2015 NAACP Theatre Award Winners Announced

By Darlene Donloe

Black theater was celebrated at the 2015 Beverly Hills/Hollywood NAACP Theatre Awards held  last night at the Nate Holden Performing Arts Center/Ebony Repertory Theatre.  The show was hosted by four time NAACP Theatre Award-winning playwright and producer Kinnik Sky.

Stars from the world of theater, film and television lit up the auditorium as they came together to honor their colleagues, who make their living by honing their craft on the stage.

Awards were given to producers, directors, playwrights, actors, light designers, sound designers, set designers, costumers, choreographers and music directors, who were all lauded for their theatrical talents.

Award presenters included actors Obba Babatunde’ (The Bold and the Beautiful), Ella Joyce (Belle’s, Being Mary Jane), Renee Lawless (The Haves and Have Nots), Jason George (Grey’s Anatomy), Harold Bell (Raising Whitley), Richard Lawson (Saints & Sinners) and Margaret Avery (Being Mary Jane, The Color Purple).

Michael Colyar

Comedians Michael Colyar, Maija DiGiorgio and Raj Sharma opened the show and brought the funny.

After the comedy, it was time to get down to business.

“I love theater, so I’m honored to be here,” said Kinnik Sky, who hosted the awards show. “We can celebrate our own excellence.”

Some actors on hand applauded the theater and the NAACP’s efforts and commitment to the community and the arts.

Richard Lawson

“I was at the very first one of these they had,” said actor Richard Lawson. “It’s important to recognize and work in the theater. It’s a way for people to get an opportunity.”

Margaret Avery, who stars in the BET drama Being Mary Jane, was a presenter at the show.

Margaret Avery

“This was the first theater I worked at in 1968,” said Avery.  “It was the Ebony Showcase Theatre then with Nick Stewart.  “The theater launched my career. It’s where we hone our craft.  People have to realize that community theater is free.  We need people to come and support the theater. We can’t compete with the Ahmansons, but we can still do good work.”

Jason George, who can be seen as Dr. Ben Warren on Grey’s Anatomy every week, is a huge fan of theater.

Jason George

“Theater is how people communicate with themselves,” said George. “It holds the culture. It’s a way of celebrating the best of who and what we are.”

Tammi Mac, who won three awards for her show, Bag Lady, is an actress and a radio personality at KJLH radio in Los Angeles. 

Tammi Mac

“The NAACP is honoring black people’s stories,” said Mac. “We get to write, perform, produce and tell our own stories our way.”

Donald Welch

Director Donald Welch said black theater was important because it’s “an opportunity to honor our own work.  We’re celebrating our culture, while other cultures celebrate us.”

Ronald E. Hasson, president Beverly Hills/Hollywood NAACP and national board member, said theater creates opportunities for people of color to demonstrate their arts and to be honored.

President Beverly Hills/Hollywood NAACP Ronald E. Hasson

“We’re very happy and pleased to do these awards for the actors who live here,” said Hasson. “It’s inspirational to keep theater alive for young people to see and enjoy. We encourage our community and ask for them to keep it alive.”

Nate Holden

(l-r) Richard Lawson, Margaret Avery, Kiki Shepard and Obba Babatunde'

Below is a complete list of winners:

Best Choreography – Equity

Maurice Hines is Tappin’ Thru Life – Maurice Hines - Winner!

The Gershwin’s Porgy & Bess – Ronald K. Brown

Kiss Me Kate – Jeffrey Polk

Best Choreography – Local

The Brothers Size – Ameenah Kaplan - Winner!

The Magic Flute – Lungelo Ngamlana

Visionary Man – Ali North

Best Costumes – Equity

The Gershwin’s Porgy & Bess – Emilio Sosa  - Winner!

Choir Boy – E.B. Brooks

Othello – Katherine Roth

Best Costumes – Local

Low Hanging Fruit – Wendell C. Carmichael - Winner!

The Magic Flute – Leigh Bishop

Knock Me A Kiss – Naila Aladdin Sanders

Best Director – Equity

Stop Kiss – Seema Sueko

Choir Boy – Trip Cullman - Winner!

The Tallest Tree in the Forest – Moises Kaufman

Vanessa Paul, Iona Morris, Elayn J Taylor and Denise Dowse of 

Sassy Mamas

Best Director – Local

Sassy Mamas – Iona Morris - Winner!

The Brothers Size – Shirley Jo Finney

Secrets – Wallace Demarria

Best Director of a Musical – Equity

The Gershwins’ Porgy & Bess – Diane Paulus -Winner!

