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Sound Design
Frannie Shepherd-Bates, La Ronde, The Abreact
•John Diorio, Equus, Blackbird Theatre
•Mike Duncan, Reunion: A Musical Epic in Miniature, Meadow Brook Theatre
•Will Myers, And the Creek Don't Rise, Williamston Theatre
•Jess Preville, Forever Plaid, The Encore Musical Theatre Co.
A multimedia musical means many irons in the fire, but Duncan never ruffled through polished singing, instrumentation, and recorded audio. Preville’s keen amplification and effects refined and enhanced the Plaids, but its subtlety made the men sound inherently flawless. Diorio tracked in eerie ambience, withholding conventional sounds to throw the viewer further off-kilter in an already disorienting production. Country-rock hybrids layered oil-and-water playfulness atop Myers’s battlefield and hospital auditory tableaux. The honor goes to Shepherd-Bates because her phonograph calliopes, and their deliberately inappropriate juxtaposition, make me giggle to this day.
Choreography (Dance)
Phil Simmons, The Drowsy Chaperone, Performance Network Theatre
•Barb Cullen, The Music Man, The Encore Musical Theatre Co.
•Jill Dion, Dance Xanax Dance, Planet Ant Theatre
•Jennifer George-Consiglio, Shout! The Mod Musical, Meadow Brook Theatre
•Ben Stange, The Dance of the Seven Veils, The New Theatre Project
Stange used ballet, ballroom, and yoga to cut to the core of three different women, whose comfort and faltering in their movements were as telling as their words. George-Consiglio made splashy stage pictures, but kept the proscribed movements and dance steps feeling carefree. Chic, 80s self-serious routines with a dash of interpretative flair were Dion’s hallmark. Cullen’s work was as effective at conducting traffic on a crowded stage as drawing out purely exuberant performances. But Simmons takes it with a throwback to musicals of old, with one glorious tap solo a highlight among several glorious production numbers.
Choreography (Movement or Fight)
Jennifer Graham, Equus, Blackbird Theatre
•Brian Carbine, Posing, The New Theatre Project
•Dave Early, Mercury Fur, Who Wants Cake? Theatre
•Michael Brian Ogden, Richard III, Hilberry Theatre
•Wayne David Parker, The Model Apartment, Jewish Ensemble Theatre
The discomfiting extremes of violence and restraint were testament to Parker’s ability to make his actors feel safe. Languid trips on hard drugs were made lyrical by Carbine, conveying the sensation of something both beautiful and uncontrollable. Early’s work was consistent with a devastating, unforgiving world, with blows to make the viewer wince. Ogden spread his climactic battle all over the Hilberry stage and house, highlighting skirmishes flowing into each other for an epic feel. Ultimately, the completeness of the actors’ transformation into magnificent and sometimes terrifying horses earned Graham the win.
Scenic Design (Proscenium Seating)
Harry Wetzel, A Strange Disappearance of Bees, Detroit Repertory Theatre
•Kevin Barron, April Foolery, Matrix Theatre
•Brian Kessler, Dracula, A Rock Opera, Meadow Brook Theatre
•Michael Wilkki, The Misanthrope, Hilberry Theatre
•Kevin Young, 'night, Mother, Breathe Art Theatre Project
Young used little to say much, broadcasting frightening permanence in the vanishing-point visage of a bedroom door. Barron designed night-and-day settings for a pair of one-act plays; even though I watched the set change, I couldn’t believe it. Wilkki’s painstakingly gilt and feathered parlor made the frivolity of Molière’s deliberately shallow social machinations feel right at home. The introduction of macabre elements by unseen hands effectively ramped up the creepy factor of Kessler’s revolving-door set changes. But Wetzel gets the nod for his detailed and realistic bakery setting; honeycomb floor tiles and other bee- and honey-inspired elements were clever without being cutesy.
Scenic Design (Surround Seating)
Keith Paul Medelis, Cloud Tectonics, The New Theatre Project
•Barton Bund, Dance Xanax Dance, Planet Ant Theatre
•Dennis Crawley, Consider the Oyster, Purple Rose Theatre Co.
•Kirk Domer, While We Were Bowling, Williamston Theatre
•Monika Essen, Proof, Tipping Point Theatre
Essen’s decrepit Chicago porch was a triumph of minutiae, from weathered wood to deteriorating brick to hoarder-style newspaper accumulation. Crawley’s playful man-cave had an agreeable thrown-together feel that fit the themes and the characters inhabiting the space. Bund’s screaming mixed-media design was terrifically busy and chaotically spread beyond the stage, but not so much as to overwhelm the senses. Domer took a bowling obsession to visually rich extremes and incredibly repurposed bowling-alley furniture for home use. Yet Medelis’s carefully curated white-on-white-on-white space, and the use of projected images it afforded, wins for its stunning and totally unexpected effect.