They wuz robbed

Jeff did pretty well this year. In looking over the list of Equity Wing nominations for the 2009–10 Joseph Jefferson Awards, TOC’s Theater staff members saw almost everything we were hoping to see from the exceptional year that ended, under the Jeff committee’s rules, July 31. Almost. For those non-nominees who regrettably won’t hear their names read at October 25’s ceremony, we’re here to give them a little love.

Take the cast of The Brother/Sister Plays at Steppenwolf. Tarell Alvin McCraney’s outstanding triptych of plays did receive four noms, including best production, best director for Tina Landau and best ensemble. But aside from the divine Jacqueline Williams, not a single member of that potentially best ensemble received an individual nomination—not the soulful Alana Arenas, the spectacular Ora Jones or even the one we were sure was a lock, ensemble member K. Todd Freeman.

Jones had another prime supporting role in the Goodman’s Animal Crackers revival. Her work as straight woman Margaret Dumont was subtle and sly. Molly Brennan’s exclusion is a crime as well; she pulled off the skirt-chasing Harpo role with more grace than any dude we can think of.

Speaking of overlooked women, as delighted as we are to see the deserving Landau and Kimberly Senior nominated for direction of a play, we’ve gotta note that Amy Morton helmed two of the season’s finest Equity revivals: Steppenwolf’s American Buffalo and Northlight’s Awake and Sing!—which should have earned more than its single supporting-actress nom for Cindy Gold. What about lead for Keith Gallagher or, even more appropriate, a best-ensemble nod?

TUTA Theatre Chicago’s thoroughly delightful revival of Brecht’s The Wedding is the only one of the seven ensemble nominees not to also get a best-production nod. Weird, right? And if all of that collapsing furniture is scenic designer Martin Andrew’s work, he merits a mention, too.

Most of the designers we were rooting for did get mentions—but not Awake and Sing! set designer John Musial or Brian Sidney Bembridge, whose wrestling ring for The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity we named our favorite set of 2009.

Chad Deity’s among the most nominated shows of the season, and it deserves all of them. And more: Desmin Borges blew our socks off as narrator Mace Guerra, but where would he have been without the support of Usman Ally as VP? Ally also would’ve injected some much lacking color into the overwhelmingly white acting categories. Which reminds us: Where are Kamal Angelo Bolden and LaShawn Banks from Remy Bumppo’s moving revival of Athol Fugard’s The Island?

There are a few more missing actors we’d put up a fight for—Matt Hawkins’s fresh take on Stanley in Writers’ Streetcar; Joshua Rollins for his sensitive turn in the Gift’s Suicide, Incorporated; John Mahoney in Northlight’s actor’s showcase A Life; Elizabeth Laidlaw as the sexy, comically untrustworthy book editor in About Face’s What Once We Felt; Patrick Andrews’s puckish Emcee in Drury Lane’s Cabaret—but we’ll leave you with this: There are seven nominees for best new work this year; not one of them was so much as cowritten by a woman. And for that, we can’t leave all the blame at the Jeff committee’s door. By our count, Chicago’s Equity theaters produced 18 Jeff-recommended new plays last season. Only three were by women.

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