Maurice Hines is Tappin’ Thru Life – Jeff Calhoun

Kiss me Kate – Sheldon Epps

Best Director of a Musical – Local

The Magic Flute – Mark Dornford-May -Winner!

Visionary Man – Tom Coleman

The Gondoliers – Alison Eliel-Kalmus

Best Ensemble Cast – Equity

Stop Kiss

Flyin’ West - Winner!

Othello

Cast and crew of Sassy Mamas and Ella Joyce

Best Ensemble Cast – Local

Sassy Mamas - Winner!

The Brothers Size

Low Hanging Fruit

Best Lead Female - Equity

Above The Fold – Taraji P. Henson - Winner!

The Gershwins’ Porgy & Bess – Alicia Hall Moran

Race – DeWanda Wise

Best Lead Female  – Local

Knock Me a Kiss – Toyin Moses - Winner!

Closely Related Keys – Diarra Kilpatrick

Going to St. Ives – Inger Tudor

Best Lead Male – Equity

Choir Boy – Jeremy Pope

The Gershwins’ Porgy & Bess – Nathaniel Stampley

Maurice Hines is Tappin’ Thru Life – Maurice Hines - Winner!

Best Lead Male – Local

Bus Stops – Leonard Thomas - Winner!

Knock me a Kiss – Keir Thirus

The Whipping Man – Kirk Kellykahn

Best Lighting – Equity

The Tallest Tree in the Forest – David Lander - Winner!

Above The Fold – Adam Blumenthal

Race – Josh Epstein

Best Lighting - Local

Low Hanging Fruit – Rebecca Raines

Bag Lady – Tom Meleck and Iona Morris

The Magic Flute – Mannie Manim - Winner!

Best Music Director – Equity

Maurice Hines is Tappin’ Thru Life – Sherrie Maricle

Kiss Me Kate – Rahn Coleman - Winner!

The Gershwins’ Porgy & Bess – Dale Rieling

 Best Music Director – Local

Visionary Man – Jeffrey Bonhiver

The Gondoliers – Leonardo Sciolis

The Magic Flute – Pauline Malefane & Mandisi Dyantyis -Winner!

Best One Person Show - Equity

The Tallest Tree in the Forest – Daniel Beaty - Winner!

Forever – Dael Orlandersmith

Paul Robeson – Keith David

Best One Person Show - Local

Bird Lives! – Montae Russell

The Devil and Billy Markham – Tony Winters

Bag Lady – Tammi Mac - Winner!

Best Playwright – Equity

The Tallest Tree in the Forest – Daniel Beaty - Winner!

Above The Fold – Bernard Weinraub

Stop Kiss – Diane Son

Best Playwright – Local

Sassy Mamas – Celeste Bedford Walker

Bag Lady – Tammi Mac - Winner!

The Brothers Size – Tarell Alvin McCraney

Best Producer – Equity

Above The Fold – The Pasadena Playhouse - Winner!

Maurice Hines is Tappin’ Thru Life – Willis Annenberg Center for Performing Arts, Arena Stage, Alliance Theatre and Cleveland Play House

The Tallest Tree In The House – Center Theatre Group

Best Producer – Local

Bus Stops – Jaimyon Parker

Sassy Mamas – Vanessa Paul & Alex Morris

Bag Lady – Tammi Mac & Jackson Brown - Winner!

Best Set Design – Equity

Choir Boy – David Zinn - Winner!

Above the Fold – Jeffery P. Eisenmann

Flyin’ West – JR Bruce

Award winner Vanessa Paul

Best Set Design – Local

The Magnificent Dunbar Hotel – Michael D. Ricks

Knock Me a Kiss – Tom Meleck

Sassy Mamas – Vanessa Paul & Jeff Murray - Winner!

Best Sound – Equity

Othello – Acme Sound Partners with Jason Crystal - Winner!

Choir Boy – Fritz Patton

Above the Fold – Cricket S. Meyers

Best Sound – Local

Bus Stops – Jaimyon Parker - Winner!

Bag Lady – Don Amiche, Tammi Mac, DJ Malski

Low Hanging Fruit – Norman Kern

Closely Related Keys – Norman Kern

Best Supporting Female – Equity

Above the Fold – Kristy Johnson - Winner!

