Photo By Rich Sofranko

Giles Davies (above right, with co-star Chelsea Kurts) is nominated for his role as the title character in CSF's Richard III.

This week's issue of CityBeat announces the nominees for the 2006 Cincinnati Entertainment Awards (CEAs), the 10th consecutive year the awards have been presented. This year marks a decade of discovery during which the CEAs have highlighted outstanding local productions and performances with the kind of attention theater lovers might see only at the Tony Awards.

Cincinnati's theater scene is prolific and proficient, whether you see shows at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park (recognized in 2004 with a Regional Theater Tony Award) and Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati (the city's second Equity company and purveyor of regional and world premieres of new plays) or at top-notch theater training programs at the University of Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky University. Especially vivid performances also happen on the stages of the Tristate's well-established semi-professional and community theaters.

While this year featured a behemoth hit -- the Playhouse's critically praised revival of Stephen Sondheim's Company -- which moves to Broadway in November after selling out virtually its entire run here -- scored nine nominations. But the respected regional theater by no means grabbed all the attention of the CEA judges. More than 15 theater organizations have earned nominations.

CEA nominees are selected by a panel of 11 theater critics from media outlets throughout the region. They identify four nominees for each of 19 categories. Winners in each category are determined by one of two processes: 11 are voted on by the public, with the remaining eight selected by the CEA critics' panel. By virtue of their regular attendance at productions, they can offer solid insights into the technical achievement categories as well as best overall productions.

Photo By Sandy Underwood

Kate Wilford (left) and Bruce Cromer star in ETC's Wayfarer's Rest, which is up for two CEAs.

A new "critical achievement" category has been added this year, Stage Movement and Choreography. It's not just about dancing. In fact, the four nominees are exceptionally varied -- the Playhouse's Company, in which actors sang, danced and played numerous musical instruments; Moonlight and Magnolias at ETC, a rollicking re-creation about writing the script for Gone With the Wind; Noises Off, presented by the UC's College-Conservatory of Music (CCM), a classic backstage farce full of pratfalls and slamming doors; and (UN)Natural Disaster, a Fringe Festival show created by CCM drama professor Richard Hess that creatively moved a cast of 13 actors through several rooms in an old building in Over-the-Rhine.

Such diversity recurs in several categories. For example, vying for recognition as a Local Actor in a Leading Role in a Play is Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival (CSF) veteran Giles Davies as the devious title character in Richard III; community theater stalwart Bill Hartnett as an 86-year-old widower in Visiting Mr. Green; New Edgecliff Theatre's founder Michael Shooner as a fast-talking but dim-witted crook in NET's American Buffalo; and CCM drama student Adam Standley playing a half-dozen vivid characters in a one-man show, All We Can Handle, offered during the Fringe Festival by New Stage Collective.

A similarly varied set of performers is identified in the category of Local Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical: Sarah Brandon, an ETC intern, charmed audiences with her performance as a bookish Cinderella; local Blues singer Lauren Dragon astonished Playhouse audiences by channeling Rock star Janis Joplin in Love, Janis (a role she repeated in productions in several other cities); previous CEA nominee Sherry McCamley brought the brassy Penelope Pennywise to life in Showbiz Players' community theater premiere of the offbeat Urinetown; and high school phenomenon Lauren Sprague seemed to be the very epitome of the chorus girl who steps up to the lead role in 42nd Street with Cincinnati Music Theatre (she reprised the role at Lakota West High School this spring, and she'll be a freshman at CCM in the fall).

Photo By Sandy Underwood

The many faces of Janis Joplin: Morgan Hallett (left) and Lauren Dragon portray various aspects of the passionate Rock singer.

In the two top categories, Outstanding Play and Outstanding Musical, candidates again represent a tremendous variety. NET's production of David Mamet's classic seriocomic play American Buffalo (which also scored a nomination for its ensemble cast portraying three lowlifes who argue about the heist of a coin collection) is one of the four. The Playhouse's regional premiere of Sarah Ruhl's The Clean House, a magical play about a group of women who find bliss in unexpected places, is represented in this category and as a candidate for Outstanding Local Premiere. CSF reached back to the past for Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire and assembled a production that warranted comparison to its multiple-CEA winner of a year ago, Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. The fourth nominee for Outstanding Play is ETC's world premiere of Wayfarer's Rest by local writer Joseph McDonough, whose work was represented on several stages this season. (Wayfarer's Rest is also a candidate for Outstanding Local Premiere.)

The Outstanding Musical category includes two Playhouse productions, Company (no surprise there) and Love, Janis, an audience favorite as a one-woman show on the Shelterhouse stage. But this category's other two candidates are off-brand musicals -- Urinetown by Showbiz Players, a community theater that's been a previous CEA nominee, and Know Theatre Tribe's first-ever musical, a bare-bones production of tick, tick ... Boom!, an edgy piece of autobiography by Jonathan Larsen, the creator of Rent.

For the second year, the CEAs have been separated into an August ceremony for theater and a November recognition for music. The 10th anniversary theater CEAs will feature performances by several nominees. All proceeds benefit LINKS (Lonely Instruments for Needy Kids), a program sponsored by CCM to provide aspiring children with reconditioned musical instruments.

Photo By Showbiz Players

The cast of Showbiz Players' Urinetown.

A full list of all publicly voted and critical achievement categories can be found at citybeat.com/cea. You can vote online now for the 11 publicly voted categories; voting deadline is July 31. A paper ballot will also be offered in next week's CityBeat.

CEA Voting here