)

Cinnabar and Petaluma artists nominated for upcoming Bay Area awards|

The Oscars are all over. So are the Grammys.

The Emmys and the Tonys won’t happen until this summer.

While the rest of the country suffers from a long fallow period between major awards shows, at least the Bay Area theater scene has the Circle Awards, scheduled to take place on Monday, March 25, in San Francisco. The “Circle Awards” is not really what they are called (officially), but there ARE those in the Bay Area theater community who use that term to identify the annual awards ceremony hosted by the San Francisco Bay Area Theater Critics Circle. For what it’s worth, there are others who use the term “The Batties,” but the nickname has yet to catch on in any measurable way.

This will be the 43rd consecutive year the awards have been presented by the Circle, once again throwing the big annual party at the historic Victoria Theater, the City’s oldest continuously operating theater facility. If past years are any measure, it will be a fun time, with hundreds of theater makers hobnobbing, eating and drinking, making connections, swapping cards and generally making merry.

And then, of course, a bunch of awards will be given.

Petaluma, I’m happy to report, will be represented in a number of ways.

Among the nominees are three from Cinnabar Theater’s September production of “Cabaret,” named in a number of categories: Best Choreography (Michella Snyder), Featured Actress in a Musical (Mary Gannon Graham) and Featured Actor in a Musical (Michael Van Why). Petaluma performer Madeleine Ashe, meanwhile, is a nominee for her work in two different shows. She’s named for her work in Novato Theater Company’s February 2018 production of “Death of a Salesman,” in the category of Principle Actress in a Play, and also for Spreckels Theatre Company’s March 2018 “By the Water,” nominated in the category of Featured Actress in a Play.

It should be noted, also, that Petaluma’s Carl Jordan was the director of both of those shows. And another Petaluma artist, actor Katie Kelley, was in “By the Water,” which was nominated for Outstanding Ensemble.

Though somewhat more distant a connection, I’m proud to add that actor Chris Schloemp, of Santa Rosa, was nominated in the category of Best Performance in a Solo Show, for his role in the one-actor-comedy-drama “Polar Bears,” which I wrote and directed, and which ran last December at San Rafael’s Belrose Theater and Santa Rosa’s Left Edge Theater.

Oh, right.

Also, as a longtime arts journalist and sometime Bay Area playwright, I’ve also been asked to serve as co-host of this year’s Circle Awards, officiating alongside the wonderful Daniela Innocenti Beem, last seen in Petaluma as Aldonza in Cinnabar’s 2017 production of “Man of La Mancha.”

She was nominated for that, by the way.

The annual event, honoring the work of just a fraction of the Bay Area’s hard-working theater artists, is always a good time to reflect on the huge number of theater companies that are constantly presenting work throughout the region. Sonoma County, for example, received a total of 32 nominations out of a grand total of nearly 300 nominations. The truth is, a lot of the best shows never even get seen by members of the Critics Circle, or at least, not by enough members to rack up nominations and awards. The sad truth is, while critics from Sonoma County will frequently drive to Marin or San Francisco to see and (possibly) vote on shows to the South of us, there are very few (and often no) critics from Marin or San Francisco who will make the journey North to see what Sonoma County has to offer.

And some of the Bay Area’s best theater companies - Sebastopol’s Main Stage West, North Santa Rosa’s Left Edge Theatre, Sonoma’s Sonoma Arts Live, Napa’s Lucky Penny Theater Company and our own Cinnabar Theater - often never get noticed for work that local audiences recognize as exceptional. As a 16-year veteran of the Critics Circle, and a founding member of Sonoma County’s Marquee Theater Journalists Awards, I’ve long believed that awards ceremonies are a fun, attention-grabbing way to call attention to the size, scope and general quality of a theater community.

But in terms of actually selecting the best plays, performances and directorial contributions, they often do, despite the best of intentions, fall short.

That said, in my opinion, though it’s unfortunate, failing to award the actual best shows of the year doesn’t really matter. Because awards for theater arts aren’t that important. After all, theater artists don’t do what they do in order to win awards.

They do it because they have a talent, and they need to express that.

If that talent, through the unwieldly machinations of some awards program large or small, somehow lands them a certificate or a trophy, well that’s “gravy.” And such things do sometimes call attention to a company or artist, and can lead to new opportunities, by getting them noticed out of big pack they’d previously been invisible in.

And that can matter.

So congratulations to Cinnabar, and Spreckels, and to Graham, Ashe, Van Why, Kelley and Schloemp. Here’s hoping they’ll get a chance to represent Petaluma’s incredibly rich theater community. And while I definitely hope that, as co-host of this year’s SFBATCC Awards, I will get to see some of them come up to claim a certificate - after all, I’ll have a great view of their smiling faces - I’m going to keep in mind the real reason for these kinds of events.

It’s to remind everyone that our theater artists - all of them - are worth celebrating, and to maybe encourage a whole lot of local theater supporters to take notice, remember how much fun an outing to the theater can be, and to check out what their favorite neighborhood theater companies have planned in the near future.

(Culture Junkie runs every-other-week. Feel free to share your thoughts with David at david.templeton@arguscourier.com)

UPDATED: Please read and follow our commenting policy:
  • This is a family newspaper, please use a kind and respectful tone.
  • No profanity, hate speech or personal attacks. No off-topic remarks.
  • No disinformation about current events.
  • We will remove any comments — or commenters — that do not follow this commenting policy.