The Gershwin’s Porgy & Bess – Danielle Lee Greaves

The Gershwin’s Porgy & Bess – Sumayya Ali

Best Supporting Female – Local

Closely Related Keys – Yvonne Huff

Knock Me A Kiss – Rosie Lee Hooks

Knock Me A Kiss – Ashlee Olivia - Winner!

Best Supporting Male – Equity

The Gershwin’s Porgy & Bess – Kingsley Leggs

Choir Boy – Caleb Eberhardt - Winner!

Choir Boy – Grantham Coleman

Brent Jennings

Best Supporting Male – Local

The Magnificent Dunbar Hotel – Kyle Connor McDuffie

Closely Related Keys – Brent Jennings - Winner!

Bus Stops – Jaimyon Parker

The NAACP Theatre Awards is produced for the purpose of honoring the best thespians in the field of entertainment. The branch also celebrates a four-day theatre festival, which provides a platform for thespians to express their craft and share their contributions with an audience of their peers, the community and other individuals who celebrate live theatre in Los Angeles.

The NAACP Theatre Awards is presented by the Beverly Hills/Hollywood NAACP branch. Ronald E. Hasson is branch president and Tia Boyd is the executive producer for the NAACP Theatre Awards show. 

Dascha Polanco Talks About 'The Perfect Match'

  

By Darlene Donloe

When you talk to actress Dascha Polanco, it’s clear she’s a strong woman who is proud of her Dominican American heritage.

She talks confidently about her culture and doesn’t pull any punches, regardless of the subject matter.

A beauty who is comfortable with her brown skin, big thighs and full, natural lips, Polanco is a steady working actress (Orange Is The New Black) in an otherwise unstable, unpredictable industry.

Her latest project is the romantic comedy, The Perfect Match, set for nationwide release March 11.

The movie is about Charlie, played by Terrence J, a playboy type who is uninterested in commitment. He likes to play the field and is proud of it. His best friends, played by Donald Faison and Robert Christopher Riley, bet him that if he commits to one woman for one month, he's bound to fall in love. Charlie accepts the challenge.  In walks Eva, played by Cassie Ventura.  She’s smart, confident and beautiful. Unbeknownst to Charlie, she has her own agenda, which throws the lifelong bachelor into a tailspin.

Polanco plays Pressie, who is married to Rick (Donald Faison) one of Charlie’s best friends. Pressie is desperate to start a family and has little patience for Charlie’s shenanigans.

Polanco appeared in last year’s Joy, starring Jennifer Lawrence and in The Cobbler in 2014.  She’s also appeared on several television shows. But she is best known for playing the character Dayanara Diaz on Orange Is The New Black. I recently caught up with Polanco to talk about the movie and her career.

Dascha Polanco

Q: What do you want for your career?

DP: I want to be able to be as versatile as Meryl Streep.

Q: As an ethnic actress, do you feel like you’re pulled in one direction?

DP: I want to work on being picked for being pulled in many directions. Opportunities are opening up, but I want to open up other opportunities.  It’s important that we focus on real problems.

Q:  Are you good at giving advice to others?

DP: I’m great at giving advice. Honey, live your life. I’m honest. You have to be prepared for things not to go your way. Be responsible for your actions.   Pressie is real. She’s married and going through something women really go through. It goes to show you sometimes a wrench can be thrown your way. There is a level where you have to embrace the differences and accept them and collaborating with them.

Q: Donald Faison plays your husband, Rick.

DP: Donald is great to work with. He’s a real genuine person.

Q:  Pressie seems to know what she wants in life. She’s the kind that would go after what she wants and that would included her man.

DP: I never understood women who had a list of what they want in a man. Love overcomes all of that. Love makes all the standards go out the door.  The emotions and feelings - nothing else matters. It’s a balance to everything in life. Investing in changing someone else is not how we function as people.

 

Donald Faison and Dascha Polanco star in The Perfect Match

Q: You don’t seem to have a problem embracing your curves.

DP: I’m still working on my issues. I put up a guard to protect myself. It’s a work in progress. Face your reflection and say, ‘I love myself.’ It has to come from you. My ultimate message is ‘I have to work more with loving Dascha.   So many external factors have affected how I love myself. I don’t love myself enough. Every morning I try to face and look at the possibilities. I have big thighs. Then I think to myself, ‘There are people that don’t have legs.’ It’s a mental process.

Q: You have a lot to think about and consider.

DP: For the most part, it’s a process. I love the art. I’ve been popular. Fame is not what I’m doing it for.  I’m still part of me being true to me. This is where I’m from. I’m grateful. I have to protect myself. Not everyone has good intentions.

