This year’s Barrymore Award nominations cite 41 productions

A musical from Norristown’s Theatre Horizon and a drama from South Philadelphia’s Theatre Exile — the stage companies that won the two top Barrymore Awards last year for excellence in Philadelphia theater — lead this year’s Barrymore nominations, along with two productions from Center City’s Arden Theatre Company. 

See all the nominees below.

In nominations announced by the umbrella group Theatre Philadelphia on Monday morning, 41 professional productions among 103 eligible for Barrymore Awards received at least one nod. Theatre Exile, a company that presents edgy work mostly from its Studio X on the corner of 13th and Reed Streets in South Philly, garnered the most nominations for a single production – 10, for a critically acclaimed staging of “The Invisible Hand” by the Pakistani-American theater artist Ayad Aktar. The drama, about an investment banker kidnapped by an Islamic group, was nominated for best overall production of a play – the award Exile won last year for its staging of “The Whale.”

Theatre Horizon, performing at a theater it built and opened three years ago in downtown Norristown, received eight Barrymore nominations for its electrifying production of “Black Nativity,” Langston Hughes’ recounting of the Christmas story in poetry and music through an African lens that ultimately transcends time and place. Those nominations include one for best overall production of a musical – the award Horizon won last year for its version of Stephen Sondheim’s “Into the Woods.”

Also leading the pack of most-nominated productions during the 2015/16 season that ended June 30 are two from Center City’s Arden Theatre Company. The Arden, winner of several top Barrymores in the awards’ 19-year history, received eight nominations for its elegant production of the musical “The Secret Garden” and another eight for the staging of a family musical, “The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales.” The Arden received the most nominations overall of any theater company this year – 24 – followed by 13 for Exile and 10 for Horizon. People’s Light in Malvern followed with nine nominations, and Philadelphia Theatre Company with eight.

Once again this year, two theater companies did not participate in the awards, which will be presented at the Merriam Theater on Oct. 24 and whose nominees were announced Monday at the Wilma Theater. Opting out of the awards are the Walnut Street Theatre – by far the largest in audience and budgets, and the nation’s oldest continuously operating theater – and Media Theatre, a producer of musicals in Delaware County.

Although their decisions not to participate skew the awards, the Barrymores continue to recognize a wealth of well-regarded work on stages throughout the region. The Philadelphia theater community’s growing influence in areas outside Center City is again evident in this year’s nominations, and not just from Horizon, Exile and People’s Light. Iron Age Theatre, also in Norristown, received four nominations for its work, and Quintessence (in Mount Airy), Passage (Trenton), the Bearded Ladies (many venues), Act II (Ambler), Eagle Theatre (a success story in Hammonton, N.J.), Delaware Theatre Company (Wilmington), and Bristol Riverside (Bristol) all received nods for productions.

Center City’s stage companies, large and small, were among those with nominated work – a given for companies that are often highly visible and popular. These include the Wilma, 11th Hour Theatre Company, Lantern Theater Company, Azuka, the Philadelphia Artists’ Collective, Ego Po and on N. Broad Street, New Freedom Theatre.

The professional theater scene downtown continues to change, but remains vibrant. After 11 seasons the small Flashpoint Theatre Company, which enjoyed a loyal following, bowed out this past season, and Philadelphia Shakespeare Theater announced a transition season. Its revived production of “Kill Will” in the upcoming Fringe Festival is its last for the year. But some newer companies continue to grow and be active – one of them, Orbiter 3, received seven Barrymore nominations this year, all for “A Knee That Can Bend,” involving an American student’s discovery of underground gay life in Senegal.

Two new theater spaces at the Drake Hotel, on Spruce Street between 15th and 16th Streets, opened this past season in a building effort led by InterAct Theatre, which left its space in the Adrienne on Sansom Street. (That building, with three stages, is now primarily booked with improve and comedy troupes.) Azuka, Simpatico and Inis Nua joined as resident partners in the new Drake Hotel spaces, as did PlayPenn, the region’s incubator of new plays.

In all, 25 theater companies are cited by Barrymore nominators this year – another sign of the breadth of stage work here. The down side, though, also is evident to artistic directors and general managers, who constantly wrestle with the challenges of attracting and keeping audiences and getting donors to commit and recommit. Budgets are often tenuous from production to production, particularly for mid-sized and small companies.

In addition to Exile’s “The Invisible Hand,” nominees for best production of a play include another by that play’s author, Ayad Aktar: “Disgraced,” produced by Philadelphia Theatre Company following a run of the play on Broadway. Other nominees include two from Inis Nua, the Center City theater company devoted to contemporary plays from or about Ireland and Britain. They are “The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning” and “Spine.” Also nominated in the top play-production category are “The Nether” (InterAct Theatre Company), “Stella and Lou” (People’s Light), and “Time Is on Our Side” (Simpatico Theatre Project).

