2011 Rogue's Gallery, Part 6

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Supporting Actor (Drama)

Alan Madlane, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Matrix Theatre
•Alex D. Hill, Mercury Fur, Who Wants Cake? Theatre
•Dan Jaroslaw, Yankee Tavern, Breathe Art Theatre Project
•Joe Plambeck, Love! Valour! Compassion!, Who Wants Cake? Theatre
•John Seibert, Next Fall, Performance Network Theatre

Hill’s team-player street urchin developed glacially into a beloved sacrificial lamb. At first gruff just a classic disapproving dad, Seibert stoically earned every molecule of his inconsolable grief. Jaroslaw’s matter-of-fact burning paranoia enlivened a mundane environment and helped the story slide into a conspiracy thriller. Instantly lovable and fiercely passionate, Plambeck turned a charmingly one-track mind into an asset. Ultimately, though, Madlane edges ahead of the pack with his blustery patriarch, electrifying a wrenching act of inquisition.

Supporting Actress (Drama)

Sandra Birch, Oedipus, Williamston Theatre
•Nancy Kammer, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Matrix Theatre
•Angela King, A Lesson Before Dying, Detroit Repertory Theatre
•Carollette Phillips, Richard III, Hilberry Theatre
•Caroline L. Price, New Jerusalem…, Jewish Ensemble Theatre

Phillips gave a masterful study of a woman cornered, telegraphing her helpless lack of agency in marrying a reviled enemy. The deliciously caustic Price domineered the room, reveling in pettiness until her judgment was believably swayed. Tragic Kammer refused to acknowledge her family’s contentious rifts, nursing the pitiable conviction that she could love enough for everyone. King’s steadfast wisdom guided the protagonist to choose reason and duty, without crossing over into sanctimony. Yet Birch takes the win for a pair of incredible characters: the defensively uneasy oracle, and the protective and desperate wife/mother of Oedipus.

Lead Actor (Drama)

Andrew Huff, Next Fall, Performance Network Theatre
•Joe Bailey, Shining City, Who Wants Cake? Theatre
•Julian Gant, Blue Door, Williamston Theatre
•Harold Hogan, A Lesson Before Dying, Detroit Repertory Theatre
•Chris Korte, True West, The Abreact

Reluctant, obligation-bound Hogan demonstrated the struggles of a man strong-armed into doing the right thing, however taxing. Bailey used the absence of movement to focus on expertly honed delivery in long, eerie therapy monologues. Switching out a handful of characters remembered and imagined, Gant blasted energy all over the stage, a relentless internal interrogation. Korte’s obedient complacency was a staging ground for opposing factors of duty and adventure to wage internal war. Still, Huff takes it for developing a quirky, snarky character entirely able to tackle his gaspingly fresh emotional torment.

Lead Actress (Drama)

Lisa Lauren Smith, Looking for the Pony, Detroit Repertory Theatre
•Linda Rabin Hammell, Seascape, Blackbird Theatre
•Kelly Komlen, A Strange Disappearance of Bees, Detroit Repertory Theatre
•Rhiannon Ragland, Consider the Oyster, Purple Rose Theatre Co.
•Jamie Weeder, Cloud Tectonics, The New Theatre Project

Time-defying Weeder stayed naive even as the character grew world-weary, sometimes lamenting and other times acceding to her odd reality. Ragland, trapped literally in the wrong body, tackled frustrations and discoveries both slapstick and real. Komlen’s navigation of her small-town life turned on its head agreeably took its hardships and mistakes in stride. Drinking in her surroundings and reveling in the possibilities therein, Hammell made a case for herself as ambassador for the human race. The win goes to indomitable Smith for her cancer-patient character who staunchly resisted being reduced to her disease — or her fight against it.

Best Drama

Mercury Fur, Who Wants Cake? Theatre (director Joe Plambeck)
•Equus, Blackbird Theatre (director Sarah Lucas)
•Proof, Tipping Point Theatre (director Suzi Regan)
•Sonia Flew, Jewish Ensemble Theatre and Performance Network Theatre (director David Wolber)
•True West, The Abreact (director Charles Reynolds)

Sonia Flew examined its central issues from all angles, layering stories just as compelling on the main plot as though it were child’s play. True West brought its themes of bridges burned up close, but the physical destruction never topped the scorched-earth conflict of its core duo. Dubious questions of legacy and fate were endemic to the intriguing Proof, but its emotional appeal was rooted in damaged and fledgling relationships. Equus infused a long script with persistent tension, dragging out the imminently complex why of a known what and how. But Mercury Fur gained the edge in attention to tone: the same care taken to make the viewer like its characters deepened the smack of its depraved and terrifying climax.