Saugatuck Center for Arts

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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.”

By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma

joanne@wktv.org

There definitely are certain times when a fist pump is appropriate like when you just won your first Emmy.

“I was siting there, literally on the edge of my seat, and all I heard was ‘Saug’ and I immediately jumped up and went ‘yes!’” said Saugatuck Center for the Arts Marketing Manager Angela Peavey while demonstrating the jump with a fist pump. “It definitely was an exciting night for the Saugatuck Center for the Arts.”

It was a commercial for the SCA, designed to promote the theatrical programming the arts center does year-round, that won the top award for the “Best Commercial – Single Spot” at the 39th annual Emmy Awards, Michigan Chapter, earlier this month. The category had some stiff competition with the highest number of nominees – five total – for any specific category at this year’s Emmy Awards, Michigan Chapter, event which was at the MotorCity Sound Board Theater in Detroit.

“Of course, when it was nominated, I immediately stalked the other nominees and I was blown away by the talent and creativity. I am truly humbled to have won among such amazing entries.”

It was such award shows as the Emmys and the Oscars that inspired Peavey to pursue film. That and the support of her parents, who were the first people she called right after the win.

“Everything was such a whirlwind after the announcement,” Peavey said. “My mom had been watching it on a live feed at home along with other friends and as soon as the announcement was made, my phone started blowing up.

“That call though to my parents was a call full of joy, of parents who were incredibly proud of their daughter for all of the years of hard work.”

Peavey credits a number of stakeholders for the creation of the commercial including SCA Executive Director Kristin Armstrong, SCA Artistic Director Kurt Stamm, and Jeff Zika of Z-Drones. “I have to thank the staff and the board of directors at the Saugatuck Center for the Arts for all their support.”

Another organization Peavey thanked was WKTV, which with Peavey’s nomination and win, marks three WKTV supported projects that have been nominated for an Emmy and two wins. The entire commercial, which took three weeks from start to completion, was edited at WKTV because Peavey said she knew the facility would have everything she needed to compete the task in a timely matter.

Peavey has served as the marketing manager for SCA for three and half years. She works with about 10 interns a year, striving to giving them the “internship I wished I would have had.” With the aid of WKTV, she educates her interns on film production and the students, with the assistance of SCA staff, produce a number of videos for the center throughout the year.

As for SCA, Peavey said it is an amazing facility offering a number of programs such as education, film, exhibits and theater. “We don’t compete with any local organization, but rather compliment each other,” she said.