Joining Horizon’s “Black Nativity” and Arden’s “Secret Garden” and “Stinky Cheese Man” as nominees for best musical production is 1812 Productions’ “I Will Not Go Gently,” an exploration of aging by Jennifer Childs, that company’s leader. The Barrymore committee included the new show as a musical production even though its major focus was on its prose.

The Barrymore Awards are the way Philadelphia’s theater community celebrates its accomplishments in a glittery night out with lots of cheering and good feeling. They include medallions and four major cash awards – a new one this year is from the Victory Foundation, for an outstanding education program run by a theater company.

The Barrymores also include a lifetime achievement award — this year’s goes to the longtime head of Philadelphia Theatre Company, Sara Garonzik. By coincidence, Garonzik announced last week that after almost 35 years as the face of the company, she’ll be leaving in 2017 to pursue independent theater projects.

Garonzik was a Temple University Spanish major who stumbled into a theater career when she responded – just for something to do — to a call for actors to put on a show in the early ’70s, when the professional theater community in Philadelphia was nascent. She acted, but soon realized she was more interested in directing and then, producing. She found work at the Philadelphia Company, co-founded by Robert Hedley, a former Barrymore lifetime-achievement winner and the current head of Temple University’s theater department.

That company became Philadelphia Theatre Company and Garonzik became its artistic director, leading it through decades of productions, a money crisis that caused it to suspend production one season, and more recently into the company’s home at the Suzanne Roberts Theater at Broad and Lombard Streets. That building had shaky financial prospects for two years, and is now on firm footing with support from the Roberts family.

Garonzik is currently called executive producing director of Philadelphia Theatre Company, which has introduced almost 150 world or regional premieres of American plays and musicals over the years. She served a three-year term as president of the board of the Philadelphia Cultural Fund and is now vice president.

To qualify for Barrymore awards, a theater company must pay its cast and crew minimums of $150 a week for actors, $500 a show for designers and $750 a show for directors. For the record, larger companies holding contracts with Actors’ Equity, the national union of actors and stage managers, must pay more than those minimum scales.

An all-volunteer team of Barrymore nominators saw 103 professional productions to declare whether they were eligible for nominations and in which categories. Among the 60 nominators — theater artists, academics and some critics — teams of eight were randomly assigned to see each eligible production, and forwarded their recommendations to a panel of 12 judges. They met quarterly and eventually narrowed their choices down to a maximum of seven nominees in play categories, four in musical categories.

The same 12 judges will use a weighted scoring system to vote their choices for first, second and so on in each category. The nominee with the highest score in each category will be the winner. The winners will be announced at the Oct. 24 awards ceremony at the Merriam on South Broad Street. Tickets go on sale at www.theatrephiladelphia.org on Tuesday tomorrow for that awards show and its after-party at the University of the Arts’ Dorrance Hamilton Hall, at $50 for those in the theater community, $75 for the public, and $125 for VIP seating.

The Barrymore Award NomineesHere is a complete list of Barrymore Award nominees for the 2015/16 theater season, which began July 1, 2015 and ended June 30 this year.

Outstanding Overall Production of a Play• Disgraced (Philadelphia Theatre Company)• The Invisible Hand (Theatre Exile)• The Nether (InterAct Theatre Company)• The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning (Inis Nua Theatre Company)• Spine (Inis Nua Theatre Company)• Stella and Lou (People’s Light)• Time Is On Our Side (Simpatico Theatre Project)

Outstanding Overall Production of a Musical• Black Nativity (Theatre Horizon)• I Will Not Go Gently (1812 Productions)• The Secret Garden (Arden Theatre Company)• The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales (Arden Theatre Company)

Outstanding Direction of a Play• Deborah Block (Smoke, Theatre Exile)• James J. Christy, Sr. (A Great War, Iron Age Theatre)• Kip Fagan (Exit Strategy, Philadelphia Theatre Company)• Claire Moyer (Spine, Inis Nua Theatre Company)• Kittson O’Neill (A Knee That Can Bend, Orbiter 3)• Matt Pfeiffer (The Invisible Hand, Theatre Exile)• Tom Reing (The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning, Inis Nua Theatre Company)

Outstanding Direction of a Musical• Matthew Decker (The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, Arden Theatre Company)• Ozzie Jones (Black Nativity, Theatre Horizon)• Terrence J. Nolen (The Secret Garden, Arden Theatre Company)• Megan Nicole O’Brien (See What I Wanna See, 11th Hour Theatre Company)

