BEST LOCAL PRODUCTION (PLAY)
Dante’s Inferno (MBS Productions)
Performed Oct. 17–Nov. 9, 2013, at the Stone Cottage Theatre at the Addison Theatre and Conference Centre
MBSProductions.net
BEST LOCAL DRAMATIC ACTOR
(MALE OR FEMALE)
Mark-Brian Sonna
Recent acting credits include Dante’s Inferno (pictured), Forever Lovely, The Futility of Hope, Triumph of Love, and Beulaville Baptist Book Club Presents: A Bur-Less-Q Nutcracker! (MBS Productions)
Anyone who has ever seen a production from MBS Productions knows that one word describes the style there: Fearless. The eclectic season includes everything from a camp Christmas pageant to adaptations of medieval Spanish horror plays to sex comedies and romances — often with ample amounts of nudity. And behind the scenes pulling the strings is the troupe’s founder, Mark-Brian Sonna. Sonna is the heart of the company: A classically trained ballet dancer, he acts, directs, produces, writes and sweeps up among his many talents. And his willingness to do anything the role requires — from covering his body in red makeup to camping it up in drag as Lovely Uranus to donning a pair of Capezios and shimmying his moneymaker — made him the obvious choice for this year’s favorite actor.
— Arnold Wayne Jones
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BEST LOCAL SINGER
Gary Lynn Floyd
GaryLynnFloyd.com
O nce you hear Gary Lynn Floyd sing, all other singers are kind of ruined for you. It’s a sound sometimes called “easy listening,” though that doesn’t come close to conveying the rapturous sensuality of his music. His tenor — breathy but searing, and pitch-perfect — enters you like the Holy Spirit, an almost hypnotic harmonizing of voice and piano, body and soul. Indeed, his just-released album — his first full-length CD of all-new music in a decade — is called BodySoul. If that doesn’t capture the essence of what makes him popular, nothing can.
— Arnold Wayne Jones
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BEST LOCAL MUSICAL ACTOR
(MALE OR FEMALE)
Danny Anchondo Jr.
Recent acting credits include Hedwig
and the Angry Inch.
MrPixie.com
BEST LOCAL PRODUCTION
(MUSICAL)
Hedwig and the Angry Inch (The End Theatre Productions)
Performed Dec. 20, 2013–Jan. 4, 2014,
at the Bath House Cultural Center
HedwigDFW.com
It’s been a while since the last local production of the John Cameron Mitchell/Stephen Trask glam-rock musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch, about an East Berlin boy who becomes a transgender rock star (in his own mind), chasing his other half in small-town America. And now that the show is about to make its Broadway debut (with Neil Patrick Harris in the role) — 15 years after its off-Broadway premiere — expect interest to rise again. But The End Theatre Productions’ staging last December was ahead of the curve, captured the original’s raw energy, thanks to the charismatic presence and soul-bearing performance of Mr. Pixie (aka Danny Anchondo Jr.) as Hedwig. If you missed it, we would also love to see them do it again — maybe this time in a space that befits the rock concert experience even better than the Bath House Cultural Center.
— Mark Lowry
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BEST LOCAL ARTS ORGANIZATION
Uptown Players
The Kalita Humphrey Theater, 3636 Turtle Creek Blvd.
UptownPlayers.org
BEST LOCAL THEATER DIRECTOR
Sean McGuire
Recent directing credits include
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
BEST LOCAL BAND, GROUP OR MUSICIAN
Mi Diva Loca
BEST LOCAL DRAG QUEEN
Cassie Nova
BEST LOCAL DRAG KING
Frankie 4Play
RISING STAR
Cyda Leigh Edwards
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition March 21, 2014.