They wuz robbed

Pop quiz: What do Lookingglass’s opulent Argonautika, the Goodman’s dazzling Technicolor King Lear and Steppenwolf’s Broadway-bound August: Osage County all have in common, other than a ton of buzz? Answer: costumes by the exquisite, non–Jeff-nominated Ana Kuzmanic. (Bonus points if you knew she also did the eye-popping duds on the House’s The Sparrow, for which she went unnominated earlier this year at the Jeff’s non-Equity citations.) If the emperor wore any clothes this season, it was only because Kuzmanic was dressing him.

Welcome to the Jeffs, Chicago’s annual awards geared to recognize excellence in the city’s theater scene. We’re happy to report that this year more excellence has been identified than usual. Wonderful performances from unsung actors that could have gone unnoticed got recognized: Michelle Graff’s kinky, trippy lead performance in the Artistic Home’s modest revival of Landscape of the Body; Penny Slusher’s vibrant matriarchal turn that anchored Writers’ Theatre’s Another Part of the Forest; Sara Sevigny’s permed and trigger-happy noodling in Porchlight’s Assassins; and Allen Gilmore’s fearless, toothsome work as the mystic in Congo Square’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone are all among them.

But the absence of Kuzmanic demonstrates what a thankless endeavor designing theater can be. Take Steppenwolf, an ensemble composed almost entirely of actors. With so many beloved faces on the stage, it was easy to miss the fact that the company offered three of the year’s best lighting designs. Without Christopher Akerlind’s haunting shadows in The Pillowman, that ghost story–driven show would have been about as scary as a camp counselor holding a flashlight to his face. Scott Zielinski’s dusky, fright-filled attic in The Diary of Anne Frank made a play regarded as an old chestnut into something new and terrifying. And nothing made August: Osage County look more drably Oklahoman than the muddy, lamp-lit palette Ann W. Wrightson offered. (As lit by Wrightson, the lyric changed to “You’re not doin’ fine, Oklahoma.”) Yet all of them went unnoticed by Jeff.

On the scenic front, David Gallo may have offered the year’s best for August Wilson’s Radio Golf at the Goodman. In designing the last play written in Wilson’s ten-decade cycle, Gallo managed to capture the spirit of the other nine as well. The campaign office for a rising Pittsburgh politician faced with gentrifying his own childhood neighborhood was juxtaposed on either side by decaying buildings that looked like they were occupied by less fortunate Wilson characters. It was a loving masterstroke. A loving, non-nominated masterstroke.

Collaboraction’s hit The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow wasn’t recommended, making it ineligible for nomination. It’s a shame that’s already been lamented, but now that Jenny Chow’s composer and sound designer Mikhail “Misha” Fiksel can’t join his colleagues as either a sound design or original music nominee, those categories are wild cards. Fiksel’s hyped-up electric-guitar score and sound scheme were justifiably the talk of the town.

There are a few performances we would have liked to see included. Regardless of what you thought of American Theater Company’s deconstructionist Oklahoma!, there’s no denying that’s Suzanne Petri’s beef jerky–like Aunt Eller was the real deal. Meanwhile, August: Osage County wouldn’t have worked without Rondi Reed and Sally Murphy’s supporting turns as a blowsy slattern and a misunderstood adult middle child, respectively. And in Victory Garden’s adaptation of Stuart Dybek’s I Sailed With Magellan, yeoman actor Marc Grapey’s cheapskate South Side dad was probably the Chicago-est performance of the season.

But in a year with so many fine artists invited to the party (five nominations for The Adding Machine, even), these are mere quibbles. In the meantime, we’re asking Ana Kuzmanic to design our Jeff-night tuxes.—Christopher Piatt

The Joseph Jefferson Awards will be handed out October 29. For a complete list of nominees, see jeffawards.org.