Best Local Theatre Production '96

Best Local Theatre Production (Since 7/95)

A Midsummer's Night Dream
Arizona Theatre Company

READERS' PICK: Sticklers for tradition might have taken offense at the punk-tramp costumes and the vaguely New Age original musical score, by Roberta Carlson, but there's no denying Arizona Theatre Company's production of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer's Night Dream, a contemporary interpretation with energetic, West African-influenced choreography by Barbea Williams, was appropriately surreal. Distinguished by consummate acting, a right-on sense of comic timing and (as always) stunning set design (in this case both minimalistic and visually arresting), we can only hope this production won the infamous bard an even larger following. Under the leadership of ATC Artistic Director David Ira Goldstein, and enhanced by the precision acting talents of Francis Jue (Puck) and David Pichette as the simple-minded Bottom, this enchanting production was a perfect opener to another fine season by ATC.

READERS' POLL RUNNER-UP: A Perfect Ganesh, Arizona Theater Company.

STAFF PICK: Fires in the Mirror is everything theatre ought to be: funny, important, horrifying, disturbing and even life-changing. Part journalism, part oral history, all fireworks, the work was pieced together by Anna Deveare Smith from interviews she did in Brooklyn in the wake of two racially charged disasters. First, the auto convoy of a high-ranking Jewish religious leader killed a young black child on the street as the cars sped through an impoverished Caribbean-immigrant neighborhood. Second, a young rabbinical student from Australia who was nowhere near the accident was stabbed to death by an angry black mob, apparently in retaliation for the child's death. Smith went in and talked to people on all sides, leaders and activists, housewives and street hustlers, and crafted their words into an astonishing symphony of misunderstanding. The mesmerizing ATC production featured three gifted African-American actresses portraying some 23 people of both genders and both races. We only wish we could also have seen the original production, which had writer Smith performing every single role.

1998 Winner: Five Guys Named Moe
1997 Winner: Arizona Theatre Company
1995 Winner: Dancing At Lughnasa