1st Annual Antonyo Awards

[Ledaero]

Posted: 6/21/20 at 1:37am

It's been almost two weeks since the inaugural Antonyo Awards ceremony was announced, and it's been two days since they happened. Why is there not a thread on this board about the Antonyos already? Not a single post? Did I just search wrong?... Talk about systemic racism, not a single pipe about this awards ceremony on this board, a forum that discusses endlessly about awards in the theatre.

I was pretty impressed by the opening number that they performed. Great lyrics/concept, the vocals were mixed really well, especially for how quickly it all was thrown together. Pretty satisfied with the wins, at least of the actors/shows that I was able to see last year. I'm not a fan of the public/popular voting system that they did, hopefully they can put together a committee in the coming years as it becomes more official. But what an exciting start for a new award ceremony!

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 6/21/20 at 3:59am

It was fun and nicely produced! I appreciated how it included firsts in the theatre (the segment with Porgy & Bess, Phantom, etc), and I liked that the presenters actually had printed awards in an envelope. "Being Alive" was incredible. The whole show made me realize how much theatre I didn't see in the past season.

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 6/21/20 at 7:45am

I had not even heard about it until afterwards, or I certainly would have watched. There has been such an influx of news, though, it doesn’t surprise me i missed it. It feels impossible to keep up right now.

Is there a way to still watch?

[JBroadway]

Posted: 6/21/20 at 10:46am

I was aware that the awards were being given, but I didn't realize until afterward that they were actually going to stream an awards presentation ceremony. Glad to hear it went well! 

I did vote though, and I read the list of winners. I think the choice to use a voting system was the only viable way to do it this year, because everything was being done retro-actively. They had no other way to recognize shows that their small group of organizers hadn't seen. But yes, I agree that they should put together a committee of Black theatre artists to go see these shows. Hopefully this will also allow them to see more Off-Off-Broadway shows.

I do hope that we get to a point someday when the categories can be filled out by entirely Black-created shows. It's pretty sad to look at the list and see so many nominees that can barely qualify as Black theatre. The Wrong Man was written, directed, and produced entirely by white people. And not only are the races of the characters never mentioned, but Ryan Vasquez (who isn't Black) played the lead at many of the performances. Girl From the North Country is about a large group of people - two of them are black? And the show was written and directed by a white man. Similar situation with Jagged Little Pill. Secret Life of Bees at least has a Black woman as the adaptor, and it's about Black people. But Duncan Sheik, a white man, actually WON the award for Best Score. And West Side Story and Little Shop get to count in Best Revival just because they have a few Black people in them? 

The sad part is that they had to include to these shows to fill out the categories, because there weren't enough Black written shows at the major theatres. I do think opening it up to Off-Off-Broadway will alleviate the problem somewhat, but we do also need to look at adding more Black voices to Broadway and Off-Broadway.

As for the Best Play category, all of them were written by Black people, thankfully. The problem is, I just don't think that the pool of nominees were very high in quality. I saw one in two, All the Natalie Portmans, BLKS, and Paris, and I heard mostly negative things about Toni Stone. I thought Paris was the best play in that bunch, but overall I didn't care much for these plays. 

I'm not saying that to diminish the contributions of Black artists, I'm saying that it's a testament to how few opportunities they have, that just a few mediocre plays can make or break the quality of the Antonyo pool of contenders. If Black playwrights were produced as often as White playwrights, it wouldn't matter if 5, or even 10-15 of the plays ended being bad or mediocre. Because the pool would be larger, and as a result, the number of good plays would go way up too. As it is, I'll bet that the number of mediocre plays by white people this season (On and Off-Broadway) exceeded the total number of Black plays - of any quality. 

[CT2NYC]

Posted: 6/21/20 at 11:27am

iluvtheatertrash said: "I had not even heard about it until afterwards, or I certainly would have watched. There has been such an influx of news, though, it doesn’t surprise me i missed it. It feels impossible to keep up right now.

Is there a way to still watch?"

 

[sparksatmidnight]

Posted: 6/21/20 at 1:44pm

the only thing I dislike about this is how they took the name of the woman that became synonymous with theatre excellency and desecrated into a man's name - and not even after a real person as far as I'm aware.

Theatre is very much a (white) boy's club (look at the shows "currently" open and see how many were written, directed or composed by a woman) and doing that to her name didn't sit right with me. Out of all the amazing black people that have contributed to the arts over the years - or even an award name like the Emmy - , chosing to do this particular thing made me feel like it was more of a mockery or a "revenge" kind of thing instead of its own celebration (long overdue)

Updated On: 6/21/20 at 01:44 PM

[LaneBryant]

Posted: 6/21/20 at 2:10pm

sparksatmidnight said: "the only thing I dislike about this is how they took the name of the woman that became synonymous with theatre excellency and desecrated into a man's name - and not even after a real person as far as I'm aware.

Theatre is very much a (white) boy's club (look at the shows "currently" open and see how many were written, directed or composed by a woman) and doing that to her name didn't sit right with me. Out of all the amazing black people that have contributed to the arts over the years - or even an award name like the Emmy - , chosing to do this particular thing made me feel like it was more of a mockery or a "revenge" kind of thing instead of its own celebration (long overdue)"

Hey there, "sparksatmidnight". I'd love a little more information about this desecration.... Like, can you list some of the moments in the show or with the marketing where they were disrespectful or violated her or her name.... Because I'm pretty sure the TONY awards have been QUITE disrespectful to Black people and people of color for YEARS. If anything, they showed you what a more inclusive, more diverse, less vanilla latte TONY awards SHOULD look like. It wasn't revenge. It was an education. 

 

[sparksatmidnight]

Posted: 6/21/20 at 2:44pm

LaneBryant said: "Hey there, "sparksatmidnight". I'd love a little more information about this desecration.... Like, can you list some ofthe moments in the show or with the marketing where they were disrespectful or violated her or her name.... Because I'm pretty sure the TONY awards have been QUITE disrespectful to Black people and people of color for YEARS. If anything, they showed you what a more inclusive, more diverse, less vanilla latte TONY awards SHOULD look like. It wasn't revenge. It was an education."

"LaneBryant", perhaps 'desecrating' was too much of a strong word (although I don't have another one to really describe it), but I fail to see how they would be unable to do any of those things you mentioned while keeping a (either this or another) woman's name on it and not turning it into a man's.

Updated On: 6/21/20 at 02:44 PM