Civic Theatre hands out annual awards

Van Wert Civic Theatre celebrated the completion of their 2007-2008 season with their 49th annual Dinner and Awards Night, held last Saturday evening at JEHMMS Banquet & Convention Center.

Highlighting the awards portion of the program was the presentation of the coveted Trustees Award, given annually to an individual in recognition of service to the organization above and beyond the ordinary. This year’s winner was unique in that, instead of being an individual, it was a group: the Grooms family – Doug, Sandra, Collin and Taylor – that won the award.

During this past season, Doug Groom was a board member, board secretary, played the title character in The Amorous Ambassador, was on the play reading committee, co-coordinator for ushers, hosts and elevator, newsletter co-editor and was on the props crew for Kitchen Witches. Sandra Grooms worked on costumes for Nunsensations, and was co-coordinator (with husband Doug) for ushers, hosts and elevator. Collin Grooms played the harried TV producer in Kitchen Witches, was newsletter co-editor (with dad Doug), sound technician for two shows and on the props crew for one show. Taylor Grooms worked on costumes, and all four Groomses took numerous turns as ticket takers, ushers, intermission hosts and elevator operators. And those are just the documented activities.

Awards for acting were: Honorable Mention – Steve Lane and Jack Paullus in A Nice Family Gathering, and Mary Ann Falk in Nunsensations. Excellent – Steve Goings, Lane and Jan Miller in The Amorous Ambassador; Michelle Klutka and Jody Wilson in Kitchen Witches, and Nancy Williams Shuffle in Nunsensations.

For Directing: Honorable Mention – Randy Wieging for The Amorous Ambassador. Excellent – Jerry Zimmerman for Plaid Tidings and Excellent (music) – Dee Fisher for Plaid Tidings and Nunsensations.

Technical Performance awards were – Honorable Mention to Beth Hardesty for lights and Excellent to Burdette Bolenbaugh for sound, and Laura Gorman, Chris Gorman, Lisa Moore, Mary Beth Gorman, Doug Grooms and Monica Campbell, all for Kitchen Witches.

Technical Design Awards were – Honorable Mention to Laura Gorman for Kitchen Witches. Excellent to Laura Gorman and Chris Gorman for props for Plaid Tidings, and Dee Fisher, Mike Sowers and Teri Sowers for sound for Plaid Tidings.

Winners of the Company Choice Awards were Monica Campbell, A Nice Family Gathering; Chris Gorman, Plaid Tidings; Cathy Baltazar, Kitchen Witches; Harold Allen, The Amorous Ambassador; and Linda Stanley, Nunsensations.

The play reading committee announced that the plays selected for the 2008-2009 Golden Jubilee 50th season will include four of the more popular shows from past seasons, Something’s Afoot, The Odd Couple, Oliver, Steel Magnolias and one new show, Sex, Sin, and the CIA.

The nominating announced the results of the election of board members. Elected to three-year terms were Doug Grooms, Jamie Allen and Laura Gorman, and to a two-year term, Amy Boley.

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Humphreys Miller exhibition planned
    A remarkable free exhibition of art and artifacts documenting the era of the Plains warrior culture will open at Pacific Galleries, 901 Ninth Street North, Great Falls, Mont., on June 21 and continue through June 29. This week is recognized as "victory" week by tribes celebrating their triumph over General George Armstrong Custer on June 25, 1876. The exhibit includes more than 100 original portrait sketches, including Little Big Horn survivors and their contemporaries, as well as 24 painted portraits of prominent Blackfoot and Crow warriors.

    All of the artwork is by the late David Humphreys Miller and the artifacts represent items gifted to Miller by portrait subjects. The portrait sketches were all drawn from life by then teenager Miller in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Also on exhibit will be a number of period photographs from the same era.

    All is the result of a young David Miller's curiosity about the Battle of the Little Big Horn that first brought him to Pine Ridge, South Dakota from Van Wert, Ohio in 1935 to interview and sketch the old warriors who participated in the Battle of the Little Big Horn. Miller's interviews became the source for his 1957 book, Custer's Fall: The Indian Side of the Story. While doing research for a later book, Ghost Dance, Miller interviewed Blackfeet, Flatheads, Crows and Northern Cheyenne to document the spread of the "messiah" movement in the late 1880's culminating in the Wounded Knee massacre. The oil portraits date from the era immediately following World War II.