United Solo, the world’s largest solo theatre festival, concluded its seventh season with its closing gala at Theatre Row November 20, where the best shows in each category were recognized with awards and Staceyann Chin was given the Special Award for MotherStruck! During its ten-week run, September 15-November 20, the festival presented productions from 20 countries and six continents.
Chin’s solo show, which played Off-Broadway, looked at the joy, love, and struggle of being a single mother and an artist. “The real world is the world you find inside of these stories that speak from the margins,” she told the audience in her acceptance speech. “So it is on us, it is incumbent on us, and our pens, and our mouths, and our bodies, whatever medium you choose to tell this story.”
“Solo theatre is uniquely difficult. When you see the show that really works, it makes you think, ‘Oh I could do that, I could tell my story,’ but it is deceptively difficult,” added Cynthia Nixon, who directed Chin’s piece. “A solo show requires a particular kind of confidence, because you are all alone out there.”
The full list of 2016 United Solo award winners follows:
Best Production for Call Fosse At The Minskoff by Mimi Quillin, directed by John Thomas Waite
Best Director for Joan Kane with Ego Actus Theatre Company
Best One-Man Show for Pryor Truth by Khalil Muhammad
Best One-Woman Show for Scheiss Book by Liba Vaynberg
Best Encore for 3 Men by Mike Folie
Best Actor for Rob Gaetano in My Pet, My Love
Best Actress for Irene Muscara in Gate A33
Best Storyteller for Douglass Truth in An Intimate Evening with Death, Herself
The United Solo & Backstage Audience Award for Scheiss Book by Liba Vaynberg
Best Drama for A Jewish Joke performed by Phil Johnson
Best Tragedy for Myra’s Story performed by Jennifer Cornish
Best Comedy for Dear Diary performed by Joy Donze
Best Storytelling Show for A Stopping Place performed by Stephen Powell
Best Documentary for Who Will Sing for Lena performed by Vanessa Adams-Harris
Best International Show for Bassist performed by Krzysztof Rogacewicz
Best Biographical Show for Miss Lillian Speaks performed by Carol Swarbrick
Best Autobiographical Show for A Life Behind Bars performed by Dan Ruth
Best Interactive Show for The Creeps performed by Catherine Waller
Best Physical Theatre Show for Mistero Buffo performed by Panos Vlahos
Best Variety Show for An Unexpected Variety Show performed by Jenny Wynter
Best Multimedia Show for Target Goldberg performed by David J Goldberg
Best Cabaret for Who is Eartha Mae? performed by Jade Wheeler
Best Spoken Word Show for Act God performed by Scott St. Patrick
Best Satire for Kafka’s A Hunger Artist performed by Jonathan Isadore Levin
Best Stand-up for Are You Serious? A Woman of a Certain Age Inquires performed by Tulis McCall
Best Experimental Show for Hyena performed by Romana Soutus
Best Non-Fiction Show for Children Are Forever; All Sales Are Final performed by Julia Jackson
Best Avant-Garde Show for The Bitter Game performed by Keith A. Wallace
Best Dramatic Script for Blanche On A Winter’s Eve written and performed by J.P. Makowski
Best Comedic Script for The Box Show written and performed by Dominique Salerno
Best Adaptation for Shrew by Claire Anniken Tyers and Noa Egozi
Best Non-Fiction Script for One Drop of Love written and performed by Fanshen Cox DiGiovanni
Best Storytelling Script for Recent History written and performed by Jarret Berenstein
Best Autobiographical Script for Listen…Can You Hear Me Now? written and performed by Gloria Rosen
Best Premiere for Kim written and performed by Daniel Burns
Best Emerging Actress for Alice Pencavel in The Glowing Boot
Best Emerging Actor for Stephen Humpage in Thief
Best Festival Debut for About Heroes written and performed by Juha Sorola
Best Set Design for Ann Beyersdorfer, The Box Show performed by Dominique Salerno
Best Lighting Design for Cecilia Durbin, Hyena performed by Romana Soutus
Best Sound Design for Gareth Hobbs, Hyena performed by Romana Soutus
Best Projection Design for Anton Iakhontov, Natasha’s Dream performed by Darya Denisova
Best Makeup for Stacey Stephenson, Broken performed by Kaili Y. Turner
First Sold-Out Show for Shit. performed by Rosemary Cipriano
Solo performers interested in participating in 2017 can submit their applications through the United Solo website here: unitedsolo.org/submit.