Outstanding Leading Actor in a Play• Maboud Ebrahimzadeh (The Invisible Hand, Theatre Exile)• James Ijames (An Octoroon, The Wilma Theater)• Ian Merrill Peakes (The Invisible Hand, Theatre Exile)• Matteo Scammell (Smoke, Theatre Exile)• Pej Vahdat (Disgraced, Philadelphia Theatre Company)• Greg Wood (The Nether, InterAct Theatre Company)• Greg Wood (White Guy on the Bus, Passage Theatre Company)

Outstanding Leading Actress in a Play• E. Ashley Izard (Happy Days, Quintessence Theatre Group)• Emily R. Johnson (Spine, Inis Nua Theatre Company)• Jennifer Kidwell (A Knee That Can Bend, Orbiter 3)• Danielle Leneé (White Guy on the Bus, Passage Theatre Company)• Deirdre Madigan (Exit Strategy, Philadelphia Theatre Company)• Geneviève Perrier (Photograph 51, Lantern Theater Company)• Marcia Saunders (Stella and Lou, People’s Light)

Outstanding Leading Actor in a Musical• Billy Bustamante (See What I Wanna See, 11th Hour Theatre Company)• Kingsley Ibeneche (Black Nativity, Theatre Horizon)• Scott McPheeters (Andy: A Popera, The Bearded Ladies Cabaret)• Sean Thompson (Kiss Me, Kate, Act II Playhouse)

Outstanding Leading Actress in a Musical• Sanchel Brown (Black Nativity, Theatre Horizon)• Jennifer Childs (I Will Not Go Gently, 1812 Productions)• Angelica Jackson (Black Nativity, Theatre Horizon)• Cailene Kilcoyne (Heathers: The Musical, The Eagle Theatre)

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Play• David Bardeen (Oscar Wilde: From the Depths, Lantern Theater Company)• Akeem Davis (Lobby Hero, Theatre Horizon)• Justin Jain (An Octoroon, The Wilma Theater)• Dave Johnson (The Explorer’s Club, Delaware Theatre Company)• Kenny Morris (Funnyman, Arden Theatre Company)• Christopher Patrick Mullen (Richard III, People’s Light)• J. Paul Nicholas (The Invisible Hand, Theatre Exile)

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Play• Rachel Camp (Lobby Hero, Theatre Horizon)• Jaylene Clark Owens (An Octoroon, The Wilma Theater)• Aimé Donna Kelly (Disgraced, Philadelphia Theatre Company)• Teri Lamm (The Harassment of Iris Malloy, People’s Light)• Danielle Leneé (A Knee That Can Bend, Orbiter 3)• Candace Moore (A Knee That Can Bend, Orbiter 3)• Ruby Wolf (As You Like It, Lantern Theater Company)

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Musical• Jake Blouch (See What I Wanna See, 11th Hour Theatre Company)• Tim Rinehart (Heathers: The Musical, The Eagle Theatre)• Danny Rutigliano (Man of La Mancha, Bristol Riverside Theatre)• Scott Sheppard (The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, Arden Theatre Company)

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Musical• Malgorzata Kasprzycka (Andy: A Popera, The Bearded Ladies Cabaret)• Elisa Matthews (The Secret Garden, Arden Theatre Company)• Nancie Sanderson (See What I Wanna See, 11th Hour Theatre Company)• Leah Walton (The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, Arden Theatre Company)

Outstanding Scenic Design• Jorge Cousineau (The Secret Garden, Arden Theatre Company)• Alexis Distler (The Explorer’s Club, Delaware Theatre Company)• David P. Gordon (Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates, Arden Theatre Company)• Christopher Haig (Time Is On Our Side, Simpatico Theatre Project)• Luke Hegel-Cantarella (Auctioning the Ainsleys, People’s Light)• Colin McIlvaine (The Invisible Hand, Theatre Exile)• Jason Simms (Disgraced, Philadelphia Theatre Company)

Outstanding Costume Design• Olivera Gajic (The Secret Garden, Arden Theatre Company)• Marla Jurglanis (Sense and Sensibility, People’s Light)• Jillian Keys (The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, Arden Theatre Company)• Wade Laboissonniere (The Explorer’s Club, Delaware Theatre Company)• Rosemarie McKelvey (Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates, Arden Theatre Company)• Alison Roberts (Two Trains Running, Arden Theatre Company)• Linda Bee Stockton (Man of La Mancha, Bristol Riverside Theatre)

