By Angela Peavey
Mason Street Warehouse’s (MSW) 2016 theatre season has been honored with five nominations for the 2017 Wilde Awards, including Best Musical and Best Performance by a Lead Actor. The award ceremony takes place at The Berman Center for the Performing Arts in West Bloomfield on Aug. 28. The ceremony is open to the public with doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the main event at 8:00 p.m. Tickets are available at theberman.org.
“We are both honored and excited to have been nominated for five Wilde Awards recognizing last summer’s season,” said MSW co-founder and Saugatuck Center for the Arts’ (SCA) Artistic Director Kurt Stamm. “We had incredibly talented casts and crews for The Great American Trailer Park Musical, Million Dollar Quartet, and Murder for Two last summer.”
The Wilde Awards honor the best productions, performances, and technical work produced or presented by professional theatres across the state of Michigan. Nominations are made based on reviews by professional critics at EncoreMichigan.com.
“After reviewing a record-breaking – and sometimes resource-stretching – number of productions at theaters all across the state during the 2016-17 season, our team of critics sifted through their extensive notes and determined which were the best productions, performances, and designs of the year,” said David Kiley, publisher of EncoreMichigan.com and producer of The Wilde Awards.
Mason Street Warehouse received the following Wilde Award nominations for its 2016-2017 season:
Best Musical: The Great American Trailer Park Musical, Kurt Stamm, Director
Best Performance, Lead Actor – Musical: James Scheider, Million Dollar Quartet
Best Performance, Lead Actor – Musical: Tom Vendafreddo, Murder for Two
Best Design – Sets: Jeremy Barnett, The Great American Trailer Park Musical
Best Music Direction: Jamie Reed, The Great American Trailer Park Musical
“Last summer was a very special season with all three of the Mason Street productions, garnering rave audience reviews and setting sales records,” said SCA Executive Director Kristin Armstrong. “We’re delighted to be recognized via this state-wide platform, and look forward to bringing a few Wilde Awards back to West Michigan.”
