Lansing area theater celebrates best works
After vanishing for 18-plus months, local theater groups made impressive comebacks.
Some returned to their old homes. Others needed new venues, new ideas, new audiences.
And now one of the biggest innovators – the Peppermint Creek Theatre Company – is a leader in this year’s Thespie awards.
Peppermint Creek only did one show with a ticket-buying audience. That was “Fun Home,” which promptly won Thespies for best musical and for its director, its stars and more.
In addition, the group won the Robert Busby Award – for overall contributions to local theater – for its unique season, which included free shows, a “book club” and beyond.
The Thespies are the Lansing State Journal’s annual awards for local theater. The 2020 awards were for a Covid-shortened season and there were none in 2021; the 2022 ones mark a resurgence.
Some theaters were able to get back to their old homes. That included:
●Williamston Theatre, with top-quality, professional theater in an intimate setting. It won for best play (“The Cake”), plus three acting awards and others for director, set, set-dressing and props.
● Riverwalk Theatre, an annual Thespies leader. Its “Doubt” was named best play (non-professional) and also won for its director and featured actress. Riverwalk’s “Revolutionist” won a supporting-actress award and “Art” got a special Thespie for Joe Clark’s dizzyingly demanding monologue.
● And the colleges. Lansing Community College won two awards for its ambitious “Cabaret” musical and two for its “Intimate Apparel” play. Michigan State University occasionally does familiar shows – “Pippin” won two Thespies – but leans toward ones with odd titles and catchy notions. This may be the only time a Thespie is awarded for merging five actors into one mastodon.
The awards committee had Kathy Booth, Cele Friestater, John Roche and Jane Zussman, with input from Tim Donal. Eligibility was for a year ending in late June. All shows – professional or not – are in the same category; if a professional wins, there can be a separate, non-professional award.
While some theater groups returned smoothly after the Covid shutdown, others faced complications:
● The Renegade Theatre Festival – a fresh (and free) summer pleasure since 2005 – was retired.
● Over the Ledge was homeless – but will have a temporary home this month. The Ledges Playhouse – the home of OTL (and, previously, BoarsHead Theater and others) didn’t pass inspection. Now the OTL shows are moving to Riverwalk’s Black Box Theatre. “Songs About Stuff: The Music of Wally Pleasant” will be July 7-17, with “The Realistic Joneses” July 28-31. Details are at overtheledge.org and riverwalktheatre.com; all local details are at greaterlansingtheatre.net.
●Ixion Theatre moved inside Lansing Mall. One show was in a too-spacious spot, the former Tequila Cowboy bar; the other, in a smaller setting, scored. “Let’s Eat” solicited entries nationwide and chose six meal-related one-act plays. It won Thespies for its ensemble cast and original script.
●Starlight Theatre moved around. “Harvey” (at Grand Ledge High) won Thespies for its set and set dressing. “West Side Story” (outdoors in downtown Lansing) and a concert version of “Guys and Dolls” (at First Christian Church) each came close to winning actor awards.
● And Peppermint Creek turned change into an adventure, entitling its season “Opening Up.”
It did “Fun Home” at Central United Methodist Church downtown … and did “All is Calm” – a musical about soldiers’ unplanned Christmas truce of 1914 – for free in four locations. It had a “theater book club” at four libraries ... a video interview with Lisa Kron, the Lansing native who co-created “Fun Home” … and even a plan that sent people a different, locally written piece each month about a pivotal, personal moment, plus a curated gift (a book, a paint set, even a plant) to commemorate it.
Peppermint Creek emerged with six Thespies for “Fun Home” and one for the “All is Calm” ensemble, plus the Busby award, as one strong sign of a theater season coming back.
The winners
Here’s an updated version of the Thespie list. I just sent the mainbar. It would also be possible for the list to be in agate, or for some of the categories – such as “For Either” and “Special Awards” -- to be in agate. This is an especially important year; the 2020 Thespies were for a season that ended early; there were no Thespies (and no shows) in 2021, so this is about the local-theater comeback that followed.
● BEST MUSICAL: “Fun Home,” Peppermint Creek Theatre Company
● BEST PLAY: “The Cake,” Williamston Theatre.
● BEST PLAY (non-professional): “Doubt,” Riverwalk Theatre.
● BEST ORIGINAL PLAY or MUSICAL: “Let’s Eat,” Ixion Ensemble, with one-acts by Adam Carlson, Monica Cross, Jeff Dunne, Arthur Jolly, Mark Levine and O.G. Ueberroth.
FOR MUSICALS
● DIRECTOR: Mary Job, “Fun Home,” Peppermint Creek.