Earl Girls Award for Outstanding Lighting Design• Shon Causer (Oscar Wilde: From the Depths, Lantern Theater Company)• Alyssandra Docherty (Moth, Azuka Theatre)• Ryan O’Gara (Man of La Mancha, Bristol Riverside Theatre)• Maria Shaplin (The It Girl, Simpatico Theatre Project• Maria Shaplin (The Nether, InterAct Theatre Company)• Masha Tsimring (The Invisible Hand, Theatre Exile)• Solomon Weisbard (The Secret Garden, Arden Theatre Company)

Clear Sound Award for Outstanding Sound Design• Damien Figueras (Moth, Azuka Theatre)• Lindsay Jones (Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates, Arden Theatre Company)• Michael Kiley (The Invisible Hand, Theatre Exile)• Michael Kiley (The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, Arden Theatre Company)• Zach McKenna (The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning, Inis Nua Theatre Company)• Luke Moyer (A Great War, Iron Age Theatre)• Adriano Shaplin (Saint Joan, Quintessence Theatre Group)

Outstanding Original Music• Heath Allen and Dan Visconti (Andy: A Popera, The Bearded Ladies Cabaret)• Jay Ansill (Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates, Arden Theatre Company)• Christopher Colucci (I Will Not Go Gently, 1812 Productions)• Michael Hahn (As You Like It, Lantern Theater Company)• Michael Kiley (The Invisible Hand, Theatre Exile)• Paul James Prendergast (Sense and Sensibility, People’s Light)• Josh Totora (He Who Gets Slapped, Philadelphia Artists’ Collective)

Outstanding Choreography/Movement• Maggie Anderson (Kiss Me, Kate, Act II Playhouse)• J. Alex Cordaro (Smoke, Theatre Exile)• Peter Andrew Danzig, K.O. DelMarcelle, Arlen Hancock, Amanda Schoonover, Brenna Geffers and Anthony Crosby (The It Girl, Simpatico Theatre Project)• Justina Ercole (Heathers: The Musical, The Eagle Theatre)• Samantha Reading (Sense and Sensibility, People’s Light)• Jenn Rose (Black Nativity, Theatre Horizon)• Jenn Rose (The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, Arden Theatre Company)

Outstanding Music Direction• Heath Allen (Andy: A Popera, The Bearded Ladies Cabaret)• Will Brock (Black Nativity, Theatre Horizon)• Dan Kazemi (See What I Wanna See, 11th Hour Theatre Company)• Ryan Touhey (The Secret Garden, Arden Theatre Company)

Outstanding Ensemble in a Play• Antigone (The Wilma Theater)• Exit Strategy (Philadelphia Theatre Company)• The Explorer’s Club (Delaware Theatre Company)• A Great War (Iron Age Theatre)• The Invisible Hand (Theatre Exile)• A Knee That Can Bend (Orbiter 3)• The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning (Inis Nua Theatre Company)

Outstanding Ensemble in a Musical• Black Nativity (Theatre Horizon)• Heathers: The Musical (The Eagle Theatre)• The Secret Garden (Arden Theatre Company)• The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales (Arden Theatre Company)

Outstanding New Play/Musical• A Great War by James J. Christy, Jr. (Iron Age Theatre)• Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates by Laura Eason (Arden Theatre Company)• A Knee That Can Bend by Emma Goidel (Orbiter 3)• Time Is On Our Side by R. Eric Thomas (Simpatico Theatre Project)

F. Otto Haas Award for an Emerging Philadelphia Theatre Artist• Alex Bechtel• Emma Goidel• Justin Jain• Bi Jean Ngo• Mary Tuomanen

Virginia Brown Martin Philadelphia Award• Exit Strategy (Philadelphia Theatre Company)• A Knee That Can Bend (Orbiter 3)• Machinal (EgoPo Classic Theater)• Time Is On Our Side (Simpatico Theatre Project)• White Guy on the Bus (Passage Theatre Company)

June and Steve Wolfson Award for an Evolving Theatre Company• Azuka Theatre• The Bearded Ladies Cabaret• EgoPo Classic Theater• Simpatico Theatre Project

Victory Foundation Award for Outstanding Theatre Education Program• 1812 Outreach (1812 Productions)• Arden for All (Arden Theatre Company)• Arts Discovery (People’s Light)• Illumination/Classroom Connections (Lantern Theater Company)• Performing Arts Training & Youth Leadership Development (New Freedom Theatre)

Lifetime Achievement AwardSara Garonzik

A musical from Norristown’s Theatre Horizon and a drama from South Philadelphia’s Theatre Exile — the mid-sized stage companies that won the two top Barrymore Awards last year for excellence in Philadelphia theater — are leaders in this year’s Barrymore nominations, along with Center City’s Arden Theatre Company.

