On Tuesday, Oct. 10, the DC theater community is invited to the Washington Area Performing Arts Video Archive’s (WAPAVA) Richard Bauer Award celebration at the Woolly Mammoth Theater, in an evening that includes dinner, entertainment, the awards presentations to Rick Foucheux and Amber McGinnis and an auction.
Items up for bid include: tickets to upcoming shows at Olney, Round House Theatre, Theater J, Washington Stage Guild and Woolly Mammoth; an original painting by Foucheux; and a one-hour script feedback session with McGinnis.
Click here to purchase tickets
Click here to bid on WAPAVA auction items
Rick Foucheux will receive the Richard Bauer Lifetime Achievement Award. Over the last 35 years, the actor has appeared in everything from Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman at Arena Stage, to Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night at Shakespeare Theatre, to Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof at the Olney Theatre Center.
“Rick has been a major actor in Washington for almost 20 years and has won numerous awards,” Bryer says. “He’s beloved by all those in the theater who have worked with him. Plus, several of his performances are in the archive.”
He was the recipient of the Helen Hayes Outstanding Lead Actor Award in 2000 for the title role in Edmund at the Source Theatre; in 2006 for playing Mason Marzac in Take Me Out at Studio Theatre; and in 2014, he won The Robert Prosky Award for Outstanding Lead Actor Award in Glengarry Glen Ross. Foucheux also took home the 2017 James MacArthur Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Play for playing Big Daddy in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at Round House Theatre.
“Rick announced recently that he was retiring, and although some of us don’t quite believe it, we thought this would be a particularly good occasion to honor him,” Bryer says. “This spring, he had done two productions of King Lear, which was kind of a capstone of his career.”
When not on stage, Foucheux can be found sharing his acting knowledge with students at the George Washington University and The Theatre Lab.
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For the first time ever, the Richard Bauer Awards will also honor an emerging artist, with that honor going to Amber Paige McGinnis.
“We asked the winner of the Bauer Award to nominate an emerging artist, and Rick chose Amber, and we hope to keep this idea going in future ideas,” Bryer says. “She is a young up-and-coming director who is making a lot of noise.”
Over the last few years, McGinnis has established herself as a go-to writer, director and producer in the area, including directing The Welders’ Girl in the Red Corner, Constellation Theatre Company’s Equus, and Forum Theatre’s World Builders.
Television and radio personality Robert Aubry Davis, an active member of the area’s cultural community, will serve as emcee for the award presentations and auction.
First created in 2002, the Richard Bauer Award for outstanding contributions to the performing arts in the Washington area is presented on an occasional basis to members of the local theater community whose work is included in the WAPAVA Archive.
Bauer was a beloved mainstay of the DC acting community, having done more than 100 productions, especially at Arena Stage.
“After he died, WAPAVA got in touch with his widow and asked if we could establish an award in his name to honor people in the Washington area theater community who had made significant contributions to that community,” says Jackson Bryer, WAPAVA’s board president. “We gave the first award to Richard Bauer posthumously.”
Since then, recipients have included The League of Washington Theaters (2003); Ted Van Griethuysen (2004); Jim Taylor (2005); Jerry Whiddon (2005); and Michael Kahn (2010).
The WAPAVA Archives was founded in 1993 by James Taylor as a way to preserve live theater performances in the area, with filmed versions of professional stage performances in Washington, D.C.
“He got this idea of going around with a video camera and video taping live performances on his own, and he was permitted to do so by Actor’s Equity,” Bryer says.
In 2004, WAPAVA entered into an agreement with the Washington, DC Public Library (DCPL) and the Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library (MSPAL) at the University of Maryland to donate, assign, and transfer permanently the archive (now called the James J. Taylor Collection) to MSPAL and to maintain a duplicate copy of the archive at DCPL.
Tapes can only be viewed at these sites, and no appointment is necessary.
Overall, there are more than 850 professional video recordings in the collection, representing a cross-section of DC-area theaters, from large and established to small and emerging. The earliest play is Olney’s 1993 production of Shadowland. View the complete data base.
Tickets to the Richard Bauer Award event , which runs from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Tuesday, October 10th at Woolly Mammoth Theatre, range from $20 to $250.
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