IT Awards Celebrates Outstanding Achievements in Off-off Broadway at the 2012 Ceremony

The New York Innovative Theatre Awards (the IT Awards), the organization dedicated to celebrating off-off-broadway, recently announced its 2012 recipients at the eighth Annual IT Awards Ceremony at The Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College located at 68th Street between Park and Lexington Avenues. The ceremony was directed by Tim Butterfield, artistic director of the Straphanger Collective and written by playwright Christopher Weikle.

Presenters for the evening included: Jill BC Du Boff (sound designer for theatre, radio, television, film, and special events), Joe Calarco (Shakespeare's R&J), Rick Lyon (puppeteer "Sesame Street", Big Blue House, Men in Black), Peter Michael Marino (cabaret-spoof hit Lance Jonathan: All About Me!), Timothy Mason (Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas!), Chris Muller (set designer, clients include Alvin Ailey, Juilliard Opera, and Atlantic Stage), and Carmelita Tropicana (a.k.a. Alina Troyano), among others.

The award for Outstanding Lighting Design went to David A. Sexton, The Spring Fling: My Best/Worst Date Ever, F*It Club. The nominees were: Richard Kent Green, Poe, Times Two, WorkShop Theater Company; Nick Francone, Miranda by MirandaCo; Ben Hagen and Joe Skowronski, LoveSick (or Things That Don't Happen), Project Y Theatre Company; Cat Tate Starmer, A Hard Wall at High Speed, Astoria Performing Arts Center; and Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew, Conni's Avant Garde Restaurant Returns in: The Mothership Landing, Conni's Avant Garde Restaurant in association with the Irondale Center.

The Outstanding Set Design award was given to Kevin Judge, LoveSick (or Things That Don't Happen), Project Y Theatre Company. The nominees were: Stephen K. Dobay, A Hard Wall at High Speed, Astoria Performing Arts Center; Sarah E. Martin and Sara Nelson, The Spring Fling: My Best/Worst Date Ever, F*It Club; Steve O'Shea, Up To You, TADA! Youth Theater; Sean Ryan, Clowns Full-Tilt: A Musing on Aesthetics, Clowns Ex Machina/La MaMa; and Andy Yanni, Felix and the Diligence, or a Play About Fishermen in the 1940's, Pipeline Theatre Company.

The award for Outstanding Sound Design went to Matt Schloss, Miranda, MirandaCo. The nominees were: Christopher Loar, The Complete and Condensed Stage Directions of Eugene O'Neill: Vol. 1, Early/Lost Plays, New York Neo-Futurists; Mark Parenti, The Spring Fling: My Best/Worst Date Ever, F*It Club; Nathan A. Roberts, A Hard Wall at High Speed, Astoria Performing Arts Center; Tim Schellenbaum, Urban Odyssey, LaMaMa Experimental Theater Club in association with LOCO7; and Martha Goode, Costa Rehab, Maieutic Theatre Works (MTWorks).

Joe Osheroff, for his Mask Design, Homunculus: Reloaded, Homunculus Mask, won the Outstanding Innovative Design award. The nominees were: Gyda Arber and Aaron Baker, Red Cloud Rising, The Fifth Wall in association with The Brick Theater; Maia Cruz Palileo, Penetrating the Space, Kim Katzberg; Elizabeth Barrett Groth and Amy Mathews, We in Silence Hear a Whisper, Red Fern Theatre Company; Federico Restrepo and Angela Sierra, Urban Odyssey, LaMaMa Experimental Theater Club in association with LOCO7; Suchan Vodoor, Endure: A Run Woman Show, Collision Productions.