See all the nominees below.

In nominations announced by the umbrella group Theatre Philadelphia on Monday morning, Theatre Exile, a company that presents edgy work mostly from its Studio X on the corner of 13th and Reed Streets in South Philly, garnered the most nominations for a single production – 10, for a critically acclaimed staging of “The Invisible Hand” by the Pakistani-American theater artist Ayad Aktar. The drama, about an investment banker kidnapped by an Islamic group, was nominated for best overall production of a play – the award Exile won last year for its staging of “The Whale.”

Theatre Horizon, performing at a theater it built and opened three years ago in downtown Norristown, received eight Barrymore nominations for its electrifying production of “Black Nativity,” Langston Hughes’ recounting of the Christmas story in poetry and music through an African lens that ultimately transcends time and place. Those nominations include one for best overall production of a musical – the award Horizon won last year for its version of Stephen Sondheim’s “Into the Woods.”

Also leading the pack of most-nominated productions during the 2015/16 season that ended June 30 are two from Center City’s Arden Theatre Company. The Arden, winner of several top Barrymores in the awards’ 19-year history, received eight nominations for its elegant production of the musical “The Secret Garden” and another eight for the staging of a family musical, “The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales.” The Arden received the most nominations overall of any theater company this year – 24 – followed by 13 for Exile and 10 for Horizon. People’s Light in Malvern followed with nine nominations, and Philadelphia Theatre Company with eight.

Once again this year, two theater companies did not participate in the awards, which will be presented at the Merriam Theater on Oct. 24 and whose nominees were announced Monday at the Wilma Theater. Opting out of the awards are the Walnut Street Theatre – by far the largest in audience and budgets, and the nation’s oldest continuously operating theater – and Media Theatre, a producer of musicals in Delaware County.

Although their decisions not to participate skew the awards, the Barrymores continue to recognize a wealth of well-regarded work on stages throughout the region. The Philadelphia theater community’s growing influence in areas outside Center City is again evident in this year’s nominations, and not just from Horizon, Exile and People’s Light. Iron Age Theatre, also in Norristown, received four nominations for its work, and Quintessence (in Mount Airy), Passage (Trenton), the Bearded Ladies (many venues), Act II (Ambler), Eagle Theatre (a success story in Hammonton, N.J.), Delaware Theatre Company (Wilmington), and Bristol Riverside (Bristol) all received nods for productions. 

Center City’s stage companies, large and small, were among those with nominated work – a given for companies that are often highly visible and popular. These include the Wilma, 11th Hour Theatre Company, Lantern Theater Company, Azuka, the Philadelphia Artists’ Collective, Ego Po and on N. Broad Street, New Freedom Theatre.

The professional theater scene downtown continues to change, but remains vibrant. After 11 seasons the small Flashpoint Theatre Company, which enjoyed a loyal following, bowed out this past season, and Philadelphia Shakespeare Theater announced a transition season. Its revived production of “Kill Will” in the upcoming Fringe Festival is its last for the year. But some newer companies continue to grow and be active – one of them, Orbiter 3, received seven Barrymore nominations this year, all for “A Knee That Can Bend,” involving an American student’s discovery of underground gay life in Senegal.

Two new theater spaces at the Drake Hotel, on Spruce Street between 15th and 16th Streets, opened this past season in a building effort led by InterAct Theatre, which left its space in the Adrienne on Sansom Street. (That building, with three stages, is now primarily booked with improve and comedy troupes.) Azuka, Simpatico and Inis Nua joined as resident partners in the new Drake Hotel spaces, as did PlayPenn, the region’s incubator of new plays.

In all, 25 theater companies and 38 shows are cited by Barrymore nominators this year – another sign of the breadth of stage work here. The down side, though, is evident to artistic directors and general managers even as more theaters do better work: Stage companies constantly wrestle with the challenges of attracting and keeping audiences and getting donors to commit and recommit, and budgets are often tenuous from production to production, particularly for mid-sized and small companies.  

In addition to Exile’s “The Invisible Hand,” nominees for best production of a play include another by that play’s author, Ayad Aktar: “Disgraced,” produced by Philadelphia Theatre Company following a run of the play on Broadway. Other nominees include two from Inis Nua, the Center City theater company devoted to contemporary plays from or about Ireland and Britain. They are “The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning” and “Spine.” Also nominated in the top play-production category are “The Nether” (InterAct Theatre Company), “Stella and Lou” (People’s Light), and “Time Is on Our Side” (Simpatico Theatre Project).

