Linda Elyse Bryce, a veteran supporter of multiple theaters in the Washington area, has won the 2013 Gary Lee Maker Audience Award, DC Theatre Scene’s award committee announced today. Bryce will receive her award – a handcrafted sculpture created by glass artist Teddi Hathaway and a year’s subscription to Faction of Fools – at a ceremony at Elstad Auditorium at Gallaudet University, 800 Florida Avenue NE, in Washington, DC on Saturday, September 14 at 8pm immediately preceding the Fools’ production of Moliere’s Don Juan.
Bryce, who was nominated by the commedia dell’Arte troupe Faction of Fools, is a retired high school teacher who, by her own count, goes to theater at least once a week during the season.
Bryce was nominated twice before – last year by the Faction of Fools, and in 2011 by Shakespeare Theatre Company. “She’s been on our radar for a while,” said Chair Lorraine Treanor, who edits and publishes this site. “We’ve been aware of the immense good she does the theater community in DC.”
The immense good includes organizing fundraisers, hunting for props, rounding up audiences, providing amenities for actors and – in the tradition of Gary Maker himself – spreading the word about theater far and wide.
“Linda never comes to the theatre alone,” said Rachel Spicknall Mulford in nominating her on behalf of Faction of Fools. “She has brought dozens and dozens of friends and family members, including her own children and grandchildren. From our first performance on the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage in the fall of 2009 to our latest hit, The Lady Becomes Him, this past spring at Gallaudet University, Linda has brought groups of people to us, talking us up before the show and encouraging them to return on their own for performance after performance after performance.”
The other 2013 award finalists were Barbara Bear (nominated by Signature Theatre and No Rules Theatre Company) and Bob Hebda (nominated by Adventure Theatre/MTC).
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“Without an audience, it’s a rehearsal.”
DC Theatre Scene’s Gary Lee Maker Audience Award, honoring the involvement of committed audience members is, we believe, the first of its kind in the country. It was first awarded in 2011.
Visit the Gary Lee Maker Audience Award home page.
I am thrilled for my dear friend to be recognized for her devotion to the theater and for graciousness in sharing her love of theater with her family and friends.
No one is more deserving of this award.