● ACTRESS: Three people combining for one “Fun Home” character – Abigail Grill, Sally Hecksel and Lorena Krauss; Peppermint Creek. (Coming close was Meghan Malusek, “Cabaret,” Lansing Community College.)
● ACTOR: Matt Eldred, “Fun Home,” Peppermint Creek. (Coming close was Alex Cousins, “West Side Story,” Starlight Theatre.)
● SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Tianna Leon, “West Side Story,” Starlight.
● SUPPORTING ACTOR: Doak Bloss, “Cabaret,” LCC. (Coming close was Matt Eldred, “Guys and Dolls,” Starlight.)
● FEATURED ACTRESS: Kim Seabright Martin, “Pippin,” MSU Summer Circle Theatre.
● FEATURED ACTOR: Oscar Quiroz, “Pippin,” MSU Summer Circle.
●MUSIC DIRECTOR: Jeff English, “Cabaret,” LCC.
● CHOREOGRAPHY: Brad Willcuts, Sloan Lemberg and Jake Gerard Price, “Head Over Heels,” MSU.
● MUSIC ENSEMBLE: The “All is Calm” people, Peppermint Creek: Ian Broughton, Ben Cassidy, John Dillingham, Tim Gates, Benjamin Hall, Patrick Harney, Jeremy Kratky, Matthew Penniman, Nathan Tykocki and Alex Wassom.
FOR PLAYS
● DIRECTOR: Tony Caselli, “Tracy Jones,” Williamston.
● DIRECTOR (non-professional): Bob Robinson, “Doubt,” Riverwalk.
● ACTOR: “Kevin Burnham, “Lion in Winter,” Starlight.
● ACTRESS: Sarab Kamoo, “9 Parts of Desire,” Williamston.
● ACTRESS (non-professional): Anna Hill, “Intimate Apparel,” LCC.
● SUPPORTING ACTOR: Alex Leydenfrost, “The Cake,” Williamston.
● SUPPORTING ACTOR (non-professional): Christopher Eastland, “A Contemporary American’s Guide to a Successful Marriage, circa 1959,” MSU.
● SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Madelyn Porter, “Tracy Jones,” Williamston.
● SUPPORTING ACTRESS (non-professional): Erin Hoffman, “Revolutionists,” Riverwalk.
● FEATURED ACTOR: Zach Deande, “The One Act Play That Goes Wrong” MSU Summer Circle.
●FEATURED ACTRESS: Gay Oliver, “Doubt,” Riverwalk.
● ENSEMBLE: “Let’s Eat,” Ixion, with Jesse Frawley, Ben Guenther, Richard Kopitsch, Storm Kopitsch, Sarah Lynn, Holly Sleight-Engler, Jillian Tosolt and Kris Vitols.
FOR EITHER:
● COSTUMES: Zech Saenz, “A Contemporary American’s Guide to a Successful Marriage, circa 1959,” MSU.
● SET: Jennifer Maiseloff, “9 Parts of Desire,” Williamston.
● SET (non-professional): Jim Lorenz, Bob Gehris and Tom Ferris, “Harvey,” Starlight.
● SCENOGRAPHY: Kelley McNabb, “Fun Home,” Peppermint Creek.
● SET DRESSING: Michelle Raymond, “The Cake” and “Tracy Jones,” Williamston.
● SET DRESSING (non-professional): Susan DeRosa, “Harvey,” Starlight.
● PROPS: Michelle Raymond, “The Cake” and “Tracy Jones,” Williamston.
● PROPS (non-professional): Anna Szabo, “Intimate Apparel,” LCC.
● LIGHTING DESIGN: Nicklas Casella, “Head Over Heels” and “Wendy and the Neckbeards,” MSU.
●SOUND: Lucas Nunn, “Hit the Wall,” MSU.
● MEDIA: Quinn Legge, “Wendy and the Neckbeards,” MSU.
●FIGHT CHOREOGRAPHY: Rocio Mendez and Alexis Black, “Hit the Wall,” MSU.
SPECIAL AWARDS
● The Robert Busby Award is for great contributions to local theater. This year, it goes to Peppermint Creek, for unique steps bridging into a post-pandemic era. Its only two full productions, “Fun Home” and “All is Calm,” triumphed and – in a season entitled “Opening Up” -- it added other fresh projects, opening multiple doors of re-entry to community theater.
● Joe Clark, for his superb work in the imposing “Art” monologue, Riverwalk.
● Laura Croff, for her emotionally compelling song, late in “Fun Home,” Peppermint Creek.
● “The Impracticality of Modern Day Mastodons,” MSU, for an impressive accomplishment – having five actors merge into one mastodon.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Lansing area theater celebrates best works