Joining Horizon’s “Black Nativity” and Arden’s “Secret Garden” and “Stinky Cheese Man” as nominees for best musical production is 1812 Productions’ “I Will Not Go Gently,” an exploration of aging by Jennifer Childs, that company’s leader. The Barrymore committee included the new show as a musical production even though its major focus was on its prose.

The Barrymore Awards are the way Philadelphia’s theater community celebrates its accomplishments in a glittery night out with lots of cheering and good feeling. They include medallions and four major cash awards – a new one this year is from the Victory Foundation, for an outstanding education program run by a theater company.

The Barrymores also include a lifetime achievement award — this year’s goes to the longtime head of Philadelphia Theatre Company, Sara Garonzik. By coincidence, Garonzik announced last week that after almost 35 years as the face of the company, she’ll be leaving in 2017 to pursue independent theater projects.

Garonzik was a Temple University Spanish major who stumbled into a theater career when she responded – just for something to do — to a call for actors to put on a show in the early ‘70s, when the professional theater community in Philadelphia was nascent. She acted, but soon realized she was more interested in directing and then, producing. She found work at the Philadelphia Company, co-founded by Robert Hedley, a former Barrymore lifetime-achievement winner and the current head of Temple University’s theater department.

That company became Philadelphia Theatre Company and Garonzik became its artistic director, leading it through decades of productions, a money crisis that caused it to suspend production one season, and more recently into the company’s home at the Suzanne Roberts Theater at Broad and Lombard Streets. That building had shaky financial prospects for two years, and is now on firm footing with support from the Roberts family.

Garonzik is currently called executive producing director of Philadelphia Theatre Company, which has introduced almost 150 world or regional premieres of American plays and musicals over the years. She served a three-year term a president of the board of the Philadelphia Cultural Fund and is now vice president.

To qualify for Barrymore awards, a theater company must pay its cast and crew minimums of $150 a week for actors, $500 a show for designers and $750 a show for directors. For the record, larger companies holding contracts with Actors’ Equity, the national union of actors and stage managers, must pay more than those minimum scales.

An all-volunteer team of Barrymore nominators saw 103 professional productions to declare whether they were eligible for nominations and in which categories. Among the 60 nominators — theater artists, academics and some critics — teams of eight were randomly assigned to see each eligible production, and forwarded their recommendations to a panel of 12 judges. They met quarterly and eventually narrowed their choices down to a maximum of seven nominees in play categories, four in musical categories.

The same 12 judges will use a weighted scoring system to vote their choices for first, second and so on in each category. The nominee with the highest score in each category will be the winner. The winners will be announced at the Oct. 24 awards ceremony at the Merriam on South Broad Street. Tickets go on sale at www.theatrephiladelphia.org on Tuesday tomorrow for that awards show and its after-party at the University of the Arts’ Dorrance Hamilton Hall, at $50 for those in the theater community, $75 for the public, and $125 for VIP seating.

The Barrymore Award Nominees

Here is a complete list of Barrymore Award nominees for the 2015/16 theater season, which began July 1, 2015 and ended June 30 this year.

Outstanding Overall Production of a Play

• Disgraced (Philadelphia Theatre Company)

• The Invisible Hand (Theatre Exile)

• The Nether (InterAct Theatre Company)

• The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning (Inis Nua Theatre Company)

• Spine (Inis Nua Theatre Company)

• Stella and Lou (People’s Light)

• Time Is On Our Side (Simpatico Theatre Project)

 

Outstanding Overall Production of a Musical

• Black Nativity (Theatre Horizon)

• I Will Not Go Gently (1812 Productions)

• The Secret Garden (Arden Theatre Company)

• The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales (Arden Theatre Company)

 

Outstanding Direction of a Play

• Deborah Block (Smoke, Theatre Exile)

• James J. Christy, Sr. (A Great War, Iron Age Theatre)

• Kip Fagan (Exit Strategy, Philadelphia Theatre Company)

• Claire Moyer (Spine, Inis Nua Theatre Company)

• Kittson O’Neill (A Knee That Can Bend, Orbiter 3)

• Matt Pfeiffer (The Invisible Hand, Theatre Exile)

• Tom Reing (The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning, Inis Nua Theatre Company)

 

Outstanding Direction of a Musical

• Matthew Decker (The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, Arden Theatre Company)

• Ozzie Jones (Black Nativity, Theatre Horizon)

• Terrence J. Nolen (The Secret Garden, Arden Theatre Company)

• Megan Nicole O’Brien (See What I Wanna See, 11th Hour Theatre Company)

 

Outstanding Leading Actor in a Play

• Maboud Ebrahimzadeh (The Invisible Hand, Theatre Exile)