Q: Your show, Orange Is The New Black, has won some awards.

DP: The beauty of Orange being rewarded, we were rewarded with a SAG (Screen Actors Guild) Award. Orange set a trend. There is a lot more casting in other shows for diversity.

Q:  Are you looking to branch out in your career?

DP: So much more can be done. As a Latina I want to be the face of a beauty campaign. I want to be  someone a five-year-old is able to look up to.  I have real natural lips - how more natural can they be?  Why can’t I have a line out there. Mine (lips) have naturally been that way. I want to be that. I can walk a runway. I could be on a cover. It’s how you cover yourself. It’s not the clothes, it’s the hanger.  I’m self made. I worked hard to get there. There are layers to me. I’m educated. I can sit at a table with doctors, musicians and French Montana. I grew up in Brooklyn.  I’m the combination of all the elements in the world.

The Perfect Match, directed by Bille Woodruff and executive produced by Queen Latifah, stars Terrence J, Cassie Ventura, Paula Patton, Donald Faison, Kali Hawk, Lauren London, Brandy Norwood, Robert Christopher Riley, Beau Casper Smart, French Montana and Joe Pantoliano. Robin Givens and Jessica White make cameos.

Flavor Unit is the production company. The film is distributed by Lions Gate Entertainment

MPAA: Rated R for sexuality, some nudity, and language throughout

London Has Fallen Is An Energetic Political Thriller

By Darlene Donloe

London Has Fallen, opening nationwide March 4, tells the harrowing tale of how a devastating attack takes place in London while the world’s most powerful leaders have gathered to pay respects at the funeral of the British prime minister.

The attack, which decimates Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament, leaves several of those heads of state dead and the president of the United States in a precarious position.

The attack is in retaliation for an attack two years earlier that killed the family of a Pakistani arms dealer. He and an indeterminate Middle East faction are determined to make the West pay. His objective is to not only kill the world’s leaders, but to kill U.S. President Benjamin Asher (Aaron Eckhart) slowly and painfully on live television.

(l-r) Gerard Butler and Aaron Eckhart 

The arms dealer should have first spoken to Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) the president’s Secret Service agent.  Banning puts James Bond and Jason Bourne to shame. He’s a one-man wrecking crew with a wicked sense of humor and some great one-liners like: “Why don’t you pack up your shit and head back to F***headistan?”

He also gets patriotic and political when whipping up on a terrorist. “Assholes like you have been trying to kill us for a long time. But in a thousand years we’ll still be here.”

He’s a sharp-shooter and is rather proficient with a knife. He’s unafraid and has no problem charging, head first, into the fray.

Morgan Freeman

Babak Najafi's action, crime, thriller is a bit over the top. It’s loud. It’s fast. It’s violent. It’s implausible.  It’s also unbalanced politically in America’s favor.  No surprise there.

The film is already getting blown up (pun intended) for being a racist “terrorsploitation” fantasy with the intent to instill worldwide fear after the Paris attacks. Then again, almost any movie having to do with terrorism could do the same kind of mental damage.

While it does play on some of our fears, the film also shows the world’s vulnerability.  It highlights how our lives have changed in the wake of not only 911, but every terrorist attack that has been successful or thwarted in recent years.

(l-r) Gerard Butler and Angela Bassett, who plays Lynne Jacobs

However, lets not get it twisted!  At the end of the day, London Has Fallen is not a documentary. It's a fictionalized portrayal.

This sequel to the 2013 film Olympus Has Fallen is the latest in the series. 

Subconsciously, it looks like everything is falling.

Morgan Freeman plays Vice President Trumbull, a no-nonsense politician who refuses to play games with the terrorist.  Angela Bassett plays Lynne Jacobs, a security advisor who warns the president not to go to London because there isn't enough time to do advance work. Although neither actor has a lot to do in the film, both hold their own.  

This is a good popcorn movie chock full of some high-octane cinematic fun!

London Has Fallen, directed by Babak Najafi, stars Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Angela Bassett, Morgan Freeman, Melissa Leo, Robert Forster, Jackie Earle Haley, Radha Mitchell, Sean O'Bryan, Charlotte Riley and Waleed F. Zuaiter. 

RUNNING TIME: 99 minutes

MPAA: Rated R 

  

On the DONLOE SCALE: D (don’t bother), O (oh, no), N (needs work), L (likeable), O (oh, yeah) and E (excellent), London Has Fallen gets an L (likeable) for fun, entertainment and action.