2013 IRNE Award Nominations

Johanna Day in Good People. Photo: T. Charles Erickson

From the IRNE Awards website:

The Independent Reviewers of New England (IRNE) Awards were founded by Beverly Creasey of the Journal Newspapers and Larry Stark of the TheaterMirror in 1997. The IRNE Awards recognize the extraordinary wealth of talent in the Boston theatre community.

The IRNEs are one of the big Boston theatre awards every year, mostly because of the diversity involved: the range of artists that get nominated runs the entire gamut of the Boston theatre community, and everyone comes together for a celebration when the awards are announced, usually around late April at the Cyclorama at the BCA (this year's award night information is still TBA). It's a veritable Who's-Who of the Boston theatre community, celebrating every accomplishment from the smallest fringe and community theatre groups all the way up to touring productions at Broadway in Boston.

The IRNE Awards recognize all productions within the calendar year (so the entirety of 2012, for example, as opposed to one of our season, which typically run from September - June), and this year, the Huntington has received a whopping 35 nominations, which is more than any other company in Boston!




Please excuse us for a moment while we do a little dance.

Joniece Abbott-Pratt, Yvette Freeman, and Corey Allen in
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. Photo: T. Charles Erickson.

Okay. Now that that's done, here's how the nominations break down:

• Best Supporting Actor, G. Valmont Thomas ("Cutler")
• Best Costume Design, Clint Ramos
• Best Actress, Yvette Freeman ("Ma Rainey")
• Best Actor, Jason Bowen ("Levee")
• Best Director - Drama, Liesl Tommy
• Best Production• Best Ensemble

• Best Director - Drama, Melia Bensussen
• Best Supporting Actress, Shalita Grant ("Nessa Charles")
• Best Set Design, James Noone
• Best Supporting Actor, Victor Williams ("Rex")
• Best Actress, Nikkole Salter ("Lucy")
• Best Production
• Best New Play

• Best Set Design, Allen Moyer
• Best Lighting Design, Philip Rosenberg
• Best Supporting Actor, Jeremy Webb ("Victor")
• Best Actress, Bianca Amato ("Amanda")
• Best Actor, James Waterston ("Elyot")
• Best Director - Drama, Maria Aitken
• Best Production

• Best Set Design, Alexander Dodge
• Best Costume Design, Ilona Somogyi
• Best Supporting Actress, Karen MacDonald ("Jean")
• Best Supporting Actress, Nancy E. Carroll ("Dottie")
• Best Actress, Johanna Day ("Margie")
• Best Director - Drama, Kate Whoriskey
• Best Production

• Best Supporting Actress, Adriane Lenox ("Tracy")

• Best Supporting Actor, Nael Nacer ("Simon Stinson")
• Best Actress, Therese Plaehn ("Emily Webb")
• Best Actor, David Cromer ("Stage Manager")
• Best Director - Drama, David Cromer
• Best Production
• Best Ensemble

Bianca Amato & James Webb in Private Lives. Photo: Paul Marotta

As you can see, it would be impossible for us to actually win all 35 awards, as we sometimes have multiple nominees within the same category (we're guaranteed to win 'Best Supporting Actress', it just depends which Best Supporting Actress gets it). But, I suppose there are worse problems to have. Additionally, there are several members of our family with nominations for productions outside of the Huntington, including Danny Bryck (Actor / former Education Professional Intern) for No Room For Wishing at Company One, Melinda Lopez (Actress / Playwright-In-Residence) for The Motherf**ker With The Hat at SpeakEasy Stage, and Bad Habit Productions (featuring staff members Daniel Morris, Meg O'Brien, Derek Fraser, and other) for Gross Indecency. Plus many more important, talented people that I'm sure I missed. Congratulations to all of the nominees, and we're looking forward to the excitement of the awards night!