• James Ijames (An Octoroon, The Wilma Theater)

• Ian Merrill Peakes (The Invisible Hand, Theatre Exile)

• Matteo Scammell (Smoke, Theatre Exile)

• Pej Vahdat (Disgraced, Philadelphia Theatre Company)

• Greg Wood (The Nether, InterAct Theatre Company)

• Greg Wood (White Guy on the Bus, Passage Theatre Company)

 

Outstanding Leading Actress in a Play

• E. Ashley Izard (Happy Days, Quintessence Theatre Group)

• Emily R. Johnson (Spine, Inis Nua Theatre Company)

• Jennifer Kidwell (A Knee That Can Bend, Orbiter 3)

• Danielle Leneé (White Guy on the Bus, Passage Theatre Company)

• Deirdre Madigan (Exit Strategy, Philadelphia Theatre Company)

• Geneviève Perrier (Photograph 51, Lantern Theater Company)

• Marcia Saunders (Stella and Lou, People’s Light)

 

Outstanding Leading Actor in a Musical

• Billy Bustamante (See What I Wanna See, 11th Hour Theatre Company)

• Kingsley Ibeneche (Black Nativity, Theatre Horizon)

• Scott McPheeters (Andy: A Popera, The Bearded Ladies Cabaret)

• Sean Thompson (Kiss Me, Kate, Act II Playhouse)

 

Outstanding Leading Actress in a Musical

• Sanchel Brown (Black Nativity, Theatre Horizon)

• Jennifer Childs (I Will Not Go Gently, 1812 Productions)

• Angelica Jackson (Black Nativity, Theatre Horizon)

• Cailene Kilcoyne (Heathers: The Musical, The Eagle Theatre)

 

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Play

• David Bardeen (Oscar Wilde: From the Depths, Lantern Theater Company)

• Akeem Davis (Lobby Hero, Theatre Horizon)

• Justin Jain (An Octoroon, The Wilma Theater)

• Dave Johnson (The Explorer’s Club, Delaware Theatre Company)

• Kenny Morris (Funnyman, Arden Theatre Company)

• Christopher Patrick Mullen (Richard III, People’s Light)

• J. Paul Nicholas (The Invisible Hand, Theatre Exile)

 

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Play

• Rachel Camp (Lobby Hero, Theatre Horizon)

• Jaylene Clark Owens (An Octoroon, The Wilma Theater)

• Aimé Donna Kelly (Disgraced, Philadelphia Theatre Company)

• Teri Lamm (The Harassment of Iris Malloy, People’s Light)

• Danielle Leneé (A Knee That Can Bend, Orbiter 3)

• Candace Moore (A Knee That Can Bend, Orbiter 3)

• Ruby Wolf (As You Like It, Lantern Theater Company)

 

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Musical

• Jake Blouch (See What I Wanna See, 11th Hour Theatre Company)

• Tim Rinehart (Heathers: The Musical, The Eagle Theatre)

• Danny Rutigliano (Man of La Mancha, Bristol Riverside Theatre)

• Scott Sheppard (The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, Arden Theatre Company)

 

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Musical

• Malgorzata Kasprzycka (Andy: A Popera, The Bearded Ladies Cabaret)

• Elisa Matthews (The Secret Garden, Arden Theatre Company)

• Nancie Sanderson (See What I Wanna See, 11th Hour Theatre Company)

• Leah Walton (The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, Arden Theatre Company)

 

Outstanding Scenic Design

• Jorge Cousineau (The Secret Garden, Arden Theatre Company)

• Alexis Distler (The Explorer’s Club, Delaware Theatre Company)

• David P. Gordon (Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates, Arden Theatre Company)

• Christopher Haig (Time Is On Our Side, Simpatico Theatre Project)

• Luke Hegel-Cantarella (Auctioning the Ainsleys, People’s Light)

• Colin McIlvaine (The Invisible Hand, Theatre Exile)

• Jason Simms (Disgraced, Philadelphia Theatre Company)

 

Outstanding Costume Design

• Olivera Gajic (The Secret Garden, Arden Theatre Company)

• Marla Jurglanis (Sense and Sensibility, People’s Light)

• Jillian Keys (The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, Arden Theatre Company)

• Wade Laboissonniere (The Explorer’s Club, Delaware Theatre Company)

• Rosemarie McKelvey (Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates, Arden Theatre Company)

• Alison Roberts (Two Trains Running, Arden Theatre Company)

• Linda Bee Stockton (Man of La Mancha, Bristol Riverside Theatre)

 

