All posts by Hunter Styles:

Hunter Styles Hunter Styles is a founding member of DC's Wayward Theatre, where he works as a director and playwright. He has directed and assistant directed with Theater J, Studio 2ndStage, Rorschach Theatre, Synetic Theater, Doorway Arts Ensemble, Angry Young Theatre Company, Mighty Theater, and more. Most recently he has worked as a producer and advisor for Forum Theatre's Naomi Wallace Festival and Georgetown University's Tennessee Williams Centennial Festival. He is a staff member at The Studio Theatre, and serves as the Associate Artistic Director at Artists Bloc.

Derek Goldman on Outstanding Ensemble for a Play, 2012 Helen Hayes Awards

Derek Goldman is Artistic Director of the Davis Performing Arts Center and Professor of Theater and Performance Studies at Georgetown University. He is an award-winning stage director, playwright, adapter, developer of new work, teacher, and published scholar. -

I feel so blessed to toil in this community where so many of us — artists and audiences — get to sojourn habitually across styles, cultures, and varied producing structures (not to mention across DC, Maryland and Virginia) to collaborate and be inspired by each other’s work. [Read more...]

Karen Zacarias on Outstanding New Plays, 2012 Helen Hayes Awards

- Award winning DC playwright Karen Zacarias received the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding New Play (The Sins of Sor Juana). Her works have been produced at The Kennedy Center, Arena Stage, The Goodman Theater, The Denver Center, Alliance Theater, Round House Theater, Imagination Stage, Berkshire Theater Festival, South Coast Rep, La Jolla Playhouse, The Arden, Cleveland Playhouse, San Jose Rep among others.- [Read more...]

Kimberly Gilbert on Supporting Actress in a Resident Play, 2012 Helen Hayes Awards

What I love most about this city, and what I don’t see much anywhere else, is a love for tapping into the extraordinary. So much of the work I see in DC is so true, with a spine intact and feet firmly on the ground. I forget that I’m watching actors perform. I get transported. And I know these people well to begin with! Sometimes I know more than half the cast members in the play. If you can accomplish this transformation in the eyes of a fellow actor in the theatre scene, you’ve got something really special.

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Matthew Gardiner on Choreography, 2012 Helen Hayes Awards

- Matthew Gardiner, Associate Artistic Director of Signature Theatre, was nominated in 2008 for the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Choreography and, in that same year, won Outstanding Director of a Resident Musical, both for Reefer Madness: The Musical at Studio Theatre -  [Read more...]

Floyd King on Supporting Actor in a Resident Play, 2012 Helen Hayes Awards

- Since 1985, actor Floyd King has been nominated for 16 Helen Hayes Awards and has received 5 Awards. -

When you’re young, I think you go to the theatre to find out that you’re not alone. As children we often harbor this fear that we’re not like everyone else, so it’s a great moment when you realize that you’re not the only one who believes something, or behaves a certain way. I think I first got involved with theatre because it confirmed my sanity. [Read more...]

Matthew M. Nielson on Sound Design, 2012 Helen Hayes Awards

Matthew M. Nielson has been nominated for five Helen Hayes Awards, and is the recipient of two. He now commutes to DC from Asheville, N.C. where he has his own studio, Sound Lab Studio. -

I’m very proud of this year’s nominees for Outstanding Sound Design. I’m close friends with a few of them and I know their work well. [Read more...]

Joshua Morgan on Lead Actor in a resident play, Helen Hayes Awards 2012

- Joshua Morgan is an actor and Co-Artistic Director of No Rules Theatre Company, which received the 2011 Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Emerging  Theatre Company. -

No Rules produces in both DC and in Winston-Salem, and those are two very different audiences! DC is fascinating. We live in a city that has such a variety of people. We’re so transient here. [Read more...]

Spidermusical: A Second Chance for Awesome

A Spider-Man musical must not have seemed like the nosedive off a skyscraper it turned out to be back on that first day, when Broadway producers gave Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark the green light. But by the time Team Taymor finally hauled their spoof-ready behemoth of a show out into the limelight, it seemed Spidey had lost his sense completely.  [Read more...]

Reggie Ray on Costume Design and the 2012 Helen Hayes nominees

I was a part of the first Helen Hayes Awards in 1985. That day, I discovered that behind some iconic images were some of the greatest people I have ever met. [Read more...]

Will Gartshore on Supporting Actor in a Resident Musical, Helen Hayes Awards 2012

- Will Gartshore has been nominated seven times for a Helen Hayes Award and received two awards, each for musical theatre performances.  -

If someone has just told you that they don’t go to the theatre, take them. Take them to a brilliant piece of theatre. It never fails. [Read more...]