Earl Girls Award for Outstanding Lighting Design

• Shon Causer (Oscar Wilde: From the Depths, Lantern Theater Company)

• Alyssandra Docherty (Moth, Azuka Theatre)

• Ryan O’Gara (Man of La Mancha, Bristol Riverside Theatre)

• Maria Shaplin (The It Girl, Simpatico Theatre Project

• Maria Shaplin (The Nether, InterAct Theatre Company)

• Masha Tsimring (The Invisible Hand, Theatre Exile)

• Solomon Weisbard (The Secret Garden, Arden Theatre Company)

 

Clear Sound Award for Outstanding Sound Design

• Damien Figueras (Moth, Azuka Theatre)

• Lindsay Jones (Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates, Arden Theatre Company)

• Michael Kiley (The Invisible Hand, Theatre Exile)

• Michael Kiley (The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, Arden Theatre Company)

• Zach McKenna (The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning, Inis Nua Theatre Company)

• Luke Moyer (A Great War, Iron Age Theatre)

• Adriano Shaplin (Saint Joan, Quintessence Theatre Group)

 

Outstanding Original Music

• Heath Allen and Dan Visconti (Andy: A Popera, The Bearded Ladies Cabaret)

• Jay Ansill (Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates, Arden Theatre Company)

• Christopher Colucci (I Will Not Go Gently, 1812 Productions)

• Michael Hahn (As You Like It, Lantern Theater Company)

• Michael Kiley (The Invisible Hand, Theatre Exile)

• Paul James Prendergast (Sense and Sensibility, People’s Light)

• Josh Totora (He Who Gets Slapped, Philadelphia Artists’ Collective)

 

Outstanding Choreography/Movement

• Maggie Anderson (Kiss Me, Kate, Act II Playhouse)

• J. Alex Cordaro (Smoke, Theatre Exile)

• Peter Andrew Danzig, K.O. DelMarcelle, and Arlen Hancock (The It Girl, Simpatico Theatre Project)

• Justina Ercole (Heathers: The Musical, The Eagle Theatre)

• Samantha Reading (Sense and Sensibility, People’s Light)

• Jenn Rose (Black Nativity, Theatre Horizon)

• Jenn Rose (The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, Arden Theatre Company)

 

Outstanding Music Direction

• Heath Allen (Andy: A Popera, The Bearded Ladies Cabaret)

• Will Brock (Black Nativity, Theatre Horizon)

• Dan Kazemi (See What I Wanna See, 11th Hour Theatre Company)

• Ryan Touhey (The Secret Garden, Arden Theatre Company)

 

Outstanding Ensemble in a Play

• Antigone (The Wilma Theater)

• Exit Strategy (Philadelphia Theatre Company)

• The Explorer’s Club (Delaware Theatre Company)

• A Great War (Iron Age Theatre)

• The Invisible Hand (Theatre Exile)

• A Knee That Can Bend (Orbiter 3)

• The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning (Inis Nua Theatre Company)

 

Outstanding Ensemble in a Musical

• Black Nativity (Theatre Horizon)

• Heathers: The Musical (The Eagle Theatre)

• The Secret Garden (Arden Theatre Company)

• The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales (Arden Theatre Company)

 

Outstanding New Play/Musical

• A Great War by James J. Christy, Jr. (Iron Age Theatre)

• Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates by Laura Eason (Arden Theatre Company)

• A Knee That Can Bend by Emma Goidel (Orbiter 3)

• Time Is On Our Side by R. Eric Thomas (Simpatico Theatre Project)

 

F. Otto Haas Award for an Emerging Philadelphia Theatre Artist

• Alex Bechtel

• Emma Goidel

• Justin Jain

• Bi Jean Ngo

• Mary Tuomanen

 

Virginia Brown Martin Philadelphia Award

• Exit Strategy (Philadelphia Theatre Company)

• A Knee That Can Bend (Orbiter 3)

• Machinal (EgoPo Classic Theater)

• Time Is On Our Side (Simpatico Theatre Project)

• White Guy on the Bus (Passage Theatre Company)

 

June and Steve Wolfson Award for an Evolving Theatre Company

• Azuka Theatre

• The Bearded Ladies Cabaret

• EgoPo Classic Theater

• Simpatico Theatre Project

 

Victory Foundation Award for Outstanding Theatre Education Program

• 1812 Outreach (1812 Productions)

• Arden for All (Arden Theatre Company)

• Arts Discovery (People’s Light)

• Illumination/Classroom Connections (Lantern Theater Company)

• Performing Arts Training & Youth Leadership Development (New Freedom Theatre)

 

Lifetime Achievement Award

Sara Garonzik